ach. late-night television today (in which i am indulging unrepentantly--it has been a long day, and tomorrow will likely be longer. which sort of begs the question of why i am not sleeping right now, but whatevs.) has hit my nerd-comedian button. first bob saget, and now patton oswalt. i am now confident enough as a woman to admit that i have always sort of had a crush on that guy, even though he sort of looks like a troll with special needs. sort of. while he is such a sci-fi nerd, he is also extremely literate and bullshit-intolerant and it gets me sometimes. can't lie to you.
anyway:
1. today, while lunching on salmon and field greens, i saw this woman speak about this book at the union league club. pretty damn fascinating. co-sponsored by my board members/pals at the lawyers' committee for better housing. sidenote #1: she looks about 10 years younger than ALL those photos. four kids what? sidenote #2: i am shitty at "networking" even when i try. no one from the board was especially committing to a table, except for those who already had predetermined sidley/jenner seats. so i thought i'd be bold and just sit down somewhere. namely, at the one table--at a talk about the supreme court, about 20 feet away from the northern district courthouse--without any damn lawyers. GO ME. oh well, i had some interesting conversations, and who knows? six degrees, butterfly in thailand, etc. etc.
2. this weekend, i did go ahead and attend the cal robbins/j.robbins benefit concert. good times. the life and times = awesome. i always loved shiner, but TLAT is just so majestic. like, if there were some sort of indie rock venn diagram service, and if more people actually heard of them, i suspect there would be a relatively high degree of congruence between "shiner haters" and "TLAT fanatics." continuing a positive trend from when i saw them last fall, they did NOT fuck up "skateland" (it's like, i know you've played it a jillion times on tour, but when a song obviously wants to go a certain way, you should go with it). rapture + headbanging. in a nod to the reason for the concert, they covered "green glass"--flawlessly--and i teared up. on the floor of the empty bottle, swear to god. "for your own special sweetheart" ruled my high school years and it's on my ipod, three years later. (HA.) although i would submit that the full-length from robbins-and-fam's current project, channels, is among his best work. i listened to "little empires" maybe 4 times today. the songs are sharp, as are the lyrics. whereas the thermals (whose album is still rocking my world, and my running regimen) take our current governance not-as-far-as-i'd-be-comfortable-with to its logical endpoint with impressionistic, queasy (and brilliant) lyrics, the channels album is sublter, yet more immediate, all late-stage capitalism, halliburton contracts, and commuter trains. (ed. note--i just realized this is not the first time i have compared both bands side by side. i guess because they're both so relevant and deserving. as is jennifer o'c. still and forever.)
the rest of the bands (except red-eyed legends, who i'm sad i missed: chris thompson = punk rock por vida) i'd always meant to check out, but mostly never have; i now know i've been missing out. yay chicago. it was a random evening. in contrast to my experience at the union club, i somehow found the one cluster of lawyers at the fucking empty bottle. somehow i doubt that it helped my job search, though. also, i won a subscription to time out: chicago, which makes total sense since i get it for free anyway. and also some coffee mugs. and also some time out: london guides which are total travel porn, since i don't see myself getting there anytime in the near future. a guy standing next to me got the pretenders box set; guess i should have turned up the feminine wiles a notch.
3. also, be swift! there is new andrew bird music! on the internet! here and here (and there was also something on you ain't no picasso, which lapsed.) it's shaping up to be a good one. (the pitchfork link seems weird; just google the relevant terms if you're having trouble.)
otherwise, it's been busy yet uneventful. well, relatively busy: i've also seemed to require and devour way more sleep than usual. it's how i stay so beautiful.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
and we'll collect the moments one by one
another thing i forgot to mention which added to the relative tranquillity of last tuesday (which is becoming more distant with each passing second--hi, school! hey there, work! job search, what's up?): on my way home, the busker at jackson blue line stop was playing "mushaboom." i didn't pick up on it straightaway, because of all the surrounding noise, and because that just wasn't a song i was expecting to hear from a lanky black guy at jackson el. but it clicked, and i smiled, and the busker smiled, and i got to enjoy his more languid, bluesy take on the song for about 45 seconds before my train came in. it was nice. no joke. guess that means it's already part of the pop canon; you'll get no argument from me.
and back in real time: i'm trying to read my assignment for my "corporations" class and i just can't hack it. truly the most boring thing i've ever read, and there have been many contenders. if you want to feel what i feel, revisit your least favorite textbook from high school or college. then punch yourself in the face.
and back in real time: i'm trying to read my assignment for my "corporations" class and i just can't hack it. truly the most boring thing i've ever read, and there have been many contenders. if you want to feel what i feel, revisit your least favorite textbook from high school or college. then punch yourself in the face.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
happy january 17!
today was pretty good as far as first days of your last semester of law school go, i suppose. cold and sunny with snow on the ground (i.e., perfect). a run, a class (albeit one containing nearly every person i studiously try to avoid these days...), chicken with tomatoes and acorn squash, a glass of malbec. "boston legal." watched the genteel jim lehrer politely but relentlessly call out our commander in chief. who actually came off as fairly articulate for a while there. i mean, he was spewing nine kinds of bullshit, but it was fairly articulate. it's sad: i initially wasn't sure whether that gave me some small sense of relief, or just made me angrier. until he made the comment about the "cracked egg," which precipitated the inevitable spiral into his usual frat-boy, dry-drunk, pseudo-folksy nonsense. until he talked about sending "21,000 more kids" to iraq while flashing that goddamn smirk. until he conceded that he had "considered" bringing back the draft. until he admitted that there was "no timetable" for this whole fiasco. then my blood went cold.
recently returned from new orleans, which kind of blew my mind. rather than write here, i will email some of you about it, since it's important and i'm never exactly sure who reads this thing. in the meantime, there's flickr to tell the story.
thanks to everyone who made the birthday so lovely.
personal to poorani and trevor and lauren: the new sloan album is GOOD. i have been burned in recent years, but this is a total return to form. way better than a 30-song sloan album in 2007 has any right to be. they are using piano again!
hey, chicagoans: what are you doing on the 27th (other than an anti-surge protest, maybe?)? remember how i wrote about wee cal robbins? well, a fundraiser has been coordinated, involving some of the most interesting talent in chicago as well as good-hearted, stalwart kansas citians the life and times(!). peep the raffle items too. i am so gunning for the stop smiling subscription. i have become a fan in recent months, but the latest issue prefigures my slavish devotion from here on out. devoured it on my various flights last week. aside from the obligatory cat power feature (pretty interesting actually), there were interviews with: superwriter joan didion, the editor of the new yorker, the executive director of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, and the rza, addressing issues as disparate as bobby fischer (and why he was exiled), mythology, and oliver north:
"i ain't going to talk to you about politics, but look at oliver north. delivering drugs and guns and guerilla warfare material to other countries, right? comes back, steals the money--him and reagan split the cheese--and he gets busted for this shit. oliver north got busted, caught, gotcha. now this nigga's on tv every day. "war stories with oliver north" [on fox news]. he's a fucking criminal."
elemental perhaps, but you couldn't get an observation like that out of 95 percent of my law school peers. WU-TANG.
recently returned from new orleans, which kind of blew my mind. rather than write here, i will email some of you about it, since it's important and i'm never exactly sure who reads this thing. in the meantime, there's flickr to tell the story.
thanks to everyone who made the birthday so lovely.
personal to poorani and trevor and lauren: the new sloan album is GOOD. i have been burned in recent years, but this is a total return to form. way better than a 30-song sloan album in 2007 has any right to be. they are using piano again!
hey, chicagoans: what are you doing on the 27th (other than an anti-surge protest, maybe?)? remember how i wrote about wee cal robbins? well, a fundraiser has been coordinated, involving some of the most interesting talent in chicago as well as good-hearted, stalwart kansas citians the life and times(!). peep the raffle items too. i am so gunning for the stop smiling subscription. i have become a fan in recent months, but the latest issue prefigures my slavish devotion from here on out. devoured it on my various flights last week. aside from the obligatory cat power feature (pretty interesting actually), there were interviews with: superwriter joan didion, the editor of the new yorker, the executive director of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, and the rza, addressing issues as disparate as bobby fischer (and why he was exiled), mythology, and oliver north:
"i ain't going to talk to you about politics, but look at oliver north. delivering drugs and guns and guerilla warfare material to other countries, right? comes back, steals the money--him and reagan split the cheese--and he gets busted for this shit. oliver north got busted, caught, gotcha. now this nigga's on tv every day. "war stories with oliver north" [on fox news]. he's a fucking criminal."
elemental perhaps, but you couldn't get an observation like that out of 95 percent of my law school peers. WU-TANG.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
slow hello to 2007
wow, tonight was one of those lost nights, willful, almost forced, procrastination in the face of all the things i ought to do, people i should call. but work today was perpetual motion, and refreshingly un-ADD, so i guess every yin has its yang. thank god parish called, reminding me that i ought to get some sort of handle on whatever the fuck i will be doing in new orleans in, um, 4 days or so. of course, updating my damn blog at 1 am is probably the last thing i need to be doing, but it's already the 2nd (well, 3rd) and the geek in me just couldn't stand it any longer. i don't even have the tolerance to read that many year-end lists any more but i'll be damned if i can resist the urge to make them. i'm just wired that way.
so first, the records and stuff, based primarily on what i listened to the most.
varsity:
* jennifer o'connor, "over the mountain, across the valley..."--i defy anyone i know to dislike this record. no relation. i wish.
* mission of burma, "the obliterati."--more vital than ever. maybe even their best. clint conley is almost as old as my dad, but he can eat crackers in my bed any day. ahem.
* portastatic, "be still please"--a grower, but perhaps the best yet? touching, rocking, delicate, honest, and angry.
* neko case, "fox confessor brings the flood"--singular and gorgeous.
* the thermals, "the body, the blood, the machine"--i've always dug them, and felt that hutch harris's turns of phrase were overlooked (when he wasn't being totally dumb, of course), but it's like their first two records never existed. giant leap forward on every level. i know that a punk rock sorta-concept record about a future american theocracy sounds pretty bad on paper, but BELIEVE IT.
jv:
* the blow, "paper television"--club bangers for introverts. could almost have fallen prey to cloying twee navel-gazing, but doesn't. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.
* the hold steady, "boys and girls in america"--i can understand why people don't like 'em, but well, i do.
* tv on the radio, "return to cookie mountain"--i know, how cliche, right? except that it really is that impressive. the first 6 or 7 songs at least. wounded and sharp.
* the plastic constellations, "crusades"--unlikely faves, perhaps, but i turn to this album all the time. it single-handedly got me through finals in may, and many a run since then. heavy as fuck, hooky as hell, and idealistic. that sounds horrible, but whatevs. trust me. even if you don't, you should still read their guitarist's blog, which has probably been the most consistently entertaining thing i've read all year: pureheartedwarriors.blogspot.com. you should start with the george wendt entry, but really, it's all pretty great. deftly uses irony without being "ironic."
* the phoenix, "it's never been like that"--another sort-of grower. different from their signature sound but somehow their strongest album in its consistency. i don't know what the fuck mr. sophia coppola is singing about, but the songs are so elegantly catchy. i agree with the last paragraph of what this guy says.
* girl talk, "night ripper"--fuck the backlashers, this is the funnest. any record that can sample x-ray spex, beyonce, elastica, biggie, sonic youth, the temptations and pavement in a coherent, danceable whole, has my heart. doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes, either.
* the pernice brothers, "live a little"--unlike most people, i liked the last record ok, and found this one a grower, teenage-fanclub-aping "somerville" aside. but i came around, and this might be their best. perfect melodies, literate lyrics that should be so pretentious but aren't. and even if they were, well, i think "grudge fuck (2006)" would equalize things.
* someone still loves you boris yeltsin, "broom"--under the radar fave, like a less jaded beulah. from columbia, missouri! fave song--"pangea"--continental drift as relationship metaphor? love it.
and not forgetting: tapes 'n' tapes, "the loon", camera obscura, "let's get out of this country" (minus the overly connie-francis-y songs), channels, "waiting for the next end of the world", sonic youth, "rather ripped", ghostface killah, "fishscale" (i know that comes off as "token hip-hop record for the white girl", but 1) i don't claim to be a hip-hop expert and 2) while i dig lupe and the clipse, et al., and while there is a great deal of art to be found therein, this one has had the most staying power), the evens, "get evens", the life and times, "the magician", 50 foot wave, "free music."
favorite songs/"singles":
* beyonce, "check on it"--is this from last year? whatevs, so loping and catchy. love the sputtering snare drum.
* ghostface killah--"shaky dog." whoa. so many narrative details, it's like an epic poem. i direct you to this guy, who actually managed to summarize it pretty well. (random side note: he's also done some hilariously snarky takedowns of this year's sadly sub-par season of "gilmore girls".)
* beck, "no complaints"--the album is more than uneven, but this might be his best song since "sea change." just basic.
* the blow, "parentheses"--if something in the deli aisle should make you cry, of course i'll put my arm around you and i'll walk you outside, through the sliding doors, why would i mind? see, it has me quoting lyrics like a 14-year old on livejournal, meaning it's a GOOD SONG.
* snow patrol, "eyes open"--i hate their ballads, like any self-respecting girl, but i can't hate this one. the riffage, the winsome, clever-enough, self-deprecating lyrics? i'm sold.
* neko case, "the needle has landed"--mournful and melodic, somewhere in-between girl-group and folk-rock. with heavenly background vocals. i'm a giant fan of visqueen, but, maybe "houston" aside, before this record, i would never have thought that rachel flotard could sound so spectral.
* tv on the radio, "i was a lover"--my nocturnal urban claustrophobic stress jam. you can imagine my suprise when i heard it on the radio in merriam, kansas. good on them.
best nostalgia records for indie fangirls--the lilys, flin flon, the delgados bbc sessions
album slept on last year that i am obsessed with now: the national, "alligator". seriously, we're all so inundated with data these days that great things get lost in the tide. i got this last year, but didn't "get it" until one day in november, at the coffee shop, when i should have been studying, when it hit me HARD. epic and bleak and funny and gorgeous.
band i am now embarrassed i had a boner for: human television
best shows:
* broken social scene at lollapallooza--magic. i won't say any more because it would just make you feel bad.
* the hold steady at the metro--i was happy, they were on, and sean na-na made ridiculous jokes and played "princess and the pony." what more could i ask?
* portastatic at schubas--electric. they played pretty much every song i would have wanted to hear, and that's a lot of songs. except "spying on the spies." fuck a john mayer. if somebody wrote a song like that about me, i would crumble.
non musically...
best meal: the all-day foodstravaganza in new york that began with dim sum (and a sesame/red bean ball, AND a scoop of almond cookie ice cream at "the chinatown ice cream factory,") and ended with korean food, and then failed to die with belgian pomme frites. i love you, jess. (in my defense, i had walked miles and was totally hormonal. and, um, it was all amazing.) close second (tie): vietmamese at the tank with christine; the funnel cakes at pitchforkfest
best store: target
best product at target: wine cube
best fruits: (tie) pluots and clementines
best evidence that america is going to hell: (tie) watching two girls in the space of five minutes take their fucking lap dogs into the bathroom while standing in line for the ladies' room at o'hare; my burrito-eating bet with schad
best times: NYC with lauren and jess (and loren and ben and tara and thomas and julie and ellis) , watching "curb your enthusiasm" with my tipsy mom, my KC friends' visit in may, any of the thursday night outings last spring, lollapalloza with kastrup and jen, any outing to piece with loren, the inexplicably successful three days of partying around halloween (EDIT: and at work after day two of said partying, when i was (again) inexplicably hyper and laughed more and harder then i ever have in my adult life, owing to schad and the incredibly crazy people i work with), south bend trip with the fam, getting hugged by john darnielle
i need to go to bed. i'm leaving out a ton of everything because, ultimately, despite some speed bumps, it was a GREAT YEAR.
but, oh! resolutions:
1. be more confrontational
2. psyche myself out less
3. procrastinate less
4. be a better friend
5. get my fucking refund from fucking united airlines
ha. that's it! happy new year, and i'd better see you on friday!
so first, the records and stuff, based primarily on what i listened to the most.
varsity:
* jennifer o'connor, "over the mountain, across the valley..."--i defy anyone i know to dislike this record. no relation. i wish.
* mission of burma, "the obliterati."--more vital than ever. maybe even their best. clint conley is almost as old as my dad, but he can eat crackers in my bed any day. ahem.
* portastatic, "be still please"--a grower, but perhaps the best yet? touching, rocking, delicate, honest, and angry.
* neko case, "fox confessor brings the flood"--singular and gorgeous.
* the thermals, "the body, the blood, the machine"--i've always dug them, and felt that hutch harris's turns of phrase were overlooked (when he wasn't being totally dumb, of course), but it's like their first two records never existed. giant leap forward on every level. i know that a punk rock sorta-concept record about a future american theocracy sounds pretty bad on paper, but BELIEVE IT.
jv:
* the blow, "paper television"--club bangers for introverts. could almost have fallen prey to cloying twee navel-gazing, but doesn't. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.
* the hold steady, "boys and girls in america"--i can understand why people don't like 'em, but well, i do.
* tv on the radio, "return to cookie mountain"--i know, how cliche, right? except that it really is that impressive. the first 6 or 7 songs at least. wounded and sharp.
* the plastic constellations, "crusades"--unlikely faves, perhaps, but i turn to this album all the time. it single-handedly got me through finals in may, and many a run since then. heavy as fuck, hooky as hell, and idealistic. that sounds horrible, but whatevs. trust me. even if you don't, you should still read their guitarist's blog, which has probably been the most consistently entertaining thing i've read all year: pureheartedwarriors.blogspot.com. you should start with the george wendt entry, but really, it's all pretty great. deftly uses irony without being "ironic."
* the phoenix, "it's never been like that"--another sort-of grower. different from their signature sound but somehow their strongest album in its consistency. i don't know what the fuck mr. sophia coppola is singing about, but the songs are so elegantly catchy. i agree with the last paragraph of what this guy says.
* girl talk, "night ripper"--fuck the backlashers, this is the funnest. any record that can sample x-ray spex, beyonce, elastica, biggie, sonic youth, the temptations and pavement in a coherent, danceable whole, has my heart. doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes, either.
* the pernice brothers, "live a little"--unlike most people, i liked the last record ok, and found this one a grower, teenage-fanclub-aping "somerville" aside. but i came around, and this might be their best. perfect melodies, literate lyrics that should be so pretentious but aren't. and even if they were, well, i think "grudge fuck (2006)" would equalize things.
* someone still loves you boris yeltsin, "broom"--under the radar fave, like a less jaded beulah. from columbia, missouri! fave song--"pangea"--continental drift as relationship metaphor? love it.
and not forgetting: tapes 'n' tapes, "the loon", camera obscura, "let's get out of this country" (minus the overly connie-francis-y songs), channels, "waiting for the next end of the world", sonic youth, "rather ripped", ghostface killah, "fishscale" (i know that comes off as "token hip-hop record for the white girl", but 1) i don't claim to be a hip-hop expert and 2) while i dig lupe and the clipse, et al., and while there is a great deal of art to be found therein, this one has had the most staying power), the evens, "get evens", the life and times, "the magician", 50 foot wave, "free music."
favorite songs/"singles":
* beyonce, "check on it"--is this from last year? whatevs, so loping and catchy. love the sputtering snare drum.
* ghostface killah--"shaky dog." whoa. so many narrative details, it's like an epic poem. i direct you to this guy, who actually managed to summarize it pretty well. (random side note: he's also done some hilariously snarky takedowns of this year's sadly sub-par season of "gilmore girls".)
* beck, "no complaints"--the album is more than uneven, but this might be his best song since "sea change." just basic.
* the blow, "parentheses"--if something in the deli aisle should make you cry, of course i'll put my arm around you and i'll walk you outside, through the sliding doors, why would i mind? see, it has me quoting lyrics like a 14-year old on livejournal, meaning it's a GOOD SONG.
* snow patrol, "eyes open"--i hate their ballads, like any self-respecting girl, but i can't hate this one. the riffage, the winsome, clever-enough, self-deprecating lyrics? i'm sold.
* neko case, "the needle has landed"--mournful and melodic, somewhere in-between girl-group and folk-rock. with heavenly background vocals. i'm a giant fan of visqueen, but, maybe "houston" aside, before this record, i would never have thought that rachel flotard could sound so spectral.
* tv on the radio, "i was a lover"--my nocturnal urban claustrophobic stress jam. you can imagine my suprise when i heard it on the radio in merriam, kansas. good on them.
best nostalgia records for indie fangirls--the lilys, flin flon, the delgados bbc sessions
album slept on last year that i am obsessed with now: the national, "alligator". seriously, we're all so inundated with data these days that great things get lost in the tide. i got this last year, but didn't "get it" until one day in november, at the coffee shop, when i should have been studying, when it hit me HARD. epic and bleak and funny and gorgeous.
band i am now embarrassed i had a boner for: human television
best shows:
* broken social scene at lollapallooza--magic. i won't say any more because it would just make you feel bad.
* the hold steady at the metro--i was happy, they were on, and sean na-na made ridiculous jokes and played "princess and the pony." what more could i ask?
* portastatic at schubas--electric. they played pretty much every song i would have wanted to hear, and that's a lot of songs. except "spying on the spies." fuck a john mayer. if somebody wrote a song like that about me, i would crumble.
non musically...
best meal: the all-day foodstravaganza in new york that began with dim sum (and a sesame/red bean ball, AND a scoop of almond cookie ice cream at "the chinatown ice cream factory,") and ended with korean food, and then failed to die with belgian pomme frites. i love you, jess. (in my defense, i had walked miles and was totally hormonal. and, um, it was all amazing.) close second (tie): vietmamese at the tank with christine; the funnel cakes at pitchforkfest
best store: target
best product at target: wine cube
best fruits: (tie) pluots and clementines
best evidence that america is going to hell: (tie) watching two girls in the space of five minutes take their fucking lap dogs into the bathroom while standing in line for the ladies' room at o'hare; my burrito-eating bet with schad
best times: NYC with lauren and jess (and loren and ben and tara and thomas and julie and ellis) , watching "curb your enthusiasm" with my tipsy mom, my KC friends' visit in may, any of the thursday night outings last spring, lollapalloza with kastrup and jen, any outing to piece with loren, the inexplicably successful three days of partying around halloween (EDIT: and at work after day two of said partying, when i was (again) inexplicably hyper and laughed more and harder then i ever have in my adult life, owing to schad and the incredibly crazy people i work with), south bend trip with the fam, getting hugged by john darnielle
i need to go to bed. i'm leaving out a ton of everything because, ultimately, despite some speed bumps, it was a GREAT YEAR.
but, oh! resolutions:
1. be more confrontational
2. psyche myself out less
3. procrastinate less
4. be a better friend
5. get my fucking refund from fucking united airlines
ha. that's it! happy new year, and i'd better see you on friday!
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