Best New Music

I'm in love with Ida Maria
The best new band (Bonus: from Sweden!)
so good, the dream of what I want to listen to.
Listen, love, live

Team Obama

"At a news conference, the Illinois senator was asked about Hillary Clinton’s attack on his qualifications. Making an economic speech in Knoxville, Iowa, earlier that day, the New York senator had touted her own know-how, saying that “there is one job we can’t afford on-the-job training for — that’s the job of our next president.” Her aides confirmed that she was referring to Obama.

Pressed to respond, Obama offered a zinger feathered with amused disdain: “My understanding was that she wasn’t Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, so I don’t know exactly what experiences she’s claiming.”

Everybody laughed, including Obama.

It took him nine months, but he finally found the perfect pitch to make a trenchant point.

Her Democratic rivals had meekly gone along, accepting her self-portrait as a former co-president who gets to take credit for everything important Bill Clinton did in the ’90s. But she was not elected or appointed to a position that needed Senate confirmation. And the part of the Clinton administration that worked best — the economy, stupid — was run by Robert Rubin. Hillary did not show good judgment in her areas of influence — the legal fiefdom, health care and running oppo-campaigns against Bill’s galpals.

She went on some first lady jaunts and made a good speech at a U.N. women’s conference in Beijing. But she was certainly not, as her top Iowa supporter, former governor Tom Vilsack claimed yesterday on MSNBC, “the face of the administration in foreign affairs.”

She was a top adviser who had a Nixonian bent for secrecy and a knack for hard-core politicking. But if running a great war room qualified you for president, Carville and Stephanopoulos would be leading the pack."

Oh, how I love Sparky

So, there's this really cool guy I've known for like 3 or so years. He's gone on mission trips, etc., and cracks me up to no end. His sense of humor is top 5 material. Seriously. Well, he's studying to be an architect and attends Arizona State, a fact that makes me entirely too jealous. Beyond all that, he has one of the sweetest gigs in the world: Sparky the Sun Devil. He is the ASU mascot. And he just dropped by and tossed me an awesome tshirt. Sparky, I love you.

Who are you?

For the past week & a half, I see about 2-4 MN license plates a day. We are 6+ hours from the border, and 40 minutes from any reputable university, so who are you? Why are you hovering?

On a lighter note- 3-9 sucks, but it's over & done with, as the Proclaimers say, and we can get on the recruiting trail right away.

Devin "G.A.I.F.D.Y." Hester makes me giddy.

Designing a Nervous Breakdown

I don't know how I'm going to make it thru today, this week, this year. If I can make it to June 15, I can make it any where. This life is gonna be the death of me. And just as I almost put my face thru a wall, I put this tiny disc on and this tune saved me again. It don't work without the sound, though.

Its nine-eight-teen
It's coffee colored evening
The headlights spin shadows on the ceiling
I'm left here with the Gideon Bible
Long strands of her hair
Trickle down the bed

And in my soul there's a little Alaska
It's 80 below and it's dropping
Sweet Ecclesiastes won't you preach to me
Corner store assassion with a Glock 19
Coffee makes my hand shake
I'm a running boy
If I were Jack the Ripper would you still kiss me?

She's smooth like the girl with the leather-like bonding
You fall into the snow, yeah you make a little Angel
And I read straight through the book of Revelations
I saw the Astronaus on TV jumping on the moon

And all the horses that I bet on
Are lame and shot through the head
and Sweet Ecclesiastes, won't you reach to me?
Corner store assassion with a Glock 19
Coffee makes my hand shake
I'm a running boy
If I were Jack the Ripper would you still kiss me?

Mwah

Tuesday: kinda tired, too long til any relief, just tryin to git er done.

Helpful to do so:
Okkervil River's Daytrotter session. Damn these guys are good.
Paste's cover story of Ryan Adams. You don't like him? Fine. Your an idiot.
Cool panoramic painting of Milwaukee from City Hall, circa 1898. Very well.
Like Christmas music? Like indie rock? Like supporting Toys for Tots? Perfect, says It's Hard to Find a Friend.
I got the soundtrack to I'm Not There. Boo-Yah. That's some mighty fine pickin' and a-diggin'.

Joe Sorren

Sorry to bother you, but I really think you should know about this. There's this artist, Joe Sorren, and he's awesome. He's got this show, "While the Trucks on the Highway all Howl"
and man is it good. Gaze in yer free time.

Radiohead: just can't get enough.

Sports Rehab

Lasted mmmm about a week, til I got a ticket for the Notre Dame game yesterday. Totally worth it. My tushy feels sore and I think my lungs/respiratory stuff got real bad from being out there and screaming all afternoon, but, whatever.
If you've never been there, I'm sorry. It's the greatest spot in all of humanity, nothing more beautiful in the world. I'm bummed out that I can't go next week, cuz there's 2 tickets open for it. Sigh.
But you can never be too sad after marching with the band, chilling in front of Touchdown Jesus, lighting it up in the Grotto, standing in the Basilica, breathing in the Holy of Holies.

I'm Dying Tomorrow

I feel like crap, but less like crap than yesterday, or the last 3 days for that matter. BUT I should plan on still technically having The Flu until Saturday. Whatever.

Green is Universal: kinda cool, worrying that it's now a full-fledged trend, considered lame in 6 months. Yeah right, you say, but, I respond, where are all the LiveStrong bracelets today? Also, me thinks the apartment complex is taking it a little too far: still no heat. Brrr.

I can think of at least one little lady who might like this sight: Campus Gossip

Help me, Obama-wan, your my only hope.

Thank you, BOOMERS, thank you very much.

I quit

sports for the rest of 2007. It's too hard, it hurts too much. I need a colonic. Hopefully next year goes better.

FYI: watch Monster Squad. Best movie you've never seen, unless you've already seen it. Then, you know.

The Lights are Back!

Oh it feels so good! Took a few weeks but finally a solid episode. Sure, it wasn't epic, but it hit all the right spots. Please start watching this gold mine. Kyle Chandler is so hot. But let's ditch the Law & Order subplot.

On a lighter note, tonight's This American Life was one of the most depressing I've ever listened to. Very interesting, but very depressing.

Keep the Lights on!

(Manifest)

i want to call requests through heating-vents,
and hear them answered with a whispered, "no."
to crack the code of muscle, slacken, tense.
let every second step in boots on snow
complete you name with accents i can't place,
that stumble where the syllables combine.
take depositions from a stranger's face.
paint every insignificance a sign.
so tell me nothing matters, less or more.
say, "whatever we think actions are,
we'll never know what anything was for."
if "near is just as far away as far,"
and i'm permitted one act i can save,
i choose to sit here next to you and wave.

Mashup of the Cranes

I don't know who you get down with, but I think Marissa Nadler could float your boat. I think she fits in with the fall/winter seasons, and she got raaal purty voice tuh.

Weakerthans, weakerthans, weakerthans. You don't have to listen to me, you don't have to think they are phenomenal. But please, please, listen to Craig Finn of the Hold Steady: best songwriters: Dylan, Young, Springsteen, Blake Schwarzenbach, John Samson. Believe it.

Okkervil River, Band of Horses, Devandra Barnhardt, what? Be you angels? No, we are but HARP Magazine. Rock on.

I don't know how to say this, but The Playing Favorites are awesome.

Don't forget to watch Friday Night Lights tonight!

Isn't it annoying when people keep telling you that Halloween's bad, even into November?

Movies watched & to watch this weakend:
SpiderMan 3
The Thing
Grindhouse: Death Proof
Ken Burns Civil War
Decemberists: A Practical Handbook
Van Helsing
Supernatural
Northern Exposure
Sports Night
Notre Dame (hopefully) victory over Navy (oh please God)

We are the Pipettes

Finally, finally, finally, I got my dirty little hands on this awesome album. It came out over a year ago in England, but was intouchable for under $25 in the U.S.. I first heard them back in the winter of '05-'06 on a couple of comps and singles. These gals had me smitten from the first note, and so I'm thrilled to finally own these tunes.
The Pipettes are like a '60's doo-wop girl-group crossed with post-indie rock equals awesome. Probably not for everyone, but good enough for me.

Side note: I think Be Kind, Rewind is going to be an awesome movie, but here's the thing that screws with my head: When they insert awesome music into previews, I'm sold. The song could not even show up in the actually flick, I'm going, and I'm going to go in with great expectations. Sometimes it works out: "Mr Blue Sky" in Eternal Sunshine, and now in Be Kind, Rewind (Jack Black- not too shabby, not brilliant, Mos Def- Phenomenal, one of my favorite famous people evah) they are spinning Billy Preston's "Nothing from Nothing", which is a divine song from one of the most criminally underrated artists of all time.