Since U Been Gone

I finally had a chance to check out that MP3 of Ted Leo covering "Since U Been Gone" that's been bouncing around the internet for the past few weeks, and it is unspeakably awesome. His falsetto has rarely been put to better use.

Discarded Landscape

Holy fuck, go see Discarded Landscape at the PAC/edge Festival while you still can. It runs tomorrow at 3:30, and the next two weekends (Saturdays at 8, Sundays at 3:30) at the Athenaeum. Tickets are $15. Prepare to be deeply moved.

Et Voila

Ask, and ye shall etc., etc. Downloads from their forthcoming album are now available on the Doveman web site. (Contrary to my previous, erroneous, assumption, other MP3s had been already been available there, but buried at the bottom of the main Doveman page.) I'm happy to report that the tunes, "Honey" and "Teacup," are almost better than they have a right to be. The vocals aren't doing anything for me (and I swear it's not just because I had my mind set on hating them!), but the melodies are lovely and the instrumentation is sexy, woozy, lush, yet restrained. I'm (reservedly) impressed.

And, for those of you keeping score at home, Picaresque is everything I hoped it would be. I can't say enough about Meloy's talents as a songwriter, and this album captures the band in stunning form. Rachel Blumberg is a force to be reckoned with on drums; I'm sad this is her final album with the group. At the risk of just gushing and going into ecstasies before I'm really ready to give up my initial, visceral, emotional attachment to this batch of songs and get all cerebral about it, I feel like I can safely say that this album is remarkable for the way it's united by narrative moments where the powerless become powerful, the powerful become powerless, or the nexus of the two. Fans of Shockheaded Peter and the Lemony Snicket books will find much to love in the nine-minute epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song"; fans of Hedwig and the Angry Inch should find that familiar lump-in-the-throat feeling anew in "On the Bus Mall"; fans of Belle and Sebastian's classic "Stars of Track and Field" will find an heir to it in "The Sporting Life." As for me, my current favorite song is "The Engine Driver," which we had the great good fortune to hear Colin play solo back in January. That's all I'm giving you for now, kittens. Like I said, I still need to protect my feelings about it for a little while.

Your Life Remains Yours

A poem from Oblivio.

ArtPad

Oh, holy crap, have you SEEN this web site? Behold the Art.com ArtPad! It is unspeakably awesome and irritatingly addictive. I'm really glad my computer at work isn't speedy enough to run the higher version of Flash required to use the site or else I'd be staring down the barrel of a new favorite time-waster. Thanks to BAK for turning me on to it.

Here's some art I made tonight:

* Interpol concert (that one's for you, Mac)

* Dill (that one's for you, LBL[A])

* Chicago in March (that one's for you, Nora Rocket)

Gear Theft

In an unfortunate coincidence, right after I finally got around to purchasing tickets for the Decemberists' show at the Metro on April 7, all their gear got stolen. (This was reported on both the Decemberists' site and on Pitchfork.) Though the trailer itself was soon recovered and none of the tour dates (except for Vancouver) have been cancelled, all their gear is still missing. We're talking hurdy-gurdies and gorgeous French accordions and shit. Needless to say, this sucks. You can donate money to help the band begin to replace some of this stuff. At the very least, you should go out and buy their new album Picaresque on its release date tomorrow. (You should've been planning on it anyway, dear readers!)

Got 'Em

I bought the damn tickets last night.

29 Thoughts

The "29 Thoughts on the Apparent Sexiness of" column on Nerve still cracks me up. (I wonder how long that will last.) This week: 29 Thoughts on the Absolute, Categorical Unsexiness of the Michael Jackson Trial. Number eight, perhaps predictably, made me laugh out loud; number twelve earned a low-octave snort/guffaw thing. Enjoy.

Annoyed/Not Annoyed

Annoyed at the snow. Annoyed at the black-and-white checkered parachute pants I see all the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago students wearing when they get off the train with me at the Chicago brown line stop in the morning. (Ugh, it's even worse when they're rolling their little wheelie bags full of KNIVES.) Annoyed to find out that Wes Anderson is directing commercials for Dasani bottled water (link via You Can't Make It Up). Annoyed at the misuse and abuse of the word "empowering". Annoyed at myself that I still haven't found time to haul my ass up to the Metro to get Decemberists concert tickets (sorry M&M and CTA).

But. I am not annoyed at this very funny McSweeney's list. I am also not annoyed that I'll be flying to Virginia tomorrow. Also not annoyed that this book finally went to the printer yesterday. Very not annoyed at my new favorite lipstick (color="Flame").

Easter 1982

"Gimme some gah-damn PUDDING! (And change my diaper.)" 

BAK and I found this in the Chicago red line station on Tuesday night. Though completely sober, we laughed so hard we cried. It's just too beautiful. She felt bad taking it, but I warned her that the worst thing about me taking it would be that I'd be sure to surprise her with it again when she's least expecting it in an effort to make her pee her pants. Mission, hopefully, accomplished.

(I also plan on submitting it to Found Magazine.)

Proselytizing Buffy

For those of you who've always entertained the idea of getting into Buffy the Vampire Slayer but have been too overwhelmed by the idea of jumping headlong into seven seasons' worth of DVDs without knowing quite what you're getting yourself into (or just what the big deal is), and for those of you who are already rabid fans but have been trying for ages to convert that one stubborn friend (who you just know would love the show) without a convincing way to ease him/her into the time commitment it necessarily requires, a friend of a friend has devised a brilliant primer to meet your needs. From the eminent Steve Maxey:

I'm trying to make a new Buffy fan here at work.

Joanne said she was never interested in Buffy for the same reasons she was never interested in Star Trek. I said it was in some ways more like Twin Peaks (which she liked) than Star Trek--story arcs that take up the entire season, characters living both in a real world we recognize and a shadow world, and a visual style.

I talked her into trying a four- or five-episode arc.

So this morning I gave her the Season 2 box with this note of instruction:

---------------
Buffy: The Buffy-Angelus chapter

A five-episode arc (with an optional sixth)

* Surprise (episode 13; disc 4, ep 1)
* Innocence (episode 14; disc 4, ep 2)
* Passion (episode 17; disc 5, ep 1)
* (optional) I Only Have Eyes for You (episode 19; disc 5,
ep 3)
* Becoming, part 1 (episode 21, disc 6, ep 1)
* Becoming, part 2 (episode 22, disc 6, ep 2)

Backstory: The relationships between Buffy and Angel and between Giles and Jenny have been developing slowly over the past two years. Everything else you need to know is revealed in the first 10 minutes of "Surprise."

"To me, Buffy was a real girl. These were metaphors for real demons. This was about how, in high school, the demons of high school literally become these monsters." --Sarah Michelle Gellar
---------------

[SPOILER ALERT!] This is the Buffy-birthday, Angel turns evil, the Scoobies kill the Judge, Angel stalks Buffy and kills Jenny Calendar, Angel becomes a vampire flashback, Angel is saved and Buffy has to kill him storyline (the optional ep is where they're possessed by the ghosts of the teacher and student lovers). It's great soap opera, Harlan Ellison's "human heart in conflict with itself" definition of drama, and the arc that converted me from liking the series to being a "true fan."

Use as directed. Thank us later.

(As always, mad props to GH for passing this along and for keeping the fire burning!! And, for the record, the optional "I Only Have Eyes for You" episode is one of my personal favorites evuh.)

Linkin' You Up with Love

My boy Pimp Ninja brings the love. (He and I go back so far we knew each other before we knew each other, if you catch my drift.) Take heed, kittens, take heed. This man went out to the em-effing desert to find this truth and bring it back for you.

Dork/Dick

A sharp essay on cinema's recent embrace of the male equivalent of the virgin/whore complex: Dorks vs. Dicks (as exemplified by Ben Stiller and Jude Law).

First Ever Sports-Related Post (Kinda)

Of all the celebrities featured in Reebok's new "I Am What I Am" campaign, they ask Roddick to hide his face?

Who the hell's running that ad agency? Certainly not me or Dan Savage.

Formerly known around 1945 W. Chicago Avenue as "that tennis kid," Roddick--peeping out at me from behind his fingers on El platforms all along the length of the brown line--brightens my morning commute like no one has since that hot red haired chick in the Secret deodorant ad. (What was her secret? Something lame about putting on a fake accent when she goes to parties? So lame, so hot.)

(Image--respectfully!--borrowed from USA Today.)

It's All Right

Ted Leo chanting "it's all right, it's all right, it's all right" at the end of "Little Dawn" is one of the most profound and emotional artistic statements of 2004. Why has it gone unacknowledged? It knocks me out every time I listen to it.