DOYOUFEELLOVED.com

Wednesday, October 31, 2001

So there's this website under development called Artbomb. It is apparently intended to be a hub through which non-comics readers can discover "the world of comic books and graphic novels." It will feature original content, including a collaboration between Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran. That sounds amazing. But I can almost guarantee you that it will fail in its mission, that it will not crack into the consciousness of those who don't read comics, and that it will become simply another genre site for comics fans. Which I get the feeling we really don't need.

I wish them lots of luck and I hope to God they prove me wrong. I know I'll check it out as soon as it opens, and if I'm mistaken then I will very publicly eat my words. But I just have a gut feeling that this one isn't gonna go places.

5:44 PM | e-mail |

Happy second blogday to Tom, whose weblog is quite simply the reason I blog now. Barbelith was the first weblog I ever read. And boy, did I enjoy it. I still do. Have a great one, Tom.

And a happy belated second blogday to Prol, who was equally, if not more, influential on my weblife. I already wrote to you, so you know the score. You're the best.

3:58 PM | e-mail |

Tuesday, October 30, 2001

I should be writing about the things I've been doing. But I'm not, am I? All I will say is that I made it to all four of my classes today, even the 9:30 AM one, despite the temptation of the wicked Z. I just beat dungeon four of the Dark World and hopefully I'll blow through the rest of the game now and move on to doing better things with my life. This really is sad. I've never been so wrapped up in a fucking video game, ever. And it had to come right at the moment when I seemed to have sprouted initiative, too.

Speaking of which, I may make some changes around here in the next couple of days. I'm sort of feeling that itch. Maybe not a redesign, but honestly, I don't know -- it's just a feeling...

9:09 PM | e-mail |

Monday, October 29, 2001

Well, fuck me dead. My roommate brought his Super Nintendo, and a bunch of games, back from home this weekend. That includes LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST. And to think, this was the week in which I'd resolved to go to all my classes.

4:13 PM | e-mail |

I have no words, ladies and gentlemen. The Olsen Twins will cover Weezer's "Island In The Sun" on the soundtrack to their new movie Holiday In The Sun. It would've been funnier, and I can even see it as teeny-bopper appropriate, if they'd done "Undone (The Sweater Song)." Or hey, maybe "Tired Of Sex."

Far be it from me to be an elitist bastard (cue uproarious laughter), but mabe it's time for another PINKERTON to flush the undesirables out of the fan club...?

1:41 PM | e-mail |

This is not the full-on long-winded post about my weekend that everyone's been waiting for, or perhaps dreading. Instead, I'm just going to express my joy that my Irish Dramatists professor did not show up for class once again, therefore giving me a stolen hour of freedom (This seems to keep happening on Monday mornings. Far be it from me to perpetuate the drunken-Irish stereotype, especially when he doesn't fit it at all, but I'm starting to think he hits the Guinness a bit too hard over the weekend... ;-D). I'm eating the lunch I never thought I'd get (roast beef and provolone on herb foccaccia) and blissfully killing some time before setting off for my Literary Interpretation class on the other side of friggin' town. Well, OK, so it's at Bowery and West 4th. But that's kind of far away. It's more avenue blocks than I feel like walking right now, especially without clean socks.

In the stairs on my way to my aborted class, I ran into my writing workshop teacher from last year, Blagovesta. She's a crazy lady, and I rather like her. Need to drop her an e-mail sometime.

That's that for now; I'm not chewing into my break time to entertain the faceless hordes. Though I will say that I've done something interesting to my head, and pictures should be forthcoming.

1:16 PM | e-mail |

Sunday, October 28, 2001

Here's the U2log review of tonight's (well, Saturday's) show, and I'll get around to writing more here later, hopefully including some discussion of other things I've done in the last few days of radio silence. Rockin'.

12:23 AM | e-mail |

Thursday, October 25, 2001

All right. I've got something else I should be doing, so I'm doing this instead. Now, the full-on concert review.

First off: Garbage. Shirley Manson hacked off all of her hair and bleached it shockingly blonde, and strutted around stage in a wife-beater, thick suspenders, and black pants. It took the hair dye to do it, but she finally accomplished the androgyny she was seeking in the "Androgyny" video. From the cheap seats, you honestly couldn't tell if she was man or woman, but I guarantee you that everyone in the audience wanted to do her anyway. According to Bono later in the show, Butch Vig was still very sick -- they'd cancelled their opening slot in Baltimore a few days earlier -- but he dragged his carcass out to play for New York, and it certainly didn't seem to adversely affect his drumming. Bless his little heart. The crowd seemed to enjoy them and gave 'em a warm welcome and sendoff, which made me happy. I hate it when people are jerks to the opening act.

I COULD go track-by-track with their setlist, but I won't. Most of the songs ended up sounding pretty similar live anyway, sad to say, though they were still fun to watch and listen to. I'm not absolutely positive that the middle four songs are in order, but:

Push It
Special
I Think I'm Paranoid
Androgyny
Drive You Home
#1 Crush (Wooo!)
Stupid Girl
Til The Day That I Die
Only Happy When It Rains
Cherry Lips (Go, Baby, Go!)

They were done around 8:45 or 8:50. The interstitial music came back on, but at about ten after nine The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" came up in the mix. The crowd knew what that meant and FREAKED OUT (they'd already been singing along), and sure enough, as soon as "Pepper's" was done the Influx Remix of "Elevation" floated in, the heart started pogoing frantically, and the band walked out to usual deafening applause. Bono squatted at the front of the stage, crossed himself, and off we go into --

"Elevation" -- of course magnificent. Possibly my favorite concert opening ever. The entire arena was howling the WOO-HOO!s without a bum note (although it merits mentioning that the poor bastard next to me was off-tune and off-key through the first five songs, after which he figured it out and stopped singing, mercifully). Sadly no inclusion of Radiohead's "Creep" after the middle eight during the guitar-crunch (a la Irving Plaza and Miami), but the lighting effect was magnificent. That was the thing about seeing the show from the heart in Miami -- I practically could've sworn the house lights were on the whole time. You can't see the spectacle and damn, it's impressive.
"Beautiful Day" -- the crowd went crazy; I don't think most people expected them to go right into it. Worked just as well as usual. Hard to dick this one up, really.
"Until The End Of The World" -- only about half the crowd knew it, I think, but everyone loved it anyway. Fucking magnificent strobe effect around the edges of the heart, and the usual Bono-Edge duel at the tip. The two charge each other while Edge unleashes the finale and enact a mock-bullfight, before Edge "knocks" Bono down as the song closes. Then Bono starts kicking the guitar and making unbelievable feedback sounds. It's impressive.
"New Year's Day" -- Again, crowd went even MORE nuts. Heard a lot of "Oh SHIT"s from all around me. This was the first time that it became obvious Bono's voice wasn't going to be in full form, but you couldn't hear him over the crowd anyway.
"Out Of Control" -- Their first single, recognized by more people than I expected. Bono was clearly not singing the actual lyrics but again, he was barely audible for this one too. In the middle, Bono gave a short speech about it -- "Four callow youth come to New York City with their first single... megalomania started at an early age with these boys... and before you know it, they're OUT OF CONTROOOOOOOOLLL..." and back in for the finale, which through some impressive drumming lead directly into --
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" -- I'm getting tired of saying "The crowd went nuts," so assume it unless I specify otherwise. No explicit recasting of it for September 11th, thank God -- I couldn't handle "Tuesday Bloody Tuesday," which is honestly the kind of schmaltz one must halfway expect from Bono. As the song ended, Bono delivered a speech about the disarmament of the IRA: "For the first time, I am cheering the men of the IRA." He talked about how happy he was that they had lived through the "dark times" in the 80s and still saw this happen. As he finished, the band struck into the song again, much like the false ending they normally play it with, but this time something was very different -- the pace was the same, but I think the bass may have been in a different, higher key, I couldn't tell. All I know is that all of a sudden it sounded much less ominous and much more celebratory. I don't know how that is -- maybe it's all context -- but it really did sound different; Len even leaned over and asked me "What song is this?" and was answered five seconds later by Bono's final shout of "Sunday bloody sunday."
"Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" -- was a little rough at the beginning of the tour, but works beautifully now. At the "I was unconscious half-asleep" bit, Bono pulled a shirtless young guy out of the crowd, who instantly embraced him in a bear-hug and didn't let go for something like thirty seconds. As the song wound down the cameras zoomed in to show the tattoos on the kid's back -- a Joshua Tree on his left shoulder blade and what looked like a part of the lyrics to "One" running down his spine, but I wasn't entirely certain. I've never seen a bigger, happier, dopier grin on anyone.
"Kite" -- Bono gave his usual "This is a song that I think my old man wrote for me" speech. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in this one live. It just seems a bit too lethargic, and they don't really blow it up into the epic it could be. As usual, Bono repeated the final verse solo-acoustic, throwing in a shout-out to Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, of all people, who I'm assuming was there in the audience -- "the last of the rock stars / when Sean P. drove the fast cars."
"Angel Of Harlem" -- fully electric, with Bono and Edge strolling the heart solo for the first verse before the bass and drums kicked in. At the end of the song Bono pulled a girl who was holding a sign up from the tip of the heart. Everyone figured it'd be another dancing thing, but boy, were they wrong. Bono, Edge, and the girl conversed briefly, then out came a roadie with a guitar as Bono proclaimed "America knows, it pays to advertise!" Edge and the girl -- identified at the end of the song as Ruth -- kicked into Bob Dylan's...
"Knockin' On Heaven's Door"... magnificently. Bono rose to the occasion, and his delivery was quite understated and rather enjoyable. Larry and Adam joined in after the first verse and the whole thing made the crowd collectively wet their pants, especially when Ruth was allowed to sing the final verse and proclaimed "New York City is the greatest city (mumble mumble mumble)," at which point she was drowned out entirely.
"Staring At The Sun" was next, Bono and Edge performing solo acoustic on the main stage. The initial reception wasn't rapturous, but by the end everyone in the crowd was singing along and lighters were a-flickering. I was just happy they played anything from POP, honestly, but I still hold out for the day when they summon up the balls to attempt it fully electric. Although I will admit the music and lyrics gel better in acoustic form; it's a depressing, nasty little song and the U2 big-anthem treatment doesn't necessarily fit it.
"Bad" -- I am convinced everyone in the crowd had an orgasm as soon as the keyboard loop came in. The roar was deafening. To be honest, I'd have just as soon not heard this one. It's a great fucking song, and they kick its ass live, but I've heard it before and I'd have loved to see them do one of their alternates for that song's slot, "All I Want Is You" or "Please." The worst part is, I'm missing the second show, which is when they normally play "All I Want...", so I'll probably get "Bad" again on Saturday -- "Please" seems unlikely if everything goes well in Ireland. Oh well. In any event, they thoroughly brought the house down with "Bad," the lighting effects are superb, and I do appreciate that it feels so much like a climax to the evening, when they ain't seen nothing yet. For of course, the next song is...
"Where The Streets Have No Name". Priceless. Opens with the red background screens a la RATTLE AND HUM, and has the greatest lighting effect I've ever seen in the kaleidoscoping whirly madness (it's hard to adequately describe). As usual, complete and utter fucking ecstasy.
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- to be honest, I'd forgotten they might play it. Wasn't really that impressive a performance, but it's such a good song that it sounds great anyway. Went straight in without a pause to...
"Pride (In The Name Of Love)", the end of the first set. Not one of my favorite U2 songs, actually, but God bless them they certainly sold it tonight, bringing back the "Let the King sing!" interlude, in which they play a snippet of MLK's famous "Promised Land" speech on the backing screens. After that, a few minutes of usual set/encore howling, clapping, screaming, etc. But I will admit that honestly, I started to feel uncomfortable when the crowd began chanting "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" -- because I knew which song was next. I also think that the video crew made a split-second decision. Some ghostly singing came onto the PA, but no excoriating video accompaniment -- instead, the band walked back onstage in almost silence and tore into...
"Bullet The Blue Sky"... which was, to be honest, awkward. That's a song that badly needs a focus, and tonight, it didn't have one. It's been a lot of things in its lifetime -- anti-nation-building, anti-Sarajevan violence, anti-handgun on previous legs of the Elevation tour, but tonight, there wasn't even an attempt to recast it in the light of the WTC attack. Which, honestly, was probably a good idea. Had Bono said anything even remotely damning or violence-related in the middle of a song that heavy, I'd have honestly feared for my life in a crowd that charged.
"What's Going On", however, did have that focus. As "Bullet" ended, Bono crouched at the tip of the heart and slowly sang the first two verses, accompanied only by Edge on ethereal guitar. Really very haunting and much more effective than I figured it would be. And then, of course...
"New York". The transparent opera screens come down behind the stage and project weirdly flickering skyscraper shadows of the band. It's an intoxicating effect that builds and builds throughout the song -- I want to shake Willie Williams' hand for this. Bono's altered lyrics never became the embarassment they could've been (although I'm not sure why he changed around the final verse to make less sense than it did before), the band played like a fucking monster, and everyone involved enjoyed it immensely. A girl in an I LOVE NY t-shirt made it up onto the heart, and Bono instantly grabbed her and started dancing with her, then picked her up and carried her around the stage honeymoon-style before swinging her around swing-dance style and spinning madly. It was classic. The band waved their goodbyes after this one, but the show clearly wasn't over as the house lights remained down. Of course, people were still leaving. How thick do you have to be?
"One" -- the band came back out and a visibly moved Bono began to speak again at length about the IRA, the New York tragedy, and the plight of Africa -- "We've seen what happens when one country, Afghanistan, is allowed to implode... imagine a whole continent." It was like 1987 all over again, and God bless him for it. I know I applauded. (Oh, by the way, DROP THE FUCKING DEBT ALREADY.) Then into "One" which became a massive singalong and was really quite moving. And they added the final verse over the climax, which makes my night -- "You hear us coming, love / You hear us call / You hear us knocking, knocking at your door / You hear me coming, love / You hear me call / Hear me scratching, will you make me crawl?"
"Peace On Earth" in its newly typical Bono & Edge / chiming electric form followed; the first verse (oddly enough, I think Bono forgot to add his newly hopeful "never" into the line "sick of hearing again and again that there's [never] gonna be peace on earth." He looked chagrined) forming a segue into "Walk On". Which was great (though not as good as the Tribute To Heroes version), especially with the backing "Hallelujahs" which I cynically disdained when I first heard about them, but instantly embraced when I finally heard them. And that was the end of the show.

Again, it's almost impossible for me to say which concert was better between Miami 03.24 and last night. I loved them both. Now get off my back, because I should be doing homework. ;-D

11:52 AM | e-mail |

What the fuck. So I tried this thing I found at Pie In The Sky -- you answer a bunch of questions and it tells you what bands you like. And boy, it got me wrong, wrong, wrong.

Red Hot Chili Peppers. They're just OK.
Abba. Ummmm...
Black Sabbath. I've heard about three of their songs.
Metallica. I don't like them much at all.
Tool. They bore the shit out of me.
Nirvana. Uninterested.
Paul Simon. He's OK.
Ben Folds Five. Actually bother me.
Radiohead. Rawk, finally hit one on the head.
Live. Eh.
Nine Inch Nails. Cool.
The Beatles. Don't know enough but like what I know.
Aerosmith. Kind of wish they were dead.
Dave Matthews Band. Ditto.
The Doors. Same with Beatles.
Eric Clapton. Don't really like at all.
Duran Duran. HA!
Pearl Jam. They're OK.
Jethro Tull. Have never heard anything by them and don't intend to.
Jimi Hendrix. Know almost nothing.
Pink Floyd. Like 'em enough.
Alice In Chains. I like "Again" and, umm, "Again."
Billy Joel. I love him.
Led Zeppelin. Yeah, whatever, I guess.
The Who. See, I like them a LOT, so I dunno what they're doing down here.

Of course it calls on you to make raging generalizations about instruments, song length, etc., various factors that never follow hard and fast "do it or don't" rules. Blargh. Internet tests are stupid, but I sure do keep doing them.

10:51 AM | e-mail |

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

I don't think I have the energy to blog about it again, so: here's my U2log post about the concert.

The one question I keep getting asked: Was it better than the Miami show? And honestly, I don't know. Being in the heart is such a visceral experience, it's impossible to consider it rationally. I will say I liked the Miami setlist better, but both shows had passion off the scale -- Miami the passion of a band desperate to prove itself to the world, New York the passion of four men desperate to give something back. Both ways it was intoxicating, and one can almost never fault U2's performance -- they really are one of the best bands in the world, and musically, they pretty much always nail it. With some exceptions, of course, but neither of these shows were one of them.

Did that make any sense? Probably not, I'm exhausted. And I do it all again Saturday.

11:58 PM | e-mail |

I HAVE TO DO WORK, but I'm going to say that this site shares its birthday with @U2, one of the best U2 fansites online. It turned six years old yesterday, and I congratulate them. I also thank them for transcribing this article about Bono from DETAILS, which is actually one of the best I've read in a long time. All right, now I really need to shut up and work.

11:09 AM | e-mail |

God, so much shit to link on the one day of the year when I stopped myself from blogging. Let's play catch-up!!!

Download the new Radiohead live EP, I MIGHT BE WRONG.
Magnificent ONION interview with Alan Moore, via Seething Hatred. It's really big and I actually couldn't get it all to load, but I'll pick up a print copy tonight.
Look at Subinev's pretty pictures. That first one's amazing.
I'm only 14% punk (so I'm a poser), but I am 41% geek. (They assure me that I do have friends, and "that's a good thing.") (Via Michele)

Tonight's the first of my two U2 concerts. This would be the one with the good opening act. Saturday night I get to see them again with one of my friends from Florida who I've not seen in a couple months, so that rules, but then, the opening act's shite.

I also have to write a thousand-word anthropology paper between 3:15 (the end of my last class) and 7:15 (when we'll probably leave for the show). I'm incredibly ill-prepared to do so, having missed the last four lectures. Ooooops. I'd better do this one, though, because I gave the last one a miss ("It's only 10% of my grade," I thought). I really, really suck.

10:50 AM | e-mail |

Monday, October 22, 2001

Happy blogday to me.

On October 23rd, 2000, NOT ENOUGH OF ME slouched towards Bethlehem to be born. It was a nasty, shitty little weblog. I wish I had a screenshot of the truly atrocious white, grey, black, and red design I cooked up in MSPaint, with rudimentary knowledge of HTML and (choke) Times New Roman font. I was listening to Bjork's SELMASONGS and reading Salman Rushdie's HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES, and I'd just seen DANCER IN THE DARK. Within a week The Shite Design had been replaced in favor of a slightly slicker layout (oooh... tables...), which gradually evolved into something halfway tolerable as the months rolled on. My weblogging career had begun.

Oh, glory days of Geocities and no Blogger. I don't know how I stayed sane. But the ironic thing is, obsessing over this farty little weblog kept me from tearing my hair out (what little of it there is) during my freshman year here at NYU. Because honestly, my only lasting accomplishment from that year is this blog. I was not doing so well personally, and I think my constant determination to learn HTML, to write any little blurb frequently, was all that kept me from sinking into depression. And so I'm eternally grateful to anyone who supported me -- from Tom and Meg, whose blogs I'd been reading and loving for many months (when Tom was Barbelith) before I started my own and who linked me on my first day out, to all my friends who started reading and writing to me about the nonsense I was dribbling. It really did mean a lot to be reaching out to people and communicating during that time. So I thank you. I'd also like to thank Caroline for all her amazing sites and her generous offer to join U2log, which I've enjoyed immensely despite my major (and continuous) fuckups; Michele for becoming an excellent friend; Mena for Serge Gainsbourg; Eddie for FUCK MTV!; and all the rest of you beautiful bastards who've supported and/or inspired me.

Anniversaries, even paltry ones like this, are always a good time to take stock of one's life. And a weblog anniversary is a good time to take stock of how one has presented one's life (Weblogs really are the performance of how you think your life should look; share that interesting experience here, provide that snippet of wit there, delete the embarassing typographical errors, et cetera). It's been pressing on me a lot lately, in both my personal and virtual lives, that there's one aspect of my person that I've never written about and that I've shared with only a few people. It's time to put an end to that.

At 9:00 PM last night I e-mailed my friends and told them that I'm gay. And now, I'm telling all of you.

Big fuckin' deal.

Honestly, this is not a tremendous event in my life. Well, I suppose it is. But it doesn't feel that way. I've known since I was thirteen, I never had any problem with it, and now, I have absolutely no problem with telling people, either. It uncomplicates my life to a tremendous degree to not constantly skirt the question of sexuality.

And I don't think it surprises anyone, either; least of all those who know me in real life. I'm far from flaming but I'm not exactly a butch-ass jock, either. And even here on my weblog -- how many times have I blogged about Kylie, people? If there's a more obvious red (pink?) flag I'd like to know about it.

Some people have known and some people haven't, in both my "real" and online lives. Nobody I've known has ever had a problem with it, and I know I don't. So as far as I'm concerned, it's practically a non-issue. I only have one regret: That my e-mail couldn't make it to all of my closer friends, and that some of them may learn by reading this as opposed to my more personal message. For instance, you -- the one who used to row boats and goes to school in the asshole of New England -- I didn't have your e-mail address at college. So I'm sorry that you probably had to read this fucking campfest instead of my (slightly) more dignified e-mail. (It's not like we're blood brothers or anything, but I would've liked to have included you.)

The first question I know you people will ask: No, I have not told my family, and no, they don't know about this website. Hopefully I'll tell them before the year is out, but it's going to be awkward. I think they'll take it well but I'm still not looking forward to the process.

All told, though, this is a weight off my chest.

So again: Happy blogday to me. Let's all party. Shake your ass in my honor today, and if you're moved to celebrate my words of wisdom by perusing my wishlist, I ain't gonna complain. You see, that's the glory of DO YOU FEEL LOVED: We can move from spiritual confession to materialistic whoring in the blink of a paragraphical eye. I'm mad unpredictable like that, and you know you fuckin' love it.

This will be the only post today. I've got a load of classes and work to do anyway, so it's best if I quarantine myself from the glorious waste of time this site represents. So why don't you check out the Archives -- perhaps you'll remind yourself why you keep coming back, or perhaps you'll realize I'm shite and delete your bookmark, but either way, you'll know me a bit better.

Thanks again for reading me for the last year, and I'll see you again (most) every day in the years to come.

Archives >>

11:11 PM | e-mail |

Sunday, October 21, 2001

MOTHER. FUCKER.

I just wrote an epic post about last night, and Blogger timed me out and lost the post when I tried to publish it. Like a fucking FOOL I hadn't copied it to my clipboard. JESUS SHIT.

This has happened at least a dozen times now. Look, I love Blogger to death and it's one of the best things that ever happened to me... but I am going to learn CGI and switch to Movable Type. It's just going to happen. I don't know when, but it's going to have to.

So: expect a delay in The Tale Of Last Night, because I do *not* have the patience to rewrite that bitch. And besides, I've got to pick up my laundry in ten minutes.

2:59 PM | e-mail |

Hey, cool -- I didn't know Jack's uncle is a reporter for NPR. Do a search for "John Burnett" and you'll turn up all his most recent articles, which are extremely interesting (they focus on the WTC attack and its aftermath -- detained Muslims, restaurant workers, etc.). Jack says his report tomorrow will be about being "the tallest American at a 'Death To America' rally in Pakistan." Eeeenteresting...

1:39 PM | e-mail |

Hey, I'm Michele's "Tried And True" site of the day! I'd make a pun on my site name, but then my readership would plummet drastically. She converted to Greymatter last night, too. I'm impressed.

12:04 PM | e-mail |

I just woke up, but I promise I'll write about last night soon. And I know everytime I say that I don't do it. But I will.

11:47 AM | e-mail |

Saturday, October 20, 2001

Oh, by the way:

Ickle.org: My ten cents.

2:11 PM | e-mail |

What a nice morning this has been. Slept till 12:30, woken by friends who then dragged me off to a lovely breakfast, and now I get to go stroll in the lovely sunshine to buy Basement Jaxx tickets for tonight. Ahhhhhh.

12:38 PM | e-mail |

FUCK MTV!: Don't let the walls cave in on you.

WHEEEERE'S YOUR HEEEEEAAAAD AAAAAAAT?

1:40 AM | e-mail |

I know I've already whined about missing ICH LIEBE DICH a million times before, but OH MY GOD! Look at these pictures! The venue redecorated with Gavin's graffitti, all the musicians, the performance... gah. I want a time machine and two thousand dollars for airfare and hotel. Now.

12:12 AM | e-mail |

Friday, October 19, 2001

Added a slightly new sidebar graphic at FUCK MTV! today, spotlighting nine of our better reviews. Word. Also, you can now leave comments on every review we've ever done. Go right ahead and do so, I'm sure we'll trawl around in the archives and see what you wrote occasionally...

11:01 PM | e-mail |

FUCK MTV!: Swirling black lilies totally ripe.

3:04 PM | e-mail |

You know, I was actually going to blog about the fact that Harry Potter nonsense was turning up all over my beloved Coke. Now we've got the Save Harry! campaign trying to put a stop to it. Personally, I don't care what happens to the little fictional bastard. Just keep your grubby film-pimping hands off my only drug and hurry up and get the damn polar bears out. It is October.

(via Plasticbag)

Out of curiosity: Why do I always splatter my blog with posts about ridiculous crap right after posting something mildly important about my life? I swear it's not intentional...

12:33 AM | e-mail |

You're right: That is a great meme. I present to you The Five Songs I Can't Get Tired Of (In no real order):

R.E.M. - "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
U2 - "Elevation"
PJ Harvey - "This Is Love"
Underworld - "Rez"
Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"

We'll see if I get sick of them anytime soon...

12:18 AM | e-mail |

So we DIDN'T actually see THE DAILY SHOW, we apparently got there too late to get in (even though the line was half as long as it was the last time we went). So instead we had Mexican and saw Guided By Voices at Irving Plaza (well, at least two of us did -- Len and I). They weren't bad, really. I'd never heard them before, so it's always hard to learn a band in concert, but it was a pretty good show. Most of the songs were hit or miss, but they ended with a fucking excellent cover of The Who's "Baba O'Riley," so I got my $5 worth (God bless NYU Program Board concerts). As it turns out, most of the songs I liked seem to be on DO THE COLLAPSE, produced by Ric "The Mother Fucking BLUE ALBUM" Ocasek, so it's no surprise that I dug 'em. Opening act was Rainer Maria, who were also very much OK, though their vocals kept getting lost in the feedback mix.

In between these events, I got my new DVD player and hooked it up, and now I'm watching RATTLE AND HUM -- the only DVD I have up here with me -- hooked up through my massive stereo. It looks and sounds gorgeous. I am so pleased... and now, I should sleep.

12:01 AM | e-mail |

Thursday, October 18, 2001

Will somebody please beat the shit out of me?

2:32 PM | e-mail |

Going to a DAILY SHOW taping this afternoon, so watch tonight at 11. You should've been anyway, but you know.

Our dorm radiator has been turned on. It keeps making loud clanging/popping noises at psychologically effective times, and we can't adjust it. I fear.

12:48 PM | e-mail |

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Should've mentioned this a couple of days ago when I got an e-mail about it -- the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tour has been rescheduled, and I can make the new date: May 2nd. Nice note to end the school year on. My old ticket's still valid, too.

2:54 PM | e-mail |

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

By the way, tonight I went with Len and Jeremy and saw Arthur Miller speak at Barnes & Noble on Union Square. To be honest, it wasn't that interesting -- he's written a new book about politics and the art of the political performance and how it stops people from getting at the issues, etc. All his ideas were unoriginal, but he at least was relatively intelligent and charming. It was a Q&A / interview sort of session, with the questions asked by the editor of Harper's Magazine; they were taping it for C-SPAN, so you might be able to catch it sometime in the future.

The main lesson of the evening: New Yorkers SUCK. There were small sound problems, and the bastards in the back of the audience actually kept yelling "TURN IT UP!" or "CHANGE THE MIC!" as loud as they possibly could, delaying the whole affair by about ten minutes. It's your fault for getting there late, butthole. But then, people actually did that at the PJ Harvey show, too, shouting for "MORE VOCALS!" down in front of the stage where I was standing. Sigh. Me, me, me, people.

I actually have a theory that, in the presence of fame or an extremely strong personality, people in a mob do everything they can to prove that their personality is every bit as powerful -- nodding, laughing too much at stupid jokes, trying to make witty comments, etc. Every one of us has made a fool of him or herself when presented with someone famous that they know and respect; I did it with Warren Ellis, Tori Amos, et cetera. We're all desperate to prove that we're worthy of their time, desperate to make them remember us. Which is stupid, because (a.) they won't, and (b.) you're not exactly putting across your true, honest persona, either.

Oh well, just another way in which fame is silly. I'm gonna go listen to New Order about a thousand times now.

10:34 PM | e-mail |

Holy SHIT. I just bought GET READY, the new New Order album... and the album version of "Crystal" is seven minutes long and amazingly fucking good. I'm in heaven.

Also picked up A&R, the first novel by Bill Flanagan, senior vice president of VH1 and the author of the magnificent U2 AT THE END OF THE WORLD. It's lookin' goooood.

9:45 PM | e-mail |

FUCK MTV!: Actually, I didn't catch the lyrics. But I'm sure they suck, because the video sure does.

4:50 PM | e-mail |

Now I know what I want to be when I grow up.

11:19 AM | e-mail |

Monday, October 15, 2001

I'm sorry, but it's really quite surreal to see an article about Le Tigre at MTV News.

4:41 PM | e-mail |

Continuing my unblemished track record of hopping aboard every meme two days too late, I present you with My Official Title: El Rey of Sticking Your Head and Arms Out The Window, Christopher John Conroy. I'll respond to "Rey," though.

4:19 PM | e-mail |

The Doyoufeelloved.com Top Ten for October 15th, 2001:

Garbage - "Parade"
New Order - "Crystal"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "The Weeping Song (Live At Royal Albert Hall)"
Depeche Mode - "Barrel Of A Gun"
Bjork - "All Is Full Of Love (Strings)"
Gavin Friday - "Caruso"
Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"
Redman feat. Adam F - "Smash Something"
U2 - "New York (Live From Elevation Notre Dame)"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Stranger Than Kindness"

Garbage holds the top slot for two straight weeks. "Crystal" surges back up on the strength of my buying its single (which has now been loaned to Erin, who simply stuck it in her computer CD drive, hit "repeat," and has left it running as such for about 24 hours now), and my purchase map is clearly visible here -- Depeche Mode, Bjork, and last night's impulse-buy of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' import BEST OF, which has a 9-track live album attached that is utterly fantastic.

Note the presence of Gavin Friday's "Caruso;" I rediscovered the SHAG TOBACCO album this weekend after buying a 99-cent used copy with the intent of giving it away to somebody (every time I find a copy, I buy it and do exactly that -- gotta spread the word). Instead, I may keep it as my own copy, as it has a nicer case and better screen-printing on the disc.

Also note U2's "New York (Live From Elevation Notre Dame)" -- but don't consider it an endorsement. Bono's switched around a bunch of the lyrics to the song in the wake of the WTC disaster. "New York" is already known as one of Bono's worst lyrics (with the exception of the last verse), but he hasn't helped it any now: in fact, he's made it worse. Instead of simply being cliched and maudlin, it's now cliched, maudlin, and incoherent. See for yourself.

4:06 PM | e-mail |

Why didn't anybody tell me that I Love Everything is a great weblog?

3:21 PM | e-mail |

Brian Wood's new graphic novel, COUSCOUS EXPRESS, comes out on Wednesday. He is the author of the annoyingly good CHANNEL ZERO.

3:06 PM | e-mail |

Sunday, October 14, 2001

A quick update on my life, by the way:

(1) I am finally, finally done housesitting, so you now have my full, undivided blog attention. And no schoolwork shall stand in my way!

(2) I've ordered a DVD player from Amazon, so now I can finally watch some damn movies up here at school (and make some more friends by luring them into the media trap. Ha ha ha ha ha). All my DVDs are home in Florida, but I'll retrieve them at Thanksgiving.

(3) I'm almost done with Greil Marcus' MYSTERY TRAIN, which is a truly excellent book on rock and roll that anyone who loves the music should read. It makes me want to go out and buy about a thousand albums; but then, everything does these days.

(4) And speaking of a thousand albums, I dropped $25 at Tower yesterday on four singles (only $6 each!) -- Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love," Depeche Mode's "Barrel Of A Gun" and "Home/Useless" (which includes all four videos from ULTRA), and New Order's "Crystal." Twenty-nine tracks total, not including the videos. I'm a happy boy.

2:07 PM | e-mail |

Oh my GOD Michele is funny: read her letter to Santa Claus right now.

Wait a second. What's that smell? My God... it's the start of... THE CHRISTMAS LIST MEME!!!

What I Want For Christmas:

A new President.
A winning lottery ticket.
U2 to play "The Fly" again.
Chocolate. (Gotta pick something down to earth.)
A trip to Dublin. Preferably yesterday.
These.

(I had to include at least ONE shameless materialist plug. And might I remind you that my first blogday is coming up on the 23rd? ;-D)

1:42 PM | e-mail |

Saturday, October 13, 2001

Live in New York City? Then please, please, start taking the subway whenever you can. The MTA (Metro Transit Authority) is in financial trouble that has been critically worsened by the Sept. 11th attacks -- the 1 and the 9 tunnels, which run under the WTC, have collapsed and will cost hundreds of millions to repair -- and service cuts and fair hikes, or a massive government bailout, may be necessary. Skip the taxi and cough up your $1.50. It's worth it to preserve one of the best transit systems on the planet.

2:32 PM | e-mail |

Friday, October 12, 2001

And in the comics world, which I've drifted out of but am feeling attracted to right now, THE AUTHORITY is in deep fucking trouble.

AUTHORITY was the brainchild of God-man Warren Ellis: a superhero book about, essentially, fascist superheroes out to remake the world in their image. They were sympathetic characters who, largely, had the right ideas, but they truly were horrific, violent bastards who kicked the shit out of everyone in their way. The writing was blacker than pitch and cynical as fuck (and magnificent), the art was crazed and madly action-obsessed and fabulously horrific (and magnificent). The last year has seen THE AUTHORITY embroiled in a shitstorm of late issues, absentee creators, and scheduling conflicts, and now, in the wake of 9/11 AOL/Time Warner (who owns DC Comics) has clearly gotten cold feet, and God only knows when any other non-defanged storylines will ever spin out of the book again. Its entire charm was its sheer, utter brutality and disregard for any convention of human emotion. They blew up Italy in one issue, for Christ's sake. And now, who knows.

If you feel like you've got the stomach for it right now, the two great AUTHORITY collected editions -- RELENTLESS and UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT -- are readily available from Amazon.

3:48 PM | e-mail |

Jack's away message right now:

And please, dear friends, let's look at the bright side for once: The last time a Bush took us to war and got a 90% approval rating, he was toast and a ghost the following year. You can't get better than that.

3:41 PM | e-mail |

Nick Hornby reviews Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' NO MORE SHALL WE PART. It's good writing, but his judgements are pretty much off, IMHO.

(via Lukelog)

3:22 PM | e-mail |

For the first time, all six posts on the frontpage of U2log.com are by me. Is it a coincidence that they're six of the lamest posts ever? I thinketh nay. (I mean, come on. "Web Me Up Before You Go-Go"? I suck.)

3:02 PM | e-mail |

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Rule #1 of Being Great Rock Stars: Don't let the opening act play a better set than you. U2, I'm afraid, broke that rule. ;-) (The opening act, for the record, was Garbage. Excellent.)

By the way, can you tell I'm avoiding schoolwork right now?

12:37 PM | e-mail |

Thomas' article about last night's U2 show. Keen.

12:12 PM | e-mail |

Marilyn Manson to cover "Tainted Love". Oh, I approve. No doubt about it.

10:55 AM | e-mail |

FUCK MTV!: I cry when angels deserve to die.

And when I see this video, actually.

10:22 AM | e-mail |

Awwww, fuck. U2 played the first show of the last leg of the tour, and they FUCKING PUSSIED OUT -- they dropped half the big rock songs. Gone are "The Fly" and "Bullet The Blue Sky," in favor of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "What's Going On." Fucking POOR. "The Fly" on this tour was the best thing I've ever heard them play live, and they FUCKING DROPPED IT. ARGH. They even changed the opening of the show, going straight for "Beautiful Day" instead of the unbelievably great sex-with-the-lights-on "Elevation" opener ("Elevation" has been shuffled to the encore. Bad call). Sigh.

I'm still going, mind you.

9:47 AM | e-mail |

Tuesday, October 09, 2001

Hey, excellent. Astute reader Jay has sent in a link to download Audiogalaxy for Macintosh -- so now everyone can share in the MP3 goodness (scroll down for this week's Top Ten).

I think I'm headed for my sister's now, so no more blog entries this evening. Be good.

3:02 PM | e-mail |

Awww! I've been adored at 2xy.org! Thanks, Jerwin. I ripped half of my best ideas off from you anyway.

(By the way, I had no idea who Marat Safin was either. Here are some pictures. Seems like a generous appraisal, but hey, I ain't gonna argue.)

2:05 PM | e-mail |

My God, I wish I'd been there.

By the way, my sister's computer is still, lastingly, dead. So no blogging will happen at night, unfortunately. This is all you get.

1:57 PM | e-mail |

Make no mistake, I'm not proud of this pun.

1:47 PM | e-mail |

So apparently, the Florida anthrax outbreak may have been caused by an unusual fan letter to Jennifer Lopez. It'd be upsetting if it weren't SO GODDAMN FUNNY. If this is true, it's nice to know the terrorists had a sense of humor...

1:26 PM | e-mail |

Monday, October 08, 2001

Whoops, almost forgot.

The Doyoufeelloved.com Top Ten for October 8th, 2001:

Garbage - "Parade"
Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"
Bjork - "It's In Our Hands"
Sparklehorse - "Piano Fire"
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - "Can't We Be Friends?"
Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
New Order - "Crystal"
Bjork - "Hyperballad"
U2 - "The Ground Beneath Her Feet"
Depeche Mode - "Black Celebration"

Interesting list this week. "Parade" is a magnificent song -- download it right now -- but I fear its usefulness as a single has been completely destroyed by 09.11. Take for example, the first line -- "Let's bomb the factory that makes all the wanna-bes" -- and the chorus -- "As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are / If you can believe there's something worth fighting for". Both those sentiments are remarkably double-edged these days.

"It's In Our Hands" is the new unreleased Bjork song that closed the show Friday night. It is NOT "Generous Palmstroke," as many places have it labelled -- the real "Generous Palmstroke" is a quiet, reserved, twinkling affair. This ain't.

I really ought to apologize for Kylie Minogue placing so high, but what can I say? It's unimaginably fucking catchy and I listen to it a lot. "La la la, la la la la la..."

"Crystal" is now officially the longest-lived track in DYFL Top Ten chart history, "Piano Fire" features a guest appearance by PJ Harvey, and everything else rules. Once again, if I didn't give you the MP3, then use Audiogalaxy to find it. Unless you use a Mac, in which case, I dunno what you should do.

2:56 PM | e-mail |

Tori Amos talks about STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS, and sounds more coherent than she ever has. I may end up buying this album after all...

The collection is rooted in Amos' belief that during the last several years, male violence and aggression have achieved a new cachet in our culture. "There's an anti-freedom movement that's been growing," she says, "and you're lying to yourself if you don't want to look at it. It can be dressed up in tattoos and piercings and look really bitchin', but if you strip it back, 'power' in America often means having power over somebody else."

2:22 PM | e-mail |

God bless cancelled classes. This stolen hour and fifteen minutes of relaxation has made my day.

Housesitting again this week, but now the computer works. No interruption of useless blather 'round these parts, no sir!

1:36 PM | e-mail |

Sunday, October 07, 2001

And to America, I say to it and to its people this: I swear by God the Great, America will never dream nor those who live in America will never taste security and safety unless we feel security and safety in our land and in Palestine.

From the transcript of Osama bin Laden's speech today.

You know, on a day like today, I can honestly see the sense in that statement.

Why DO we have massive army bases in Saudi Arabia? Why do we mindlessly bomb Iraq instead of working for constructive change? Why does Israel continue to inflame the situation in Palestine, and why do we hollowly condemn it and keep our hands free? I'm sure for a long time we've thought of it as "not our problem." But something like this makes it very clear that it is.

I'm not siding with Osama bin Laden against America here. Far from it, the man needs to be apprehended and brought to justice, NOW. I'm just wondering why we aren't looking for a constructive solution to this; why we're acting like the problem ends when he does.

6:52 PM | e-mail |

Saturday, October 06, 2001

I just finally finished reading NO LOGO. I have a LOT to say about it, and it's not all fawning praise. (Most of it is, but some isn't.) All I will say is that right now I feel like killing something. Preferably the Western economy.

AAAARGH. I am so filled with righteous anger right now. All I can think about is how easy it would be to change the world into an amazing place, and how instead, I'm wearing clothes that have been held in the hands of sixteen-year-old girls living in filth and making thirty cents a day. I feel like reading this book has changed my life. But then I remember Bono talking about the weeks he spent in Ethiopia as a U.N. relief worker: "You think you'll never forget something like that. But you always do."

Am I going to forget this tomorrow?

If you're in New York, you have to borrow my copy as soon as possible -- e-mail me if you're interested. If you're not, find a friend who has it, or better yet, just buy it yourself. For all its complexities of good and bad, there is absolutely no question that it is worth reading.

Ah, how fun it is to be a year and a half behind the rest of the world.

9:20 PM | e-mail |

Wow. From the ashes of catastrophe comes beauty -- Michele's new home is partially live, and man, it's gorgeous. Go appreciate it (and her). Shel did a great job.

4:36 PM | e-mail |

IM comment of the day:

Guberkov: ::sobs:: can't get away from fucking pathetic petty human behavior...... speaking of which I saw Zoolander.

12:12 PM | e-mail |

I wish I had a webcam to show you all the delectable goodies I went out and bought. Maybe being productive IS a good thing. I'm sippin' my hotty (huh?) and chompin' a muffin, and life is good.

Not looking forward to laundry, though.

11:45 AM | e-mail |

All right. It's a nasty shitty cloudy/windy/rainy day in Manhattan today, a perfect day for just staying inside and staring out the window and cleaning up and all that kind of good nonsense. I can do my laundry and clean out my computer directories and read my book and all that good stuff. However, I really, really want some hot chocolate. And I don't think I can get it in a to-go cup from the dining hall. So that means I have to go outside. And that means it's gross out, and I ruin my feeling of domestic bliss. Plus, the closest place with good hot chocolate is Starbuck's, and I'd feel filthy giving them more money, meaning I should go to the cafe/deli place at University & Waverly. But that's one avenue block over and three street blocks down, which isn't so far that I can't, say, go get pizza from it at 1AM (which I did last night) but I don't feel like trudging through wet ick to get there. Oh, life is SO hard.

To top it all off, Michele is prophesizing doom into my ear and has a feeling of forthcoming dread. Of course, in her words, it might just be that Pokemon was on her TV. ;-D

11:02 AM | e-mail |

If you're looking for A Fire Inside, Freeservers crashed it this morning, forcing Michele to move over to her new domain, www.asmallvictory.net, prematurely. You can read the blog there while Michele gets medieval on the Freeservers support reps.

10:30 AM | e-mail |

I don't know if I'm in the mental shape to provide a Bjork review that matches the usual golden standard of my writing (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA), but I'll give it a try.

We got there a few minutes into Matmos' set. They were boring, honestly, just minimalist techno that does not exactly get the joint rocking. Their surgical-sound material from A CHANCE TO CUT IS A CHANCE TO CURE was, in this context, loud and gross and annoying, and it thoroughly interrupted the conversation my friend Erin and I were trying to have, so points down to them. Thankfully, there were only about fifteen or twenty minutes of downtime between their set and Bjork's, who took the stage at 9 PM sharp.

As expected, the show opened with a set of predominantly VESPERTINE material which was workable, I suppose. "All is Full Of Love" was the first proper song, and I suppose it should've been excellent but sadly, it was a bit lackluster. "It's Not Up To You" worked quite well live, though "Cocoon" bored me as much as it always has and "I've Seen It All" loses a lot without Thom Yorke. "Unison," the first set's closer, was definitely its high point as well.

But after that fifteen-minute intermission, everything changed. Bjork sang "You've Been Flirting Again" solo, in what sounded like Icelandic (or maybe she was just slurring really badly), and then, the opening of "Isobel" floated in and the crowd went nuts. From then on, everything was golden, culminating in a fabulous, FABULOUS, unspeakably great "Hyperballad" and then into a wicked "Army Of Me," which I was not expecting at ALL and which thoroughly rocked the joint -- great programming by Matmos, great vocal performance by Bjork (she really does have an amazing voice, folks, it's not just on record. She never missed a note and was in full powerful form, and even minimized the obnoxious gaspy stylings that trash so much of VESPERTINE in my mind). Then a striking "Bachelorette" (I must remind you again and again that all these songs involved a full orchestra -- *glurp*) and we were out until the first encore.

A beautiful orchestra-and-Bjork-alone (no programmed loops) "Joga" made the night, but then came the cherry on top -- a "Human Behavior" too fucking awesome to be believed. Bjork yelped, she screamed, she leapt up and down and pumped the air and sang in lecturing tones and the beat was massive and the electric harp was rocking and the orchestra and OH MY GOD, HOLY SHIT, etc. etc. We thought that'd probably be it, but Bjork and the full setup -- choir, orchestra, Matmos, harpist -- came scampering back out and unleashed a brand-new unreleased song, "It's In Our Hands," that FUCKING ROCKED -- it starts out slow, with only rhythmic hand-clapping, and eventually unleashes a massive torrent of sound and noise and volume and beat and general rock-ness that is a very striking contrast to the VESPERTINE material and which already gives me a very large hard-on indeed for her next album. Oh hush, you prude.

What else to note? Her choir of Inuit girls was adorable, if not sufficiently miked, shuffling and shimmying and clapping lightly through most of the songs. Bjork's dancing was a bit repetitive -- shuffle backwards, sway a little -- but the crowd cheered her every twitch anyway, and as the "greatest hits" set unfolded she got progressively looser and funkier. One of the most striking visuals of the whole affair (from our vantage point waaaay above) was her leaning out over the orchestra pit, the swaying arms of the violinists resembling the swaying arms of a nonexistent mosh pit. Interesting unintentional visual trick in the midst of this whole operatic affair.

On the whole, I'd definitely say I got my money's worth, even if I didn't get to hear my two favorite VESPERTINE songs ("Hidden Place" -- I can't believe she skipped her lead single -- and "Heirloom"), and even if I do feel like one of those shitheads who goes to the show only for the old tunes. Oh, and speaking of shitheads: it takes a severe lack of class to light up a huge fucking joint in the middle of Radio City Music Hall, asshole. And what the FUCK was your friend tripping on? There was this one guy three rows ahead of us who spent the whole second set waving his arms in the air and touching his face druggily. He sucked. We named him Acid Head. The end. (God, what a dildo).

So here's the setlist. I'm reasonably sure this is correct. If it's not, I'll fix it when Bjork's official site posts the real one.

First Set:
"Frosti" (Bjork on a music box)
"Overture" (From DANCER IN THE DARK, orchestra only while Bjork's ensemble takes the stage)
"All Is Full Of Love" (only so-so, sadly)
"Unravel" (Not bad, though not one of my favorite HOMOGENIC tunes)
"Harm Of Will" (Alright. Could use a beat, IMHO)
"Generous Palmstroke" (B-side of "Hidden Place." Actually quite effective in arrangement and performance.)
"It's Not Up To You" (Definitely worked live)
"I've Seen It All" (Again, just doesn't really go anywhere without Thom Yorke)
"Cocoon" (Blah, you bore me)
"Unison" (Quite beautiful and a good set closer)

Second Set:
"You've Been Flirting Again" (Bjork largely a cappella, the singing was... odd, I think possibly not in English)
"Isobel" (Magnificent with the full orchestra and a pounding Matmos beat)
"Venus As A Boy" (Never one of my favorite tunes, but still a good performance)
"Pagan Poetry" (Quite strong)
"Possibly Maybe" (Same as "Venus")
"Hyperballad" (An orgasm in auditory form, unbelievably superb)
"Army Of Me" (Ditto)
"Bachelorette" (Not quite as massively great as I'd hoped, but still excellent)

First Encore:
"Joga" (Beautiful, although entirely without the recorded version's excellent beat)
"Human Behavior" (AAAAAAAH SO GOOD)

Second Encore:
"It's In Our Hands" (Fabulously great new song that I need in full form as soon as humanly possible)

And I'm out for the night, kids. Have a good one.

By the way, if you have any trouble viewing the site, don't be surprised. Doteasy is switching servers this weekend. Should've warned you earlier...

1:16 AM | e-mail |

Friday, October 05, 2001

Hmmm. Via Lukelog comes a positive advance review of FROM HELL at Why The Naming Imperative? I wonder, I wonder. It won't do me any mental damage if the film is awful, as I've been expecting it to be for a while now, though if it's good that would indeed be a very welcome surprise.

If you're wondering why I'm devoting so much blather to a Johnny Depp film, then you're obviously not familiar with the graphic novel, and trust me, you need to be.

5:26 PM | e-mail |

Smashing Pumpkins greatest hits/b-sides double album tracklisting. I am stupid, so I will buy it. I will also remind you that the new Lamb album, WHAT SOUND? comes out soon, and it will be good. However, they don't appear to have a firm U.S. release date. Which worries me.

Seeing Bjork tonight. This had better be good...

By the way, the entry below was edited because I forgot that I'd agreed to a confidentiality clause while beta-testing Movable Type. I didn't exactly reveal its inner workings, but a comment is a comment, and so it is deleted. (By the way, MT looks like a very, very nifty thing. I think I can say that. ;-D)

1:18 PM | e-mail |

Thursday, October 04, 2001

As you can probably tell, my sister's computer hasn't recovered yet. The disks are in but the super wasn't there when I went to pick them up. Hopefully I'll be blogging from there tonight; we'll see.

I've been listening to the new Garbage album, BEAUTIFULGARBAGE, a lot. My reaction is mixed. There's no question that it's not as good as VERSION 2.0, which is depressing. The great songs are great, but the not-so-great ones are just boring. Something was missing, I knew, but it took my friend Dan to point it out: the sex is gone. None of the tracks, especially the down-tempo ballads -- four this time instead of the usual two -- are really seductive at all, unlike the magnificent "You Look So Fine" of V2.0. The focus this time is on romance, for better ("Cup Of Coffee" is excellent) or worse ("Drive You Home" is pointless and unnecessary). Some of the rockers sound like b-sides, especially "Til The Day That I Die" and "Untouchable." And while "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" is unbelievably fun, I'm not so sure about it as the next single. Sadly, the band may've misstepped. Oh well. Like I said, the great tracks -- "Shut Your Mouth," "Androgyny," "Cup Of Coffee," "Parade" (Sort of the Garbage equivalent of "Beautiful Day") -- are truly great. And while "Silence Is Golden" lasts a bit too long, that opening riff kicks all kinds of ass. Approach this one at your own risk, but if you're a Garbage fan, you won't be TOO sorely disappointed.

--Following (unrelated) portion deleted because I'm an idiot--

4:08 PM | e-mail |

Tuesday, October 02, 2001

Hey, cool. My entry at CROON.org has been posted. And what else could it be but U2's "Elevation".

5:00 PM | e-mail |

I hate Tuesdays. I have classes from 9:30 AM to 4:45 PM, with several obnoxiously timed breaks in between -- they're just too long to be easily frittered away, and just too short to get anything useful done in. I'm killing time right now in the comp. lab before my last class, the recitation/discussion section of Anthropological Perspectives, since the class is too far from my dorm to justify going back there -- it's a fifteen-minute walk each way on an hour's break. Lame.

I'm housesitting for my sister again until Friday, so the computer situtation's iffy -- her comp has been nuked but recovery disks are on their way and may already have arrived; if not, I may be able to hook my laptop up to her cable modem. We'll find out.

Nothing to link to, other than the new Dollarshort design. I'm gonna go down the block to Tower and browse the things I shouldn't buy until 3:30.

2:07 PM | e-mail |

Monday, October 01, 2001

The Doyoufeelloved.com Top Ten for October 1st, 2001:

Madonna - "Human Nature"
New Order - "Turn My Way"
Method Man - "Judgement Day"
Britney Spears - "I'm A Slave 4 U"
N'Sync - "The Game Is Over"
Elvis Costello - "Alison"
U2 - "Elevation (Tomb Raider Mix)"
Mirwais - "Naive Song"
Underworld - "Pearl's Girl"
Doves - "Catch The Sun"

Last week's MP3s are gone now. Think faster.

A couple of my old favorites enter the list this week -- well, "old" as in "October of 2000" -- "Elevation" and "Catch The Sun." I guess I'm in a bitchy confrontational mode or something right now, though, because "Human Nature" is definitely hitting the spot.

"Turn My Way" is an interesting little tune -- Billy Corgan contributes guest vocals, and listening to it made me realize the sheer volume of influence New Order clearly had on the Smashing Pumpkins, or at least on Billy's contribution to them (in other words, the Smashing Pumpkins). It sounds like GET READY just might be an awesome album.

As usual, more next week.

3:42 PM | e-mail |

Welcome back, Meg. Loved your gallery of pictures, what a beautiful amazing place... and this is the most spectacular animal I've ever seen.

10:15 AM | e-mail |

Seeing U2 twice -- Wednesday 10/24 and Saturday 10/27 at Madison Square Garden. They're nosebleed seats both times (I could've gotten GA for 10/24, but I fucking typoed the Ticketmaster form), but I'm still going. Mmmmmm.

10:00 AM | e-mail |

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