Art Sorority for Girls

Hang it up, hopefuls. The battle for the District’s...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:17:02 -0500

Hang it up, hopefuls. The battle for the District’s Greatest Vanity Plate is over.

Via ganzer, who I’m really hoping creates an annotated...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:37:00 -0500

Via ganzer, who I’m really hoping creates an annotated version that points out all the Americanisms, Pop-Up Video-style. While I’m waiting for that, a historical antecedent…

…in which our hero fakes his way through a randy song in a made-up language. In both cases, the thrill and delight come from the little bits we can understand, amid all the chaos.

Dear friend of mineBeen way too longWon’t talk to...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:05 -0500

Dear friend of mine
Been way too long
Won’t talk to me
Can’t run

Punched you in the
Can’t write a good
Can’t face anyone

New-old music by my darling Yoko.

Come out.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:12:50 -0500

Come out.

Resolved: There are wrong ways to be semi-nude.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 06:03:00 -0500

Thumbs down for ladies: Shirtless and bra-less with jeans.
Thumbs down for dudes: Shirt up top, nothing below.

Shirt plus undies is approved for both. (Dudes must remove socks.)

Thoughts?

Via thematerialworld: Cheese On Bread at Pussy Faggot on January...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:50:04 -0500

Via thematerialworld: Cheese On Bread at Pussy Faggot on January 7, 2012. Fearless leader Dan (front right, in shorts) summarizes the evening thus:

Daoud: I’m glad we decided to go with red, cause I happened to pack this, and this is the only red shirt I own.

Dan: I love that this is your version of a red shirt.

Sasha Frere-Jones on Drake and the dissolution of genre: What...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:14:26 -0500

Sasha Frere-Jones on Drake and the dissolution of genre:

What is exciting, beyond the music itself, is how Take Care shows that hip-hop (and pop in general) is in a period of transition in which formal constraints have dissolved almost entirely. How do you even know whether something is hip-hop? Its characteristic rhythms and sounds can be found everywhere in pop these days. We may have finally reached the moment when breaking popular music into genres is pointless.

A year ago I picked up an odd habit: If I was feeling especially...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:45:27 -0500

A year ago I picked up an odd habit: If I was feeling especially lousy, and I happened to be sitting in front of my computer, I’d quickly snap a picture with the built-in webcam. I don’t have exact dates for these, but I believe they’re fairly evenly spaced over time. The first was taken in December of 2010, the second just a few minutes ago.

Dejection and self-examination tend to go hand-in-hand for me: If I’m upset about work or a girl, I’ll zero in on a bad haircut or an acne scar, as if to intensify the mental narrative by illustrating it with something physical. The quirk of this particular experiment is that the instant I’ve captured the image, I feel a tiny bit better.

Attention bands who play in the New York area: Jessica Amaya is...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:00:00 -0500

Attention bands who play in the New York area: Jessica Amaya is in your midst, making beautiful videos.

Me: I get so down about this stuff — and then, instantly,...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:27:00 -0500

Me: I get so down about this stuff — and then, instantly, I start scolding myself for complaining at all. Like, “Some people will never have any idea what it’s like to have what you have! Man up, dude!” But I don’t know if that’s the right impulse. Because what I end up becoming is just a privileged person who’s sad and pissed off all the time, and doesn’t use that privilege to live a fulfilling life or do anything worthwhile for anybody else.

Lars: So you’re Kanye?

Me: I guess… I guess so. I guess I’m Kanye.

Before I forget: The songs I listened to most in 2011. You may note a theme. Land of Talk,...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:18:00 -0500

Before I forget: The songs I listened to most in 2011. You may note a theme.

Land of Talk, “It’s Okay” (2008)
Rediscovered on shuffle, quickly deployed as my go-to “late-night stroll to think about the future and stuff” soundtrack.

Superchunk, “Digging For Something” (2010)
Purchased the day I moved to D.C., listened to intently on the train. Was especially drawn to the backup vocal on the chorus; turns out it’s one of my heroes.

Jenny Owen Youngs, “Secrets” (2009)
Remember this one from an old J.O.Y. demo; happened to hear the tricked-out album version at a bar this fall. “Don’t try to make me sleep without you”: Who would dare?

Hospitality, “Eighth Avenue” (2012)
Clinging to this until their album comes out and everyone discovers how rad they are. It’s like watching your kid leave for college.

Yeti Lane, “Lonesome George” (2009)
Made me cry once. I was alone.

The Ting Tings, “That’s Not My Name” (2008)
Heard in a coffee shop that doesn’t exist anymore. Tried to pull a “What is this?” ice-breaker on the cute barista; no dice.

A Tribe Called Quest, “Scenario” (1991)
Spent a lot of time with Busta’s verse. Oh my gosh … Oh my gosh.

The Tallest Man on Earth, “I Won’t Be Found” (2008)
Played this for Casey when he visited this summer. His response: “Are you jealous of that growl?” Yes.

Robyn, “Call Your Girlfriend” (2010)
Yeah, I know, me and everyone with a heart. This cover is worth revisiting, though.

Passion Pit, “To Kingdom Come” (2009)
Apparently I walk at this song’s exact BPM. When the drums kick in, my posture straightens a bit and I feel like winking at the next person I see.

2012

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:18:00 -0500

I missed a lot of marks. I blew a lot of deadlines. I did an awful lot of worrying. And I learned some things. Here’s the one that stands to be most valuable to me this year, from an August Times article about decision fatigue:

“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” Baumeister says. “It’s a state that fluctuates.” His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.

“Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they’re not rested and their glucose is low,” Baumeister points out. That’s why the truly wise don’t restructure the company at 4 p.m. They don’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour. And if a decision must be made late in the day, they know not to do it on an empty stomach. “The best decision makers,” Baumeister says, “are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.”

Here’s to conserving willpower. Happy new year.

It’s good practice for creative folks to hang around people who do the thing they do, but...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:12:09 -0500

It’s good practice for creative folks to hang around people who do the thing they do, but better. My boy Lars Gotrich (real name, no gimmicks) is really, really good at listening to music, and crossed my path in a year when that very skill — one I’d taken for granted for my entire existence — seemed to be slipping through my fingers. He doesn’t know it yet, but we’ll be spending a lot more time together in 2012. In the meantime, check out his great, great list of favorite musical moments from 2011 at Total Vibration.

Missed you too, New York. Merry Christmas.

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:18:08 -0500

Missed you too, New York. Merry Christmas.

It begins.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:38:34 -0500

It begins.

Simon Reynolds on the trouble with box sets: “I...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:21:00 -0500

Simon Reynolds on the trouble with box sets:

“I can’t be the only person who ferociously covets these … yet finds them strangely repellent once they’ve got them. With its packaging resemblance to a coffin or tombstone, the box set is where old enthusiasm goes to die: a band or genre you loved frozen into an indigestible chunk. The audio glut forming a kind of clot in your living environment, a box set is invariably bloated with outtakes, which is to say songs that simply weren’t good enough to make the original cut of albums. With a few exceptions, they are impossible to listen to all the way through, and in a lot of ways don’t seem to be actually made for listening purposes but for ownership and display, as testaments to elevated taste and knowledge. If music is a library, as Bobby Gillespie once suggested, these are the leather-bound volumes that nobody ever cracks open; music that’s been curated to death.”

Experience more Retromania

Seen at Smash Records. I mean.

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:32:00 -0500

Seen at Smash Records. I mean.

Jonathan Larroquette tells his friend Seth a story, as...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:11:00 -0500

Jonathan Larroquette tells his friend Seth a story, as remarkable in the telling as in the content, about his last 24 hours as a teenage Rastafarian.

There are two modes in which this program, a weekly conversation powered mostly by the chemistry of its two hosts, works especially well. One is when Seth, a more gifted performer than his resume gives him credit for, launches into an improvised rant that continues long after Jonathan has been incapacitated with laughter. I’ll get to that in another post; there’s a lot to say there about the intersection of art and friendship.

The other, heard here in top form, is when Jonathan gives listeners a window into the many identities — Malibu lot kid, juvenile delinquent and self-styled bohemian prophet, to name a few — he explored while fumbling toward adulthood.

Full episode
Uhh Yeah Dude site

My name is no match for some people’s mental auto-correct.

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:10:00 -0500

My name is no match for some people’s mental auto-correct.

Take a break: Let the never-not-engaging prestonspurlock tell...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:55:00 -0500

Take a break: Let the never-not-engaging prestonspurlock tell you what guys talk about. (Be advised, nothing this kid does is ever for the faint of heart.)