Season Three is hee-eeere.  Forgive the usual small mistakes.  My tongue was tied and my hands were lead.  It gets better every day, don’t you worry.  This episode features no special guests, just my rambling.

Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees
All Luck Ran Out - Sondre Lerche
Wouldn’t Mama Be Proud   -   Elliott Smith
Nikita    -   Elton John
Dying Breed    -    Marissa Nadler
An Angry Blade    -    Iron & Wine
Old Fashioned Morphine    -  Jolie Holland
Lunar Sea  -  Camera Obscura

Maybe having a kid isn’t a millstone about the neck but a chance.  A chance to raise a person worth knowing when it seems more and more that there aren’t many people worth knowing in this world.

Go see Radiohead? Don’t mind if I do! Last night a friend and I made our way, along with nearly 18,000 other people, to the Hollywood Bowl. I saw them once before at Coachella in 2004 and this experience was far better. The light show that accompanied them was monstrous and strange and wonderful. Huge floor to ceiling columns of light that seemed capable of any combination of color or pattern. That they played even 1/3 of True Love Waits made my evening, and I almost cried.

(via sweetcell’s flickr)

Set List: Reckoner/Optimistic/There There/15 Step/All I Need/Pyramid Song/Weird Fishes/Arpeggi/The Gloaming/Videotape/Talk Show Host/Faust Arp/Tell Me Why (Neil Young Cover) /No Surprises/Jigsaw Falling Into Place/The Bends/The National Anthem/Nude/Bodysnatchers Encore: House of Cards/ Planet Telex/Go Slowly/Fake Plastic Trees/True Love Waits Intro/Everything In Its Right Place Encore 2: Cymbal Rush/Karma Police/Idioteque

(via sweetcell’s flickr)

The red curtains surrounding them, much like the Red Room of Twin Peaks, lent a certain air of mystery to the proceedings. Nico Muhly, Doveman, and Sam Amidon played a stunning show last night at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, in one of those nights that confirms what you suspected about Los Angeles, that it is both a good place to be and that nothing goes as planned. They played for about three hours, but due to various complications, I only caught the last hour.  Still!  What grace.  Nico and company live in New York so though I follow their careers and wistfully read of symphonies or jaunts to Iceland to perform, I never get to see them.

Muhly’s blog is a great read as well. 

Take a listen, this is a piece Nico wrote for Sam Amidon (wearing the hat, above) to sing, and last night it lasted about fifteen minutes, with much crashing of banjos, symbols and drums.

Nico Muhly - The Only Tune

Still, the fried egg sandwich I had later that night at the 101 coffee shop arm wrestled that show to the ground.

The truth is, there are things that I am not too proud to admit that I have yelled into a telephone, while a patient Amazon.com sales representative sat on the other end:

“Oh yeah? NO you ARE going to find me a replacement copy of Once and Again Seasons One and Two. The policy clearly states that you will find a replacement copy if you fail to provide it as advertised. NOW I thought that 60 bucks for both seemed a little low, but that was your poor decision making, not mine!”

“Ma’am, I’ve never even heard of this item, I don’t know if there is another one, we will refund your money.”

“I waited A MONTH? For you to tell me that I’m getting my money back? I don’t think so! You ARE going to find me a replacement copy of Once and Again Seasons One and Two.”

“Miss, we do not have that item in stock, we will refund your money, I’m not sure what else we can do.” 

“OH WE ARE NOT FINISHED WITH THIS CONVERSATION, IT HAS JUST STARTED.”

1. I write for Clusterflock, now.  See, for a few months I was pretending to be Jandek, and commenting like Jandek might.  Hard to explain why I thought it was so funny. I didn’t think anyone actually thought I was actually Jandek, and they mostly didn’t.  Hoorah!

2. I need a sewing machine.

3. I need a Honda Metropolitan or a Yamaha Vino, or something like it.

4. She rides ahead of me, swerving and laughing hysterically. I’m peddling as fast as I can, screaming for her to slow down, and the wisp of light from her bike lamp on an otherwise deserted street seems to hinder, rather than help. I have no idea what time it is, and after a while she stops listening to me, going faster and faster into the murky night.

5. I finished Season Four of The Wire in 2 days.

6. This? This is an amazing story.  My own panicked thought while reading was: “A lion? I can’t remember!”

The Coathangers @ The Smell, June 21st, 2008

I heard about these guys a while ago from one of the many music blogs I read, and was intrigued by their sound, I used to listen to Tora Tora Torrance in highschool and that was similar vein stuff. Coathangers are loud, proud and out there, with song titles perhaps meant to shock, perhaps just in keeping with their punk image, but one gets the feeling these girls write because they have some things to say, and they will be heard. They managed to have an amazing time and look great doing it, so they’re living the dream, making music and making friends.

The venue was small and dirty, which is how I would have preferred it. There were three non-descript opening bands, but when the Coathangers brought it, they took it all the way home. The last song, ‘Don’t Touch My S***!’ inspired some rather vigorous dancing as the four Coathangers leaned into the crowd, proffering a stern warning. They all were able to interchange instruments, which I am usually in aw of bands who manage to play their own instruments much less everyone else’s, but this seemed to be so that everyone got a turn to have fun, trying out new things.

For a band with such good press, I was pleased to see about twenty or thirty kids show up to see them so far from home. I went up after the show to tell them how pleased I was that they’d finally made it out here, and the lead singer Julia was sweet as can be, very chatty and talkative.

I don’t know how to embed video, so here’s the short video of their performance I uploaded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-baeDQhUn8

Commenter Laremy has won the prize, and no, this has nothing to do with the fact that he got me Glenn Howerton’s signature.  On a Twilight poster.  It really was the luck of the cards.

I did buy all your book suggestions, loves.

(m8tyboy’s flickr)
Alex: because i’m writing a research proposal right now

Amanda: about what?

Alex: research i want to do during the school year. it’s a scholarship application

Amanda: right but what kind of research?

Alex: scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy of a gradient-doped sample of gallium manganese arsenide

Amanda: this is why I adore you sometimes

Alex: that’s what i like to hear

(photo via aba*boy’s flickr)

P: “…well it’s just like why go see them without Dan Bejar and Neko Ca–..”

A: “But c’mon, that keyboardist is good!”

P: “Well of course she is, but…” 

A: “Yeah, Kath… ryn?”  (Embarrassed to know this.)

P: “Yeah, Cal… der, but that’s beside the point.” (Embarrassed to know this, further.)

Brief nervous laughter, silent acknowledgement that we are both insufferable, I turn away.