so I complained about $6 Yuenglings at the 930 Club in a previous post, and told DCist.com about it, who put a piece on their site about it. Pretty cool.

Also, I read a book called The Vikings and America it was really interesting. The guy argues that the Vikings settlement in the New World, Vinland, was probably in northern Maine, not Newfoundland like some people say. He makes pretty logical arguments about it, and it's an interesting book anyway, talking about the history of the Vikings' western exploration.

I guess the fall is making me think of cold stuff, because I also read some interesting articles on the affect of global warming on Alaska and the Arctic. Pretty neat. Here is number one and two.

Sufjan Stevens at the 930 Club

sufjan
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

So first off, $6 for a smallish cup of Yuengling is ridiculous. The 9:30 Club must be going bankrupt or something. But I went to see Sufjan Stevens (and his band, the Illinoisemakers) there the other day there and it was enjoyable. I was hoping they'd be in some kind of costume, and they didn't disappoint, with Sufjan in a kooky American flag jumpsuit and the rest of the band in University of Illinois cheerleader costumes. They started with a song about the 50 states, part of which is here, and which continues with lots of rhymes about states and things. People would cheer when he said their state, which was sort of cheesy, but oh well. The band sounded really good though, very clear and together, and interspersed the songs with funny cheers (since they were dressed as cheerleaders) about the various songs they were going to play. The cheers sort of lost energy towards the end, but I bet they've done the same cheerleader chants 100 times. And unfortunately, the super hot xylophone player wasn't there. Sufjan (pronounced Soof-yon for those who care) called her their cheerleading captain and said she hurt her ankle or something. But they were fun anyway, and played most of the songs I want to hear (the ones on Illinois sort of run together, so I forget which ones they didn't do). I enjoyed them all though, including a very different version of the Star-Spangled Banner. One thing that struck me was when Sufjan said he was going to play a song about his favorite holiday, Casimir Pulaski Day, and a few dudes in the audience yelled "yeaaahhh!!" really loudly. They probably liked the song, or possibly the holiday, but considering the song is about a girl dying of cancer, it was a strange reaction. Same with the reaction to the beginning of the one about John Wayne Gacy. I did wish the encore were longer, and he doesn't seem to be the best banjo player, but I'm not exactly Earl Scruggs either. But minor complaints aside, it was entertaining - at one point I considered naming a kid Sufjan, but eventually decided against it. Sufjan's voice did sound just like on the CDs, which I wasn't quite expecting, since a lot of the time it's pretty quiet. The opening guy, whose name I forget, was decent. I saw a few songs and he had a good voice, but was sort of boring. People talked over him the whole time, which is too bad, but I was guilty a bit too.

so I just read on DCist.com that Cafe Saint-Ex is asking customers to put their collars down before they come in. That's awesome. Saint Ex is now my favorite bar. I hate the popped collar thing, it looks retarded. I always want to say to poppers, "hey, you know your collar is up," but haven't yet. maybe soon. I put my collar up once years ago out of idle curiosity, and I don't see what the attraction is. Come to think of it, not a lot of people talked to me then.

so the other day I walked outside to go to work and it was dry and a little chilly and the sky was clear blue, I didn't see a cloud anywhere. it made me think of when I used to go to Air Force Academy football games back in middle school, and how I always think of that kind of weather as football weather. I always loved football games, we'd coo out in the parking lot with lots of other folks from the base I lived on, we'd eat chili and whatnot and my parents would have bloody marys (or is it maries), which i always thought looked gross. If the games got boring, the kids would all go play football behind the stadium in a grassy field, until one kid got his collarbone broken on a tackle - it sounded like an NFL crunch, except nobody was wearing any pads.

There's also college basketball weather, which is similar, but I feel like is more chilly - from going to GW games early (noonish) on Saturdays. Word.

Williamsburg and Jamestown

shipsinjamestown
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

So I went to Williamsburg and Jamestown last weekend with my parents. It was pretty fun, and I do like historical stuff. However, it was also a little strange - Williamsburg is pretty antiseptic. The town was founded in 1699 and was the colonial capitol, but most of the buildings are rebuilt, only 80 out of 500 or something are original. Which is fine, but it just seemed a little Disney-ish, with spotless old houses and such. It's still kind of a nice atmosphere though and there are lots of little shops along the main street. It was nice walking around, especially at night. And talking to people about how much they loved the town (and also how people actually voted Disneyworld's Main Street USA as the best part of the park) made me think of how people really like traditional townscapes like that.

But anyway, they had a lot of historical reenactments, like soldiers and drum and fife corps, craftspeople making wigs and furniture and blacksmithing and such, which was interesting. Some of the reenactors were interesting and funny, but some were insufferable and annoying, especially the younger ones. I guess they are probably all theater types who think they're great actors. It was also weird seeing black reenactors dressed as slaves - accurate, but sort of unsettling. Anyway, here's a picture of soldiers marching outside the Kings Arms Tavern, which had pretty good food.

The town is centered on the old main street, Duke of Gloucester Street, and most of the historical stuff is within a block of two of that. It's actually laid out a lot like DC, with the Lincoln Memorial corresponding to William and Mary's oldest building, the Mall being Duke of Gloucester Street, the White House where the Governor's Palace is, and Capitols in the same place. I assume L'Enfant used Williamsburg for inspiration (map of the historic area here). There's also a few museums, like the Dewitt-Wallace Decorative Arts museum, which had silver and jewelry and crap like that, but also a really interesting exhibit on old maps, with lots of originals - John Smith's map of Virginia, lots of others from the 1600s, and so on. It was neat. The William and Mary campus is neat too, lots of old buildings. Here's the back of the Governor's Palace. It's sort of hard to tell, but there are 10 foot tall cylindrically trimmed boxwoods that look really cool.
There's also the normal, modern day town of Williamsburg, which is nothing special, but there was a good Mexican restaurant called "Casa Maya". I recommend it, it was more Mexican than Tex-Mex, and things were flavored differently than normal Mexican food.

After Williamsburg, we went to Jamestown, which is actually two parks. There's the original site of the settlement, called Historic Jamestowne, which is run by the Park Service and a group called the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and there's the Jamestown Settlement, a reconstruction, run by a pseudo-state government foundation, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. It's kind of confusing. We went to the reconstruction first, and I expected it to be corny, but it was actually the better of the two. They have a huge visitor's center with movies and food and all, and a gift shop with lots of stuff, from historical things to cheesy tourist crap. The park itself starts with a rebuilt Indian village, which was sort of interesting. The tour guide was a big high school looking kid in a Pocahontas-ish costume that was sort of funny, but was probably accruate. Then we went to the ships, pictured above, which were really interesting. One of the ships was being worked on, so it wasn't there, but the biggest and smallest were, the biggest is pictured. They're reconstructions also, but seemed very well done, and are seaworthy - the big one sailed across the Atlantic, and apparently is in an upcoming movied called "The New World" about Jamestown and such, with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. It actually looks pretty good, and also has Wes Studi, who is also cool. He was the bad dude in "Last of the Mohicans."

But anyway, we got to walk all over the ships, which was really intersting - it would suck to have to cross an ocean in one. The smaller ship was meant to be for exploring the area around the colony, and was actually built smaller than it should have been, but was still pretty tiny. The fort and town inside were really neat too, very primitive, and the reenactors were doing things like making food and working on armor. It was very hands on, more than at Williamsburg. I enjoyed it, you really got a feel of how much in the wilderness they were.

The Park Service/APVA Jamestown, however, was bad. There was a lot of construction going on, which is fine, but it seemed like they didn't pay much attention to park visitors. After going to a rebuilt glass furnace (pretty neat), we went to the main part of the park. We couldn't find a real visitors center, but did find a little gift shop. So we wandered across a bridge over the swamp which leads to the island the town was built on. It was basically unguided, since we didn't get a map (couldn't find the visitors center), and the park really didn't tell me anything. There was a big obelisk from the 300th anniversary, and there were foundations of buildings with some small plaques, a partially rebuilt church, and that was it basically. It left me with more questions than when I started, and that was after already learning about Jamestown - it must have been nonsense to people who didn't go to the other park. For example, there was a big plastic dome over one area. I assume it was to protect an archaeological dig, but there weren't any signs or anybody to tell me what it was. We didn't see a park ranger until after we had finished everything, and he was leading a tour. Where the tour started and how people found out about it, I have no idea. And it's not like we came in the back way, there's only one way in and one place to park. So the Park Service section was nice and peaceful, and gave you a good idea of where the place was, but I really didn't learn anything additional. I wrote them an email about the crappy experience, and they wrote back soon saying these were problems that were going to be fixed, but still. But not interesting park aside, I'm glad I went, and I enjoyed it all.

So that was the trip. Here are links and a couple more photos.

the non-Park Service, better Jamestown park. Dumb URL.

The Park Service site for Jamestown

Colonial Williamsburg. It's crazy they got "history.org" as their domain. They must have registered it 20 years ago or something.

Now pictures, here's the ceiling of the Governor's Palace. Those are guns. Apparently this was common back then.


Here's a crazy-shaped tomato from a garden in Williamsburg.


And here's me chilling with my pal Thomas Jefferson on the main drag in Williamsburg.

So I read that Don Adams died today, which is too bad. He did the voice of Inspector Gadget and was also Maxwell Smart on "Get Smart." Both shows were really cool, but being a kid in the 80s, I loved Inspector Gadget. I wish they still showed it somewhere, I’d watch it. Unfortunately the movie with Matthew Broderick was lame. "Get Smart" was a good show too, I loved the opening sequence where he went through all the doors and all the puns and goofiness. I remember watching it on Nick at Nite back in the day. The Yahoo article says he served in the Marines in Gualdalcanal and as a drill instructor, which is pretty wild, since he looked like a small dude and he had that nasally voice. IMDB has a bit more on him and there are a few videos and things on Amazon and Ebay too.

so I'm going to Williamsburg (VA, not Brooklyn) tomorrow. Here are some news articles I've been liking recently.

Yahoo has an interesting one about how hurricanes get their names.

Stereogum has a discussion about people who used to be in bands who now have real jobs.

the AP has an interesting piece about Congressional earmarks, which are programs that nobody asked for or recommended, but that congressmen put through anyway - i.e. pork. What struck me was that Alaska has the third highest amount of transportation earmarks, mostly for roads and bridges, which is ridiculous. It's not like these bridges link Manhattan to Brooklyn or France to England, it's linking some sparsely populated places to some other sparsely populated places. The Knik Arm bridge is the most ridiculous, they're spending $250 million on it this year alone, for a two mile bridge across a fjord. I guess they can sell a few more seals or ice cubes or something when they finish it. How stupid.

And the Post has a good article about local officials in Mississippi and Louisiana trying to get equipment for their cities - sometimes making them break into lots and take tractors out, because FEMA things take forever to arrive.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050920/ts_krwashbureau/_wea_katrina_congress_1

99 bottles of Borf on the wall

borfobottles
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

So here's an old Borf thing in Shaw, there are 99 bottles of beer painted on the wall. Pretty cool.

In other news, I forgot to wear a belt to work yesterday, which was kind of embarassing. i didn't notice until I was waiting for the elevator to go to my office. So i did the "pull the shirt out a bit and put it over the belt area" thing, which hid it pretty well. I think belts are kind of dumb anyway though, it's not like my pants are going to fall off. Sort of a pointless article of clothing. Maybe I should get one of the belt buckles with the LCD screen, I can wear it to work and have it say "WORK RULES" or "I LOVE MAPS" or something.

so i was thinking about bands "selling out" recently and why it annoys me. The Rolling Stones, in particular, piss me off lately. They have to be extremely rich already, but they've been in some stupid commercials lately with these insurance people saying how cool it is to be at a Rolling Stones concert. I think that automatically makes your band lame, if your concerts are praised in insurance commercials. I'm sure they got paid a ton to do it too. And they're probably going to tour soon and charge $80 a ticket.

Then there was the whole Verve thing, where the Rolling Stones sued the band the Verve for using a very short and nearly impossible to notice sample of an orchestral version of a Stones song - not even the band themselves playing. The sample was in "Bittersweet Symphony," which was a huge hit for the Verve, and the Stones won all past and future royalties on the song, which they then licensed in lots of commercials - something I'm pretty sure the Verve had refused to do. So the Rolling Stones basically made a ton of money on a song they never wrote or performed and rubbed it in the Verve's faces. The Verve, who had been hailed as the one of the best bands of the late 90s, broke up not long after. It's not like they stole an entire song or were making fun of the Rolling Stones or anything - the sample was like six notes on a violin, nothing obviously by the Stones or really impressive musically or anything. I saw an interview on MTV or something with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the whole deal and they were furious that the Verve had dared do that. What a bunch of dicks. They're obviously just out to line their own pockets however they can.

Another example of what I think is a sell out are the Black Eyed Peas. They don't make me as mad as the Rolling Stones, but have been in so many commercials, magazine ads, etc, sometimes for the most tenuous reasons, that it's ridiculous. I feel like they're more of a spokesband than a real musical group now. Which is too bad, because their old stuff was pretty good, like Bridging the Gap, which was before they got the girl singer. I also think part of what annoys me about them being in so many commercials is that a lot of the commercials basically say that they're a cool group. If you have to be told that something is cool, then it's probably not. And since when is Best Buy or some car company the arbiter of cool? Plus commercials seem to decrease coolness exponentially - being in one commercial is not bad, but you rapidly get less cooler as you appear in more commercials. I thought Moby's Play cd was great, but after he licensed every song to commercials, it became not very cool. He's almost a joke now, and none of his CDs after that have sold very well. Even Snoop Dogg in commercials is getting old, it's almost rote - here's Snoop, he's dressed like a pimp, he says "izzle" a couple times, and our company is now cool.

But along the same lines, I wonder what else it is that makes me feel like a band sold out? I think what a band is selling is a big factor - Ikea wouldn't be too bad, but some chips or Pontiac cars would be pretty lame. Devo let the Swiffer mop thing use a version of "Whip It" in a commercial as "Swiff It," but apparently they said OK because it was such a bizarre idea, which I think is a good reason. Maybe how obscure the band plays a role too - for example, I think I heard an Iron and Wine cover of "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service in a car commercial, which I thought was cool. But I heard a Postal Service song in another car commercial and thought it was lame. Iron and Wine are definitely more obscure, and I've heard the Postal Service a lot more often, so it seems like more of an attempt by them to get famous. But why don't I think that way about Iron and Wine? They were both in car commercials? It's odd. Maybe something about Iron and Wine makes them seem less corruptible or something.

And a corollary is that if the band is obscure and a little old, I think it's fine - like I just heard Civ's "Can't Wait One Minute More" in a Nissan or Toyota commercial - good for them! That was a minor hit maybe 10 years ago, I think it's cool they're getting paid for it again.

But if I ever make music and people want to use it in a commercial, I'll only consider it if it's a cool commercial that isn't on very much, and it's some product I like. Assuming that ever happens of course. I probably would need to music some kind of music first.

Stereogum has a thing about Paul McCartney in a commercial too.

Pickle Chips

picklechips
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

so I saw these the other day at the deli near work and I decided to pick them up. I like to try different kinds of chips. They were pretty tasty, and really do taste just like pickles, it was kind of uncanny. They weren't super strong flavored either, which was good, unlike some of the flavored chips. It was just like eating a chip, then eating a pickle. Maybe pickles are now obsolete. The only bad thing is that it didn't taste very much like dill, more like a vinegary pickle, which is too bad, because I really like dill. But they were tasty anyway, and I recommend them. It seems like there have been a lot of new kinds of chips recently - salt and pepper, sweet potato, lime, etc. My friend Tuck from Canada talks about pickle chips and also ketchup chips, which he claims are amazing. I haven't seen them though.

so a couple weeks ago I was walking to a bar with two of my friends and this big white limo was coming up the street towards us. We saw a girl was hanging halfway out the window, waving her arms. When the limo was about next to us, we saw she was extremely excited and yelled "Hey you guys!!!! Bow Wow's in here!!!" to us. Then we saw an arm come out of the other window and wave at us. It was pretty funny, that first she was so thrilled to be in a limo with Lil Bow Wow (who is now just called Bow Wow, since he's all grown up), and second that she would yell about it to us, three skinny mid-20s white dudes, probably not Bow Wow's chief fan base. So when we saw some of our other friends, we told them we saw Bow Wow's arm. I believe her that Bow Wow really was in the limo, because she seemed to be high school-aged and was obviously incredibly thrilled, thrilled enough to yell about it to some random dudes on the street, and I looked it up later to see if he played in the area, which he did. So that was pretty funny. We were talking about it later, how it must be strange to be 16 or whatever he is, to be rich and famous (among 16 year olds, at least) and have all these young girls crazy about you, then not having anything match that as you get older. I assume he won't be a famous rapper when he's 22 or 30. I mean, what happened to Krss Kross? They had the big album, then two lame gangsta albums and I have no idea what they're doing now. They have a webpage, but the stuff it's talking about happened in 1996 (I looked it up). And I found this article about that site - one of the pages says "Kris Kross loves bloggers," apparently because a bunch of bloggers found the site and wrote about it. What a bunch of losers, huh?

Somebody on a message board for an annual Kris Kross Day website, where you are supposed to wear your clothes backwards, says that Chris Smith (Daddy Mack, I have no idea which guy that is) is working on a solo album, but I can't find anything about it online. A Canadian website says he had an album a couple years ago as "M.A.C." There are a couple results on Amazon for a rapper called Mac, who was on No Limit, but I dunno if it's the same guy. This Mac is young though, and his albums got a lot of positive comments. My favorite review, however, is this one:

Not since Gambol Freer made a public renunciation of his obsolescent depilatory tactics in 1985 has the rap world seen anything like Mac's multi-thyrsoid panegyrics. Not that it matters very much, because such lubricious manticorical entities are about to become a dime a dozen, and getting there first won't count for much when all we'll want by then is a cool draught of C-major tonic! Did Mac (whose real name, by the way, is Stavros Mapplethorpe) ever stop to consider the ramifications of his rather glib brand of fatti maschii? Medoubts it highly. Plugging away at soft-core pulp is all he knows. And calling it "woolly bear" ain't gonna fool no one!

Hell, even Snoop could tell his momma a thing or two.

Peace out, y'all.

Weird. And according to this, Jermaine Dupri wrote all the songs on "Totally Krossed Out". Interesting. But as for where they are now, I dunno. Maybe I'll look for them.

so i was reading a lot of crappy news lately, like Bush's popularity level going up (??), Karl Rove getting put in charge of the rebuilding effort, bombings, and other various bad news stories, so I decided to type "good news" into Yahoo to see what happened. A lot of it was Christian stuff, but i did find a few news sources with "good" news, such as Happynews.com. Ironically, it's sort of sad- the fact that there is so much crappy stuff going on that there are a bunch of news sites with just good news. I mean, I guess that's always been the case, but still. Anyway, some of the articles on the site are sort of lame, and depend on what team you like, for example. But I did like the one about how Harvard wants its students to party more, and this one about a cricket player who can basically do whatever he wants in the town of Sheffield, England, because England won some cricket tournament. What a weird idea. I also thought the site's weather section was funny: "The weather sure is nice in Little Rock, AR today!"

And then I went to one of my favorite sites, Spamusement.com, which is always funny. It's a bunch of cartoons based on spam emails the writer gets. Good stuff.

so my pal Jess sent me this, it's a very funny video of dumb sex advice (not work safe due to bad language, unless you have headphones I guess.) My favorite part: "Women love danger. If they could, they'd date a fire."

And here's the explanation.

so there have been some kooky happenings at my alma mater, George Washington U recently. My friend sent me this item from the GW police blotter:

9/10 - New Hall - 11:15 p.m. - case closed

UPD responded to a room in the dorm after receiving a loud noise complaint. CLLC accompanied the officers to find a large number of students having a get-together. There were no violations of policy, but an inordinate amount of what appeared to be cake was served, according to a student close to the event.

Referred to Student Judicial Services (SJS)

And the other day, a girl bit a cop. Weird.

so my homie Edmundo had this in his blog, it's pretty hilarious and ridiculous. A note our president wrote to Condi Rice, saying he has to tinkle. Or maybe poop. It's pretty funny that the photographer got close enough to read it.

And my pal Rae has a very funny photo riddle thing on her blog, check it out.

Also, this dog is very ugly. It looks like a mummy from some Indiana Jones movie or something.

so I like to watch commercials and see what kind of dumb stuff they say. Something I've always thought about is cereal commercials, when they say "this cereal is part of a balanced breakfast." However, when they show the balanced breakfast, they show the bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, another glass of milk, a couple pieces of toast, some fruit, an egg, sausage, and so on. I mean, if you add 12 things to your breakfast, anything can be part of a balanced breakfast. Twinkies are part of a balanced breakfast. Burritos are part of a balanced breakfast. A piece of wood is part of a balanced breakfast.

Here's a website I found with a bunch of pictures of balanced breakfasts. I like this line: "Studies by Atkin and Gibson (1978) have shown that most children are unable to remember any other foods shown with the cereal and that they often believe that the sugared cereal alone would constitute a healthy breakfast." The guy did make good choices for his pictures though. Some of my favorite cereals.

In other news, I think Shaq is the man. He's training to be a Miami Beach reserve police officer, which is cool enough, and the other day he helped officers arrest a guy who was throwing bottles at a gay couple. And he's been doing a lot for the hurricane victims too lately.

so yesterday I went on this long odyssey to find some lights for my closet. I rode the metro from Union Station to Pentagon City, then up to Tenleytown, then again to Friendship Heights and still didn't find any. At this point I was tired of riding the Metro and it was a nice day, so I decided to take bus down Wisconsin Ave to Farragut North. About halfway there, this big and really terrible smelling lady got on the bus. Everybody immediately made faces and went "wooo!" and stuff, some people put lotion on to try to hide the smell, a couple girls started sniffing wet wipes, a bunch of people moved away from her, and so on. Some kids in the back, where the smelly lady sat down, started yelling "Man! What is that smell!!!" and stuff. People were snickering and opening windows, until at one of the stops, a girl ran off while people were getting on and went into a 7-11. Then while we were still waiting at a stoplight, she got back on with about 10 of those Christmas tree-shaped car air fresheners and started to pass them out to people on the bus. It was pretty hilarious. The driver put one on the mirror, the yelling kids put like four around the back on the bus, some people held theirs. Good times on the bus.

so I've been listening to EPMD's Strictly Business lately, I'm really liking it. They're a late 80s-early 90s rap group, really cool stuff. The rappers (Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith, EPMD stands for "Erick and Parrish making dollars") have kind of slurred, rolling flows and they use a lot of samples, some pretty obvious and funny, like "I Shot the Sherrif," "Jungle Boogie," some Zapp and Roger, and that Steve Miller Band song, "Fly Like an Eagle". The first few tracks, "Strictly Business," "I'm Housin'," "Let the Funk Flow," (which uses the same sample as Nas' "Nastradamus", directly followed by a Beastie Boys sample), and "You Gots to Chill," are great- catchy, with cool beats and good rhymes. All the really strong, but the first part of the CD is my favorite. I think they also coined the phrase "chill to the next episode" which Dr. Dre used on Chronic 2001. Anyway, check out the album, it's really great. All Music Guide gave it 5 stars and Amazon has some clips.

so here's my most recent concert list, so I don't forget. There are a lot of good shows coming up.

Wed Sep 14- Hockey Night $8 w/Baby Teeth & Head of Femur DC9

FRI. SEP. 23- Southern Culture on the Skids $15.00 930 Club

TUE. SEP. 27- Sufjan Stevens w/ Liz Janes $15.00 930 Club

FRI Sep 30- EARLIMART W/ RICHARD SWIFT AND SONS OF NATIONAL FREEDOM W/ JOE RATHBONE 9:30PM $12 Iota

SAT OCT 1- ELECTRIC 6, OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY, HER DAILY OBSESSION $12 mainstage 9:30 Black Cat

SUN. OCT. 2- The Decemberists w/ Sons & Daughters $18.00 930 Club

SUN Oct 2 ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET W/ KING OF FRANCE 8:30PM $11 Iota

MON OCT 3- THE RAVEONETTES $13 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

TUE OCT 4- NADA SURF, SAY HI TO YOUR MOM, acoustic ARMY OF ME $13 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

OCT 5 - Beck, Patriot Center

SAT. OCT. 8- Metric w/ The Most Serene Republic & The Lovely Feathers 6pm Doors $15.00 930 Club

Mon Oct 10- My Morning Jacket w/ Kathleen Edwards 9:30 Club

SAT. OCT. 15- The New Pornographers w/ Destroyer & Immaculate Machine $15.00 930 Club

Sat Oct 15- Sleepytime Gorrila Museum $10 w/Crashlander DC9


TUE OCT 18- CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH $12 mainstage 8:30

Fri Oct 21- Assrockers Velvet Lounge

SAT OCT 22- AMBULANCE LTD, PEOPLE IN PLANES $10adv/ $12door mainstage 9:30 Black Cat

SUN OCT 23- LOCAL H, RIDDLE OF STEEL, SKYLINE DRIVE $12 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

TUE. OCT. 25- Social Distortion w/ Mest & The Dead 60s $25.00 930 Club

WED. OCT. 26- Broken Social Scene $20.00 930 Club

Wed Oct 26.- Green Milk From The Planet Orange(Japanese space rock/psych-prog) $8
w/Ostinato (atmospheric post punk), & Vincent Black Shadow - DC9

Oct 31- OK GO and Rufus Wainright 9:30 Club

WED NOV 2- THE KINGSBURY MANX, THE STANDARD $7 backstage 9:00 Black Cat

Thu Nov 3- Say Hi to Your Mom $ w/tba DC9

SUN NOV 6- TOM VEK, MOBIUS BAND $8 backstage 9:00 Black Cat

TUE. NOV. 8- Super Furry Animals w/ Caribou $15.00 930 Club

SAT NOV 12- BROADCAST, GRAVENHURST, TRALALA $12 mainstage 9:30 Black Cat

THUR NOV 17- ANDREW BIRD (accompanied by DOSH), HEAD OF FEMUR $13 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

SUN NOV 20- TRISTEZA, TONE $8 backstage 9:00 Black Cat

Tue. Nov 22.- Mandible w/Mosquito Death Squadron & Warning Danger of Death $6 DC9. I dunno who they are, but they are great band names.

Sun. Nov 27- Wheatus Enemy of Three $10 DC9 - Teenage dirtbag.

TUES DEC 6- AMERICAN ANALOG SET, CHRIS BROKAW $10 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

so today is September 11th. It's still strange to see the date written out in mudane places, like on my computer, a calendar, my cell phone, and so on, even right above this post. I remember when I was working at Cosi after I graduated from college in 2002, I was getting a jug of milk from the back and it said "Expiration date: September 11." It always strikes me when I see this date that I'll never forget written in random places. I wonder if that will eventually go away.

In other news, my pal Mollie sent me this link to this cool Regrowth: Katrina shirt where for every shirt you buy, they'll give $10 to the Red Cross. So far they've raised $72,000. I bought one

so I've been reading some really good news articles today, here they be:

"Doctors emerging as heroes of Katrina" from the AP

"Mexico Army brings aid to Katrina victims", also AP. It's the first time the Mexican army has been across the border since 1846. Somebody I was talking to said this reminded him of that lame movie "The Day After Tomorrow" with Jake Gyllenhall where all the disasters hit the US and everybody is forced to flee to Mexico. It's like the tables have turned was the guy's point. Forget who I was talking to though.

"Embattled Brown taken off hurricane duty", AP. A longer piece about him leaving, with questions about his qualifications, etc. He seems like the prime example of one of Pres. Bush's boys getting put into a job for what he did during the campaign with no regard for his qualifications.

"For a US platoon in Iraq, merciless missions" - a great Washington Post article following a platoon for a few days. Really interesting.

so I was looking at Yahoo Sports today and saw this headline: "2005 Hall of Fame ceremonies include deceased Gunter". I think they need to reword this.

In other news, I saw Akira Kurosawa's Ran the other day. I remember seeing a movie a long time ago about feudal Japan with lots of cool battles and guys with flags on their hats and I thought I'd try to figure out what it was. I guessed it might be a Kurosawa movie, and I read this one was good, so I got it. It wasn't the one I was looking for (my friend thinks that is Kagemusha, so I'll get that next), but it was interesting. It's basically a version of King Lear played out in feudal Japan. Unfortunately I didn't get to finish it because it's 3 hours long and I waited to watch it the day I had to return it, but I saw probably 2.5 hours of it.

While I was watching it, I was sort of annoyed, because some of the subtitles were messed up with typos, and the old king character was obviously a younger actor with lots of bad makeup. The jester character was kind of weird too, (which is the idea, since he's a jester, but still) and it was strange already knowing most of the story but seeing it in a new way - I sort of knew what to expect. Also, the battle scenes were confusing in that I didn't know whose army was on whose side, and thus who was winning and so on. One line like "oh no, so and so's army is attacking us with so and so!" would have helped that immensely. Also, some of the emotions and acting seemed very stylized, but I guess that's Shakespeare and a Japanese costume drama for you. So I didn't think I liked it very much. However, a couple days afterwards, I'm still thinking of certain scenes and themes and images, there were a lot of great landscapes and shots of castles and plains and so on - really cool looking places I'd never seen before. So while I wasn't having that great of a time watching it, the fact that it stayed with me for this long makes me want to see it again. Maybe I'll be more used to the stylized acting and the bad makeup.

so I just found this great site, crooksandliars.com from my pal Erin's livejournal. It's a great site, with video clips and news articles about Bush and his cronies making mistakes and bending the truth. I really like the Time magazine article about Michael Brown's trumped-up resume (he claims to do a lot of things that he apparently never did) and the video of David Gregory from NBC arguing with press secretary Scott Mclellan for Mclellan not answering a question. Now I'm watching the video of Nancy Pelosi and Kyra Phillips from CNN.

so I was browsing the Post today and saw a couple of good articles that ask hard questions about the hurricane response and the Bush administration's new tactics. Here's one by Terry Neal and one from Dan Froomkin's column.

But what really made me mad is this transcript from the photo-op Pres. Bush had with the two black ladies, where he hugged them. This is what was said, from Froomkin's column

Bush strides up to two African American women, who are sisters. Hovering nearby is a white guy wearing shades and shorts.

With the cameras rolling, Bush hugs the two women, one of whom starts sobbing.

Here's a partial transcript:

Bush to women: "There's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help. I'm sorry... They'll help you... . "

Woman 1: "I came here looking for clothes. . . . "

Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center... ."
Woman 1: "We don't have anything. . . . "

Bush: "I understand. . . . Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"

Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."

Bush: "There's trucks?"

Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away. . . . "

Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"

Guy: "No that's wiped out. . . . "

Bush: "A temporary center?"

Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."

Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."

Bush then turns to the woman who's been saying how she needs clothes and tells her: "You need food and water."

Jesus Christ!

so apparently there is this guy who lives near me who dresses like a samurai or Mongolian warrior or something. I saw him once awhile ago when i was walking into the Shaw-Howard metro, he was a black guy wearing some kimono-looking thing, with one of those triangular Japanese hats, and some wood armor or something, the full deal. I don't remember if he was carrying anything though. But the first time I saw him, I assumed he was just at some kind of event or something and it was a one-time thing, but the other day my friends were over and they said they just saw a samurai guy around the corner, and described him exactly like I remembered. So I guess this guy dresses up like a samurai a lot. Crazy stuff. Hopefully I can get a photo of or with him.

Also, this is cool. Little tiny cubical houses, 2.6 meters on a side.

Think Crapp

cropp
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

So I am seeing these signs everywhere. However, they always make me think of "crap" instead. Kind of a bad name for a politician, and a dumb thing to have on a sign anyway. Why not just "Linda Cropp"? Even "Cropp for Mayor" sounds like crap. But with a first name, it's less obvious.

so I am going to start a new thing for fridays, a bunch of links of neat stuff for the weekend.

First, here's a really interesting Livejournal of a guy in downtown New Orleans. He works at some kind of technology company apparently with a diesel generator, and has a live cam of what's going on. He uses lots of weird military terms too for some reason. Scary and strange but very cool.

A funny Choose Your Own Adventure game, which I found in the weekly email from insound.com.

Streetsy, a site with pictures of graffiti.

An interesting article about tourism in Greenland.

A funny Doonesbury comic about blogging. Sounds like my blog.

And finally, a news article saying that wasting time at work costs companies millions. Good thing I never do that!

so first off, I hope people donate to the Red Cross, at their website or on the phone, 1-800-HELP-NOW.

However, I am getting pretty pissed about this. For one thing, why did this happen? Some people probably chose to stay in New Orleans, but a lot probably couldn't, because they were sick or poor or didn't have a car and so on - why were they left behind? It's like the government said "see ya, hope you don't die." Obviously it would be difficult and costly to evacuate people, but considering the number of people who've said this would happen (FEMA, academics including GW professors, New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters, among others that I've heard mentioned on CNN), it's boggling that no one tried to evacuate them. I mean, it would have saved thousands of lives, at least. Are poor people's lives not as important? It's what it seems like now.

I think part of the problem is that the director of FEMA said that the victims bear some responsibility for staying. This guy is the director of FEMA? Come on. I read somewhere that flights were full, assuming you could afford them, and I assume it's the same way with rail and buses.

Some other interesting news - Baton Rouge is the largest city in Louisiana and may stay that way for some time. As someone rightly points out, Galveston was as big as Houston before it was hit by a hurricane in 1900. Same with Indianola, Texas, not mentioned in the article, which wasn't resettled.

People around the world are shocked and surprised at the poor response to the hurricane and its aftermath.

Local officials are furious about the slow response. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has told the federal government to "get off their asses". Of course, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, former head of the GOP, has been pretty quiet, saying on CNN it'll take time, etc.

Pres. Bush did say results were "not acceptable."

A pretty interesting thing from the Gawker blog, about Anderson Cooper giving hell to Sen. Mary Landrieu, which I watched on CNN. He was angry that politicians were patting each other on the back and such. She said "Anderson" maybe 80 times. And "I have the anger in my heart" was pretty corny to hear.

"The Big Disconnect," a CNN piece comparing the federal goverment's statements about the disaster to those by the mayor and other locals.

"To me, it just seems like black people are marked,"from the Post.

This piece from Ariana Huffington's blog basically blames Pres. Bush for the tragedy. Interesting. Although I read that some of the denials of funds happened in 1998, which would be the Clinton administration. I wonder if Clinton and HW Bush are wondering if they could have done anything more when they were president. Not that I think they are to blame anyway.

so it looks like the downstairs of the Brickskeller is closing. My friend forwarded me the bar's mailing list:

===============================
Item twice - The Brickskeller is CLOSING!

Yep, the rumors are true. The Brickskeller is closing her doors. After 47 years the unthinkable has happened. On Sunday, September 11th, those trying to enter our downstairs bar will find the door locked. However, if you walk up to the second floor entrance you will discover we are now showing NFL FOOTBALL IN OUR UPSTAIRS BAR ALL DAY EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON! YeahBABY! The upstairs bar is opening at 12 noon to allow all our football loving beer keg chuggin armchair huggin ballcoach mugging shirtsleeve tuggin waitstaff buggin spill on the ruggin beerguy buddin pals to watch the best football games in the best beer bar drinking the best beer on the best earth!

The Brickskeller close? R U Kiddin? Do you believe the morning papers too?
================================

This sucks, the downstairs is the best place. Plus they keep all the beer down there, I wonder if that means the selection is going to be a lot smaller. I could give a shit about football, since no other bars in the city ever show football. I don't know if the guy is tired of running it or wants to focus on the not-so-great RFD or what, but this is bad news. Or I guess it might be a joke, but it's pretty bizarrely written and unfunny if so.

UPDATE

I emailed the owner, he said the downstairs will only be closed on sundays during football season. So it was just a terribly written email. Here's what he has to say.

Hi Andrew
The downstairs will only be closed sunday nights during the football season, we put TVs upstairs so we're going to show the games during the season, then all will return to normalcy. The complete beer list will be available upstairs, unlike downstairs where the taps are not. So we'll have about 100 more seats, be open 6 more hours and offer 12 more beers than any Sunday ever before. It's all good, not to worry.

Cheerios
Dave

so the elevator at work has 9 buttons arranged in a square, 3x3, and I like to watch the buttons to see if we win at tic-tac-toe. Like if people pushed 2, 5, 8, it'd be three in a row in the middle, or 3, 5, 7, diagonally. People rarely win though.

In other news, I think it's weird when an athlete gets injured and they say on ESPN, "Smith hurt his leg. X-rays were negative." What, could you not see his bone? His leg is hollow? It means they didn't see a break or tear or whatever, but it sounds dumb. Maybe "X-rays didn't reveal any damage" would be better or something.