secret comics

the total foxes... really quite a nice tune!  and there's more where that came from.  god i'll do anything to avoid work...

so they're playing friday at the flamingo cantina.  bad news bears though, the missing tapes are playing at the hole in the wall the same night - a close examination of schedules reveals that you could go see the missing tapes and then speed over to the total foxes and maybe see both.  be safe if that's the way you decide to go, you know, 'cause speed kills.

what a sweet post...

puma californias are apparently gone... insert picture of my old californias here.  mine are slightly worn and i'd like to keep them around for a while.  and so...

this weekend i tried out "the suede".  no good.  felt a little unstable, you know?  i ended up going with the roma, as made famous by billy bonka.  now you know.  i really wish they would bring back the californias.  but i enjoy worrying about what sneakers to wear.  only in north america.  ok, not really.

also - sven points out quite adroitly: daniel johnston is scheduled to play friday april 7th with glass eye at room 710.  this is... very exciting.  a little surprising, but looks like he's playing in london a week later, so (as improbable as it seemed at first - he was pretty sick fairly recently) it looks like it'll happen.

for the sake of doing it

so yeah, the deodorant i used to like is now being sold as a women's deodorant.  officially.  they changed up the packaging and whatnot, but it's now labeled "for women".  that spelled labelled, is it?  kill me now.

there may or may not be a detailed weekend recap.  fivehead and the missing tapes were... magic.  really, fivehead were fucking fantastic.  the missing tapes were great as well.  i liked zookeeper.  i really liked +/-.  and subset play this friday at the hole in the wall.  i would say you should go but no one listens.  so you've all got blood on your hands.  good luck with that.

and so:

the new i love you but i've chosen darkness record is great.  more closer than unknown pleasures i think.  with a some disintegration in the mix, which i enjoy.  i'll put up an mp3 that you can also get at the secretly canadian site: "according to plan".

ilybicd will be playing sxsw but i will not be attending the show.  stupid having a job.  actually, it's not stupid.  but it does kind of suck to be old.  i will, however, be attending the porchlight pop fest on during the day/early evening saturday the 18th @ mother egan's - the missing tapes!  fivehead!  and "other" bands!  playing short sets!  fivehead go on last so maybe they will play a little longer.  keep your fingers crossed.

one of few good things i've done lately

from the beatings recent show in austin, 2/21/06.

decided to move away from using the digital camera and back to analog, w/ some mixed results.  i got a couple of ok pictures.  i had to get used to using my flash properly. or optimally, i guess.  it never really happened.  shame i was doing all of this at the beatings show, would have been nice to have had some test rolls to get my water wings back.  but damn it's expensive and time consuming when you're not processing you're own stuff.

i'm feeling that digicams are a mixed bag.  i already have a few 35mm cameras i like.  with a little time and dedication i can keep doing more things i like with them, but digicams are just so much easier.  no more paying for processing and film, plus way more immediate quality control, all those types of things.  of course, i would have to invest a good deal in a decent digital slr, which is daunting.  but to keeping doing what i'm doing with the 35mm is a slow bleed of $20+ a roll (film + processing + prints + a cd if i want it) which makes me less willing to go out and take a bunch of pictures and experiment and see things better.  maybe i'll just embrace what looks like the inevitable wave of snapshots and start looking at reasonable digital slrs.

tom has request a little tourney pick-'em tutorial.  metal the tout?  maybe.  i'll be working on some stone cold locks of the week, but until then:

• don't pick with your heart
• do a little research
• don't get enamored with pac-10 teams
• duke will do well but not that well
• be judicious with the 5-12 upset deal
• things settle down after the first weekend so don't get cute
• pray for dumb luck

anything more than that... well, that's pretty much what i got. you're engaging in a marginally educated best guess contest.  play it safe but not too safe and hope for the best.  good decision making (safe but not too safe) will set you apart from the majority of the folks who way overthink their brackets or fill 'em out at random.  duh.  if you've got some sort of algorithm or something, good luck with that.

question: is being there overrated?  a few nights ago was my fist time to see it and i have some some thoughts.

• point: of course peter sellers gives an amazing performance.  no issue there, but...
• point: there are an awful lot of important narratological points requiring heavy suspension of disbelief.  the car accident springs to mind.  sorry, but it seemed kind of forced, you know?  others examples are certainly there - lots of folks behaving in strange, primarily plot-forwarding ways.
• point: following up the preceding point, does this reliance on suspension of disbelief undercut being there's effectiveness as satire?  i think... maybe.   could be the satire was a little too subtle for me.  it's thrust (as satire) was pretty bleak so maybe it worked and i just disliked it, à la crimes and misdemeanors (assuming that worked as satire).  but the elements of absurdity and magical realism made so much more sense to me as a focus for the film - they certainly were touched upon, and addressed explicitly albeit cryptically in the final scene, but in the aggregate certainly underutilized.  especially in light of the mystic/spiritual imagery of the final scene (chance as jesus-figure), which i don't think i am too far off in thinking is meant to offer a final (still veiled) key to nature of chance's identity.
• of course there was much to enjoy about the film.  the final scene.  the bedside scene where the old man discusses what chance has meant to him with his doctor, and his doctor's response.  the elevator scene ("that was a very small room").  and on and on.

ha ha ha

i'll still read, but boing boing sucks.  well, i'll scan the feed anyway.  i find it less and less interesting almost on an hourly basis.  anagram subway maps?  outstanding.

rabbit rabbit

before i forget -- the top two divisions of songs from tonight's wedding present show:

1st division:

1. don't talk just kiss


2. ringway to seatac


3. brassneck

2nd division:

1. nobody's twisting your arm


2. suck


3. a million miles

also brilliant: blue eyes, crushed, and loveslave, off the top of my head.

i pointed out to david gedge that texas was the actually the second biggest state, behind alaska. he was complaining about us being such a big (he originally said the biggest) state yet with such small towels. so it was nice to chat. he then quizzed the crowd about the easternmost u.s. state -- of course they took the bait and yelled back maine, but the answer is alaska which is partially east of the prime meridian. i thought it was maine, but that's just me.

ah, what a lovely evening.