Twitter, Beastie Boys---Blog instead of Comment

I decided to blog instead of comment to Leslie's opus on her twitterized consciousness cos' I can get pretty wordy. I will probably contradict myself by getting bored with the topic and quitting after four sentences, but oh well.

I've also recently gotten into this Twitter thing. The only reason I did was cos my friend Jay Mohr was like "Facebook is played out, everyone's on Twitter anyway." He's on neither, but it sparked my interest. The only thing I remotely like about Facebook is posting nonsense statusii, so Twitter gives me "just tha yellas"*. I've had a few random people start "following" me, and I promptly blocked them, but for the most part it's alright. I follow Nightline's tweets b/c I am a super-nerd, and also have discovered through his tweets that ABC News' Dan Harris is an undercover indie rock enthusiast, which totally contradicts his stuffy poindexter on-air persona. Tho it makes me wonder if it's really him tweeting or some intern, secretly forwarding his own musical agenda whilst simultaneously making Dan Harris look like slightly less of a ding-dong. I will say, tho, if the news/media doesn't stop talking about Twitter and what it says about us and celebrities Twittering while they're on a talk-show couch & Diddy trying to influence my 140 characters I'm just going off it. There is no deep meaning.

In the summer of 1999 "Hello Nasty" WAS the best CD ever. Hench shared/shares (maybe still, not sure as we don't ride in the car together on the daily anymore) musical compulsion in that we'll just obsess over a cd or artist for like three months and not want to listen to anything else. There was a Weezer period (mostly Pinkerton), and of course a Ben Folds Five period, and a time for NOFX (as well as a general Fat Wreck fog). In more recent years I've fell into black holes named Kings of Leon, and definitely the White Stripes, M. Ward, and no matter how embarrasing, The Format.

**On some basketball bus trip in high school, my friend Kristy & I determined that yellow was the only worthwhile part of a candy-corn. We planned to launch our own candy-corn line called "Just tha yellas!" So, getting "just tha yellas" is taking only the best part of something. Dummies.

Lord of the Puppies

Things are kind of quiet at work today; I presume most non-essential personnel have already started their holiday. I decided to check out Puppy Cam this morning to break the monotony. To my horror, as Hench described before in a text message, the puppies had gone all LA riots on the Pee Pad. I took a series of screenshots to document this dark day in puppy history. Also; someone was pooping in picture #3.

My .15 Seconds of Internet Fame

I've been a fan of Cake Wrecks for a few months...and my Monday was instantly awesome when I discovered that a wreck I submitted---this lil wonder here from my local ACME supermarket, was actually featured today.

I agree with some commenters that it's not a total executional wreck, aside from the smudged eyes & bleeding smile---but it's the subject matter that's baffling. Who's looking for an ear of corn cake?

This guy doesn't look particularly harvesty...it might have made sense in say, July, when Jersey is bursting with this type of corn.

Current Events

I needed this.

I had to put my cat, who went by too many names to mention---I called her Ging, to sleep last night. She was 16 and pretty frickin' awesome. So, needless to say, I'm pretty bummed out, but my office-mate Heather sent me a link that has brightened my day.

Passive Aggressive Notes is a website showcasing "painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings from shared spaces the world over". I have always been a fan of signs; handwritten, computer-generated, industrial, from god, whatever.

I learned at the waterpark that if you have a sign, no matter how preposterous the concept, you are right. This may not be true, but it's one of those things that I came to believe at a young age, and therefore will never let go.

Also, I'm always intrigued when I come upon a random sign prohibiting a certain behavior, because it makes me wonder what had to happen for a sign to be made. I also feel a certain amount of pride when a sign is erected because of some foolish behavior of mine.

A big draw on Passive Aggressive Notes is office-related signs/memos/notes. I am totally guilty of crafting overly complex signs & notices for mundane things---and I don't care how annoying they are. I love making them! You'll never stop me!

The Fruity Mix

I'm killing two (or more, not sure yet) birds with one stone in this post. 1) I made a muxtape a few months ago after a tip from Brendan, and planned to yammer on here about it, and (2 I was driving home from work today, totally ADD-ing it up by skipping through songs lightning quick on the old iPod until I found one I'd like to sing.

The songs I usually want to sing are admittedly fruity. And, no, I don't mean "gay/homosexual" when I say fruity. Though, some of these songs are pretty gay. Take that however you want. Let me meander into a third bird, with a quick waterpark anecdote, to help explain.

A huge perk of working in the ticket booth at the waterpark was control of the music. We had a programmable six-disc changer ('member those?) that, if my boss/best friend's mom had her druthers, would play nothing but Boz Scaggs, Hall & Oates, and Jimmy Buffett non-stop. But we were precocious teenagers, and she tolerated our need to feel important, or interesting, or to curry favor with some hot lifeguard with a penchant for a particular Phish song.

One bright, shiny morning at the Jersey Shore, it was my turn to pick the music. There were only a few ground rules when it came to music at the waterpark. Not to loud, not too angry, definitely no curse words, and nothing that; should Jane (boss/friend's mom) be in a bad mood, would send her over the edge and sentence us to the locker booth for the rest of the summer.
That morning I thought I'd followed the rules, but I received life lesson/phone call from my manager, Katie, informing me that the "fruitiest song (she'd) ever heard" was playing and could I please change it immediately?

I remember the song, and though I liked it before this incident, I am still kind of embarrassed when it comes up on the iPod. It was "Accidentally Kelly Street" by Frente, and I have absolutely no defense for liking it. (Especially after I watched the first 25 seconds of the video I just linked.) It was this moment in time that I became self-conscious about my taste in music. For years after, I tried to craft my "public" musical tastes to whatever I thought made me look the coolest---Which is a totally fruity concept on it's own.

Anyway, a few years later, at that same waterpark, my bosses daughter & her friends were old enough to work, and had taken control of the music situation the same way Katie & I had before them. And they liked N*Sync. A lot. By the end of the summer, I'd gone Stockholm Syndrome, and believed that I also liked N*Sync a lot. When I returned to college that fall, I was in a record store with a friend, an english-department type, when "Just Got Paid" came on over the in-store. She was aghast that I was singing along, both shocked that I would know the words and be so bold as to let that fact be known in public. It was in this moment I let my fruit flag fly. I acknowledged that the song was indeed fruity, and I did indeed kind of love to sing it, but that doesn't cancel out all the "legitimately cool" music I like.

So yeah, here's my fruity mix. I'll try to keep the fruitiness rationale to a minimum, but will probably fail.

The Dismemberment Plan - The Ice of Boston : Mostly talk-singing, and at one point the protagonist impersonates his mom.

The Format - Dog Problems : I'm pretty sure they use a tuba in this song. Also, I imagine that this band would be the product if Rufus Wainwright & Ben Folds had a baby. Kind of over-dramatic, but definitely quirky. I love, love, love to sing this in the car.

The Bogmen - Suddenly : An oldie from DOX, a teeny-tiny radio station run out of a room over a guy (who I would come to work with as an adult)'s garage. The protagonist impersonates his girlfriend impersonating her roommate on the phone. Also mostly talk-singing and general silliness.

Material Issue - Going Through Your Purse : Another DOX gem. I actually always linked this song with "Suddenly" in my mind. Talk-singing. The lyrics are exactly what the title describes; a guy listing the things he found in his girlfriend's purse.

The Avalanches - Since I Left You: Creepy/haunting chorus floating amid a bouilliabase of sounds/music/talking. I'm not even sure this counts as a song, but I adore it.

Gomez - Cry On Demand: This song isn't all that fruity, actually. Besides the fact that the phrase "boo-hoo" features prominently in the chorus. Very fun to sing, though.

Mike Doughty - Real Love / It's Only Life: A remake of the song made famous by CeCe eniston in the early 90's. Some would find this provocative because it's a white guy playing an R&B/dance song on an acoustic guitar. I can't front: I loved this song in 7th grade. Also? I once had an AOL instant message conversation with Mike Doughty---someone on AOL's Soul Coughing message board posted Doughty's screenname, and I added him to my buddy list. Now, this is like, actual America Online, not AIM. Totally fruity.


Ween - Your Party : I'm pretty sure Ween meant for this song to be fruity with it's smooth saxophone stylings. Also, it's by Ween, whose only other song I know is called "Piss up a Rope", which cracks my shit up, and songs that are "funny" are automatically fruity as they are not serious musical compositions. Or something.

Animaniacs - Nations of the World: Besides being from a long, long defunct after-school cartoon that wasn't even that great in the first place (save for the They Might Be Giants stuff)...As a pre-teen I took this song as a challenge, and decided to memorize it. I had index cards and everything. I succeeded, and yes, I can still rattle off all the words, and yes, I understand how exponentially fruity that makes me.

Of Montreal - The Repudiated Immortals : There's not much I can pin down about this song as being particularly fruity, but this is precisely the kind of song that would cause Jane (waterpark boss) to make a face like she smelled a fart. I love this song to pieces because of all the doubling/tripling/whatevering of the vocals.

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Sherriff Fatman : Ridiculous/awesome band name. Talk-singing. References to things relevant to England in the 80's. Just the kind of song that gets you looks from cubicle passersby.

Iron Horse - Float On : Bluegrass version of the Modest Mouse song. Banjos involved. Heather and I like to sing real loud in the office.


So there you have it. I don't think I've made much sense, but this was fun.

Hench ate a pickle once

I was once again cruising the popular stuff on delicious and came across this site, which is basically a portal to run filters on your pictures. Yes, I can totally do this stuff in Photoshop without the help of a website, but as I was trying it out, I chose this photo of Hench from our January summit (the NYC leg) and I just like it. It looks like she should live in that Waking Life movie.

data can be fun

This new site from the makers of I Can Has Cheezburger? had me snickering today. Mostly the music ones; as the ones where people are just trying to be funny on their own (aside from the pee one) are usually lame. I may have done better than Math 097-098 if they'd used some kick-ass Venn diagrams like this one.

Via Gawker, I think.

Pancakes Yawns

I got some sweet new lamps for my bedroom, the kind that actually shed light, so that I may now take better pictures of my pets in bed. I was trying to take a normal picture of Pancakes, but he yawned instead. I am totally mesmerized and terrified of this picture. But mostly, I'm stumped for a good lolcats caption. Any suggestions?

lolCats

Apparently there's a phenomenon going on out there on the interwebs called lolCats .

From what I understand they're just pictures of cats with silly or absurd captions alluding to the cats' (or other animals) intentions or desires with amusing misspellings.


Good for a larf.

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Meme Cats

LOLcats2

(Links ganked from the Wikipedia entry on LOLcats.)