>> Yep, it's been a fine one indeed -- first, delicious dim sum (highly recommended) with Fiona and mah boy, and then I picked up Nick Cave's God Is In The House DVD (also highly recommended) at Tower. "The Mercy Seat" arrangement on this tour... fucking. amazing.

It's been a good good weekend, actually, if a bit low-key. Which is nice, since it means I'm not tired out for school on Tuesday. Shudder. (Though I have been given a boost of confidence, which I'll keep mum about until I see if it bears fruit...)

>> Anyone out there have an MP3 of Suede covering the Pet Shop Boys' "Rent"? Just learned of its existence tonight. God, I'd love to hear that.

>> I saw my first Segway on 14th Street tonight.

It was really, really stupid-looking.

>> Jeremy needs help. If any of you have an idea for a good fifteen-page screenplay, leave it in the comments. He'll take you to lunch or something (And give you story credit). Thank you.

>> If you read all the right blogs, you'll have noticed that they've been plugging Cinecultist. I'm plugging it too, and not just because my boyyyyyy writes for 'em -- it's because they're a fine, fun read. And I intend to be helping them out with some (non-writing) stuff soon, so think of them as part of the family.

I worked at Moby's management for the day today, covering their front desk. Was an interesting experience -- I'd been so cowed by the place when I started as an intern, and now my stress level was low. Except when the crazy person called, but that's neither here nor there. As of this moment, I don't think I'll be working there again this semester, but stranger things have happened...

Oh, and all my boxes of stuff have arrived from Florida. But I can't unpack them, because my scissors are in one of them and I can't cut them open. I. Am. A douchebag.

>> I'm in NYC, I'm (largely) moved into my dorm (I have sheets and internet access, so the place is essentially inhabitable), I've got the new Elbow album, and I am so. damn. tired. More once I've stabilized a bit. I think I might nap this afternoon; I haven't taken a nap in forevah-evah...

Oh, and this site looks like poo in Mac IE5.2 and Safari. The browsers I use. Time for a you-know-what?

>> OK, I don't want the grief-fest to be top of the page forever... so here's a note saying I'm off back to NYC as of tomorrow morning. Interested parties may call my cell phone number; if you should have it, you've probably got it, with a few exceptions -- if you're one of them, e-mail me. Blogging will be sporadic until I'm settled into my dorm, which could be Sunday or it could be later. In any event, just sit tight. And thanks for reading.

>> We put my dog to sleep today. It fucking sucked.

Olivia, our Australian Shepherd, was eight years old. She hadn't been eating right for a week or so, which we initially attributed to a territorial conflict with our black lab, Bacalou. Eventually we became concerned enough to schedule her a vet appointment this morning. Nine hours later she was dead. The vet did some x-rays and quickly saw that she had cancer -- a sarcoma of her spleen that had already metastasized throughout her body. The severe symptoms -- a large lump on her shoulder, black lesion on her belly -- had only appeared in the last three weeks. I hadn't even seen them until today. Sudden. And like I said, nine hours after we had her checked, she was put under.

We visited her right beforehand; at the time, we were thinking she would go into surgery to have her spleen removed -- the doctor wasn't sure it had metastasized until just before the procedure began. She was still perky and friendly and in no obvious pain whatsoever. She always liked the vet's office, bizarrely, so she wasn't upset or angry at all, and we got to pet her and goof around with her a bit right before they put her under, so she apparently went happy. It was just so. goddamn. quick.

I don't do grief well. I was sniffling pretty severely throughout the entire visit, completely unable to choke it back. The vet called at the instant we got home, only five minutes after we'd left the clinic -- it was obvious that the cancer had spread, badly, and we confirmed that we'd rather she just be put to sleep then go through the surgery and not be cured. At that point I ended up going upstairs to my room and doing the real crying, all the usual the-slightest-memory-triggers-it weeping and that fun stuff. I did what I could to take my mind off it; I packed my suitcase a little, did some laundry. And soon enough, I was under control again. But I just don't do grief well.

She was a good goddamn dog. Loud, and a bit stupid, but gorgeous, and friendly, and loyal. Good night, Olivia. And I'm sorry to dump this onto my blog, but sometimes it's just gotta come out.

I'll be back in New York on Saturday. What a way to end the summer.

>> Andrew WK to call 1,000 fans who buy The Wolf on the phone and chat with them. The man. Is a god.

>> Well, add another album to that list below -- Richard X's Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1 is out in the States on September 2nd, apparently on Astralwerks though they don't have any info about it on their website. Yes, it's got "Freak Like Me" and "Being Nobody" on it. Check out "Into You," featuring Jarvis Cocker and a fair bit of Mazzy Star, at Fluxblog. Haaaaawwwwt.

>> Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Dude! Ohmigod! I, like, fucking LOVE Laura's review of the Justin Timberlake concert at Irving Plaza! SCREEEEEEEAAAAAAAMMM!!!!

>> Venice, Italy has insitituted a fifty-Euro fine for sitting down in St. Mark's Square. One of my fondest memories of my trip to Europe was sitting on the steps that go down into the harbour, just staring at the light on the water... I can understand the impulse to preserve the decorum of the area, but man, that's kind of weak. Via Brainsluice.

>> UPDATE: I've been returning to this post every so often to add more albums to the release schedule, change dates, etc., so that I can use the schedule as a comprehensive master list. As a result it no longer really matches the post around it. Sorry.

I decided to experiment with the idea of reining in my despicably rampant spending on CDs by keeping a schedule of things to buy. I decided I would allow myself one catalogue CD per week, plus whatever new releases come out on each Tuesday, thinking this would represent a cutback. AH HA. HA HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Before I ever even started to add items from my back-catalogue shopping list, I was buying (or at least seriously considering) eighteen albums between now and the end of November (and that's not considering the fact that a third of these are double-disc sets or imports that'll cost me more than your typical $13.99). Here's what I've got so far:

AUGUST 26
Elbow - CAST OF THOUSANDS (Import)

SEPTEMBER 2
Richard X - RICHARD X PRESENTS HIS X-FACTOR VOLUME ONE

SEPTEMBER 9
Elvis Costello - GET HAPPY!!!
Elvis Costello - TRUST
Elvis Costello - PUNCH THE CLOCK
O'Connor, Sinead - SHE WHO DWELLS...
The Rapture - ECHOES
Andrew WK - THE WOLF

SEPTEMBER 16
David Bowie - REALITY
Peaches - FATHERFUCKER

SEPTEMBER 23
Elvis Costello - NORTH
Outkast - SPEAKERBOXXX / THE LOVE BELOW

SEPTEMBER 30
Chemical Brothers - SINGLES 93-03
Doves - LOST SIDES (Import)

OCTOBER 14
Twilight Singers - BLACKBERRY BELLE

OCTOBER 21
Basement Jaxx - KISH KASH
The Strokes - ROOM ON FIRE
Suede - SINGLES (Import)

OCTOBER 28
R.E.M. - IN TIME
Underworld - ANTHOLOGY 1992-2002

NOVEMBER 18
N.E.R.D. - FLY OR DIE

NOVEMBER 25
Nelly Furtado - FRESH OFF THE BOAT

Release dates, BTW, are courtesy of this page* I found while Googling. It's an amateur, unofficial compilation, but the guy who maintains it seems to actually have a handle on what's going on; I checked his figures against the ones I knew and they all matched, so I'm gonna go with it.

Sigh. That schedule has five CD-free weeks, so I could get some catalogue stuff then, but I might need that time to fiscally recover from weeks like September 9th...

(And I don't want anyone saying that I don't need to buy all these things. I know that. It doesn't change anything. Sigh.)

*When I went back to the page to grab its URL for this blog entry, it had exceeded its Geocities data transfer. These things refresh every hour, apparently, so if you really wanna see it then just be patient/persistent, I guess.

>> Elbow cover Massive Attack's "Teardrop" on Radio One (RealAudio). Elbow's new album, Cast Of Thousands, is coming out soon, and I've got a feeling it's gonna make them one of my favorite bands... hit their website to hear the first single, "Fallen Angel" (and watch the excellent video).

>> I know it was theoretically dangerous and a massive inconvenience and often quite unpleasant... but God, I'm so damn sorry I missed it.

Seeing the stars from Manhattan would've changed my life, I think.

>> New Basement Jaxx album, Kish Kash, coming in October. Features Siouxsie Sioux, Me'shell N'Degeocello, JC Chasez, and this "Dizzee Rascal" the kids are all into these days... mmmm can't wait.

>> This week:

• I've worked almost forty hours, and tonight I refolded an entire denim wall while grooving to Prince's "Partyman";
• I've read a giant pile of X-Men comics;
• I've discovered that the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was, in fact, a really bizarre post-punk 1980s New York period piece;
• I've wasted $20 on a cassette adapter for my iPod that ended up generating sound of a quality and distortion level akin to Bernard Sumner farting through a megaphone and a wah-wah pedal;
• and I've been keeping a big, big secret.

I also haven't posted to Fluxblog yet like I said I would, which means I'm very lame, but loads of other fine people have. Matthew let about twenty folks take over guest-blogging duties and it's been a blast to read. Go check it out if you haven't. And now I go to bed, safe in the knowledge that the time elapsed between my last two posts is less than the time between Stuart's last post and now.

>> The Onion: Gigli Focus Groups Demand New Ending In Which Both Affleck And Lopez Die:

"The danger here is succumbing to what people in the business call 'option paralysis'—being caught with so many good ideas that you're not sure which one to use," Brest said. "Getting shot is fine, but what about an automobile fire in which Ben and Jennifer are shown perishing in a slow-motion montage, their newfound love discarded as they try desperately to claw their way past each other's melting bodies, while slowly roasting to death in their own fat? You'd be surprised at how many people came up with that one. Or having them crawl through a field of broken glass while a safely booted and gloved Christopher Walken casually advances on them with a spray bottle of acid and a pair of bolt-cutters? I must say, a part of me loves the idea of them chewing each other to death during a 14-minute dolly shot."

(Via Plasticbag)

>> Rotmaterial - A Tribute To The Lyrical Genius Of The Streets. Mwah ha ha. (Man, I do love me some Streets, though.) Via Prolific.

>> I don't know what happened to me today, but I didn't like most of it. The good things: Meeting up (virtually, anyway) with Louis again, reading Orbiter and The Ultimates Vol. 1 at Barnes & Noble, and finding Bootleg Babies -- excellent-quality Underworld live tracks free for download as MP3s at the band's website. I'm grooving to "Bruce Lee" right now and couldn't be more pleased. The bad things... we'll let them go undocumented until I'm sure what, precisely, is fucking going on.

>> Sinead O'Connor releasing two disc live/rarities/etc. album (with ponderous title). "Retired," eh? (Some of these songs are new, as far as I can tell...)

>> Had my first run-in with the law tonight. On an entirely related note, doyoufeelloved.com can no longer endorse Car Sardines. Use at your own risk.

We've been playing Car Sardines for about an hour and a half when one of our friends has to leave. Randomly, Ashley's brother, Jason, has already drafted in two of his friends, whom we'll call "Spike" and "Turbo" (not their real names, but weirdly close). They're a bit thuggish and we don't know them but hey, whatever, it's Car Sardines, it's about love. So we explain the rules (don't park on residential property, territorial boundaries, time limits, etc.) and get cracking.

We've played two rounds, and Spike and Turbo have proven themselves with a brilliantly structured series of clues in the last round played, and we're parked next to a local vet's office. Jason's already gone off to find the hiding place for the next, and final, round of the night. Then, literally as we are shifting the car into gear to set out on our quest, two cop cars pull up and shine their lights into Ashley's car. (I'm in the back seat; Ashley and Ben are in the front.)

"So what're you guys doing here?" asks our cop, a woman of about thirty. The other car pulls past to link up with Spike and Turbo behind us. "Any reason why you're behind a closed business with your lights off?"

Ashley tries "We were just talking" first. Cop unimpressed. She collects our driver's licenses and Ashley opts for the policy of truth.

"We're playing a game. It's like hide and seek, basically, but in our cars..."

"You guys couldn't find anything better to do?"

"This is Sarasota."

"C'mon. You could rent a video, play video games, go to a nice dinner, go to the beach, cook something, goof around on the computer, go to a movie..." (This list is not word-for-word exact, but the cop's compilation of ideas was at least that long.)

"We've done all that." Sad but true; we've done a few of them already tonight. "And one of our friends complains when we play video games anyway. We were gonna watch Jurassic Park..."

The cop takes down our addresses from our driver's licenses, then our phone numbers (though she forgets to ask mine). Then she asks where we work. (Moment of panic. Are they gonna call our jobs?!? I'm reasonably certain, however, that they're just trying to establish our Law-Abiding Citizen score.) Ashley, bless her, says "Church Of The Palms." Which is true. As Ben later put it, "Sometimes it's great that (she's) a cute redheaded girl who works in a church." She wanders away to talk to Spike and Turbo.

When she comes back, she asks for my eye color. And weight. (Weight?!? At this point the WTF scale is off the chart.)

"Why do you have the tallest guy in the back seat?" (A whole new WTF chart was just invented.)

"He's her boyfriend," I explain. "I don't have front-seat privileges."

"You're suffering for their love, eh?"

"Pretty much."

"OK guys. My advice: Get a new project." Cops let us go.

So I guess that's Car Sardines sorted. At least in that neighborhood. While I still weigh 190 pounds.

Bonus postscript: Upon reconvening at Ashley's house, we learn that Spike and Turbo, who of course we barely know, have outstanding records and charges pending. FUN FUN FUN!!! We also figure that, while they were waiting to be found, they were playing obnoxiously bass-heavy rap music at shocking volumes. Because they're those kinds of kids, and they'd been doing so earlier. Wheeeeeee. Some people just have no sense of civic responsibility or generally polite, law-abiding demeanor.

And no, I am not one of those people. I'm a good boy, I swear. You know it and I know it. Right? Right?