Tuesday, February 5, 2008

kill the overkill (kill! kill! kill!)

big day today: Super Tuesday (wow, Mike Huckabee's not dead after all), the Giants' parade (like that wasn't long enough), the Dow's biggest one day loss in two years (like January wasn't painful enough) and, of course, Mardi Gras in the old stomping grounds.

and for some reason, over the past two days, I've been channeling song lyrics - original song lyrics - while riding the subway. nowhere else. but on the subway it's like a steady stream slaloming (is that a word?) through my head.

guitar hero news (yes, I'm playing too much): I'm currently #374 worldwide (or maybe worldwide Playstation 3; I can't figure it out for sure) in Medium Career rankings (the Foo Fighters downloads are especially fun even though they don't count in that category).

but back to the title subject. the Voice ran their fifth (count 'em) piece on Vampire Weekend in three days when Tom Breihan posted his "Live: Vampire Weekend, Not Sucking" entry last Thursday afternoon. and as they say in the old Shake 'n Bake commercials: "and I hayelped" (or something). I'll take deserved credit for the accompanying photo.

for more old news, Seattle Weekly picked up the abridged version (a la San Francisco) of my Yeasayer piece. but as they don't say in the old Shake 'n Bake commercial: "it ain't nothing you ain't seen before."

old business: Morgan (no, I don't know who Morgan is but he's connected to a music blog (written by Caleb?) with recent interesting pieces on indie rock voting and a "yes, please" in the Vampire Weekend argument) has written to ask that I explain, explicate, come clean about the title, "Strahan Has Corralled The Freaks," of my previous post.
and I am more than happy to.
"Strahan Has Corralled The Freaks" is an excellent song (if you don't use this link now, at least come back when you garner all your Pepsi Stuff points) by an excellent band (Centro-matic) on an excellent album, Love You Just The Same.
seriously (I don't do sincerity all that well), Centro-matic is one of my absolute favorite bands in the entire world (I picked their Fort Recovery album for the top of my 2006 Pazz & Jop ballot) and if Will Johnson (Mr. Mountain Goat John Darnielle and I agreed just last Friday that Will is a very nice guy, one of the best) knows what's good for him he'll write me with a release date for their upcoming Dual Hawks double disc so I can make some writing plans.
anyway, hopefully that'll explain Michael Strahan and some freaks (when I was in junior high it was pretty much the jocks versus the freaks, like West Side Story come to Alamabama).

the last movie I ever saw: The Bridge (a quite moving documentary on the astounding draw of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide site - four out of five)

the one before that: Atlantic City (Susan Sarandon, Burt Lancaster and Louis Malle in one of those stories where setting's strong enough to serve as its own character. really well done - five out of five)

the one before that: The Hospital (a decent turn by George C. Scott in the lead role but overall a very dated flick (I'm beginning to believe that Paddy Chayefsky is vastly overrated) from the early '70s (you know, the victim falls in love with her rapist, etc.) - two and a half out of five)

the one before that: San Francisco (they say that Clark Gable was hesitant about sharing the screen with Jeanette McDonald as he feared he might be consigned to too many scenes where his part was to watch her sing. I feel his pain. but it's still Gable and Tracy and the special effects (you know, the earthquake) are almost unbelievably good for 1936 - three and a half out of five)

less than 24 hours from Duke-Carolina I in 2008.
go Heels!

goodnight, Irene.

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