August 2008
1 post
Pygmalion Music Festival 2008
Here’s a festival I *am* going to.
WEDNESDAY
12:30 @ Canopy Club - Decibully
01:00 @ Canopy Club - Times New Viking
THURSDAY
7:15 @ Krannert Art - Catfish Haven
8:15 @ Krannert Art - Oxford Collapse
9:15 @ Krannert Art - Evangelicals
10:30 @ Canopy Club - Monotonix
11:30 @ Canopy Club - Dark Meat
12:30 @ Canopy Club - Dan Deacon
FRIDAY
8:15 @ Krannert Art - Owen
9:15 @...
July 2008
2 posts
Concert checklist
Here’s the list of “Favorite Bands” from my Facebook page. I consider myself very fortunate that I have seen most of these bands in concert. Good times!
The Apples in Stereo (coming 7/08!) Wolf Parade The New Pornographers Tap Tap and/or Pete & The Pirates (chances of USA tour = decent) Man or Astro-Man? Self (chances of USA tour = low to moderate) The Arcade Fire The...
TV Review: Celebrity Family Feud, The Office vs....
Somewhat passable mindless entertainment. The Office team consisted of Kevin, Phyllis, Meredith, Oscar and Creed. They did not play in character (actually, I’m not sure about Creed) and treated the ordeal with a degree of seriousness. The gladiators featured were Wolf, Venom, Titan, Jet and Lalia Ali.
Some thoughts:
** Family Fued categories used to be so wholesome. The 2008...
June 2008
2 posts
The Exile in Lisle: A Disjointed Recounting of Six...
PART ONE
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 8:47 PM
I left Champaign at around 5:00 PM. I had the diabolical plan to skip the toll booths and three interstate changes in the Chicagoland area by cutting across to I-55 at Kankakee. This plan actually worked pretty well except for the small fact that Google Maps blows. As I have previously encountered, Google Maps doesn’t much care for things like...
Concert Schedule Review: Lollapalooza 2008
I’m not going to “LPLZ” as jado so often calls it, but if I was, this would have been my schedule. Assuming that my just-concluded fake Bonnaroo went down as planned, I think I can diversify a bit more:
FRIDAY
12:15 - 1:15 The Black Lips
1:15 - 2:15 Rogue Wave (saw them at Bonnaroo, but we’ll do it again…)
2:15 - 3:15 The Go! Team
3:15 - 4:00 Louis XIV
4:15 -...
May 2008
5 posts
Concert Schedule Review: Bonnaroo 2008
I’m not going, but if I was, this would have been my schedule. Virtually no conflicts to be found.
THURSDAY
5:45 - 6:30 What Made Milwaukee Famous
7:00 - 8:00 Superdrag
8:30 - 9:30 MGMT
10:00 - 11:00 Battles
11:30 - 12:45 Vampire Weekend
** All of these shows are in the This Tent. Could have camped…
FRIDAY
12:30 - 1:45 Drive-by Truckers
.. 1:45 - 2:15 The Fiery...
Statistics Report: May's Top Search Strings on 7p
It seems that the most common way people are finding my website is searching for Star Wars coloring page. That doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is entry #5.
1 5 13.16% star wars coloring pages
2 4 10.53% coloring hygiene kids
3 2 5.26% chewbacca coloring page
4 2 5.26% coloring pages chewie 5 2 5.26% luke and leia make out
6 2 5.26% palpatine luke...
TV Review: American Gladiators, Season 2
Monica, the season one winner, was pretty cute. Now she’s Jet the gladiator, and I dunno… Meh. Plus she really sucks at Gauntlet.
Plus, the Eliminator is lame now. See-saw? Rope bridge? BORING. And they got rid of the big foam block wall at the end, replacing it with a big piece of paper. THAT WAS THE BEST PART. STUPID!
Six Flags censors Oh No, Oh My! shirt →
To see what the fuss was about, check out the merch section of Oh No, Oh My!’s website.
The story is mildly amusing. Not as amusing as Peter Gabriel’s web server getting stolen, but really, what is?
I don't mean to be rude, but I just... I don't...
But now *you* can! This tumblr log has been disqussed! Leave your insightful comments at will!
April 2008
7 posts
Capitalism Corner: CNN loses its mind with...
Yesterday I noticed tiny t-shirt icons next to some of the headlines on CNN.com. I didn’t think too much about it until a co-worked pointed them out this morning. Apparently, CNN is selling t-shirts with actual headlines printed on them and a tagline that says, “I just saw it on CNN”.
There are a few problems here.
1. Anyone who knows me is aware that I have some disdain...
Technology Review: Meijer's new self-service...
I’ve always been a reluctant fan of self-service checkouts (SSC), especially Meijer’s. There’s always a clerk lurking at their little base station with their eyes glued to you. One false move and your entire reason for using the SSC has been negated - you have to interact with a person. Plus, there are the countless times I’ve been asked to remove my last item and...
Movie Review: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
And with that, I’m swearing off David Lynch for awhile…
Movie Review: Blue Velvet
I don’t get it.
Earthquake Mix 2008
Earthquake Weather - Beck
Shakin’ - The Dandy Warhols
Tremor Christ - Pearl Jam
Shaking Like A Leaf - Reacharound
Earthquake - Spacehog
Shaking Paper - Cat Power
Mother Nature’s Fault - Self
Epicentre - Manic Street Preachers
Let Your Earth Quake, Baby - The Thermals
Shakin’ - Rooney
Human Earthquake - Pilot Scott Tracy
Soon to be Ex-Quaker - The...
An Open Letter...
Dear indie music fan,
I’ve always found it irritating when I read one of your best-of lists or mixtape tracklists and I don’t recognize most of the bands. You obviously know something (lots of things, actually) that I don’t know. I don’t like that. I’m supposed to be a bastion of indie knowledge, and quite frankly your lists have made me feel inferior. Despite...
TV Review: Extras (HBO/BBC)
Synopsis (some spoilers): Andy (Ricky Gervais) and Maggie (Ashley Jensen) are movie extras and best friends. They interact with several famous people whilst working on these movies. Andy aspires to be much more but his agent (Stephen Merchant) isn’t finding parts to suit him. Andy writes a script for a sitcom. The script eventually gets to the BBC who make it a series called...
March 2008
3 posts
Songs of the Moment, Vol. 5
“Who’s In Your Dreams?” by Strawberry Whiplash from Who’s In Your Dreams EP (2008)
“Walcott” by Vampire Weekend from Vampire Weekend (2008)
Songs of the Moment, Vol. 4
“Pet Eunuch” by Clinic from Walking With Thee (2002) and while we’re talking about Clinic, check out “Free Not Free” , the first single from their upcoming album Do It!, due April 7.
“The Reason I’m Here” by Tap Tap from Lanzafame (2006)
And since the 2008 concert season will soon be in full swing, here’s the first edition of Live Tracks I...
TV Review: Unhitched (FOX)
It’s not awful. Not great, but not awful. Just good. I only watched it because it has Rashida Jones in it. I think I’ve reached the point in my withdrawal from The Office where I will watch virtually anything even tangentially related to the show. I even scoured IMDB too see all the actor’s next TV appearances and in doing so found out that Rainn Wilson was in Galaxy...
February 2008
3 posts
Songs of the Moment, Vol. 3
After three listens this weekend, I gotta say pretty much anything off Apples in Stereo’s New Magnetic Wonder
This album is fantastic! It was released last February and I completely ignored it up until a few weeks ago (when “Sunday Sounds” made SotM). I don’t know what compelled me to download it from eMusic a while back other than the fact that it had received pretty...
The 2008 Hyper-Scientific Indie Rock Album Chart
In a direct response to the accusation that I am no longer on the bleeding edge of indie music (from someone who hadn’t heard of Vampire Weekend nonetheless (who hasn’t heard of Vampire Weekend by now? Geesh!)) I have created the 2008 Hyper-Scientific Indie Rock Album Chart.
Using a highly confidential formula developed by the eggheads at Fermi Lab, I can systematically rank all...
Songs of the Moment, Vol. 2
“Sunday Sounds” by Apples in Stereo from New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
“Now and Then You Appear” by The Possibilities from Way Out (2002)
January 2008
6 posts
Songs of the Moment, Vol. 1
Modern: “Tightly Wound” by The Capes from Hello (2005)
Vintage: “Another Nail In My Heart” by Squeeze from Argybargy (1980)
Juno
Alright, I actually saw this in the theater, which is two miles away from the judging indie twerps at the rental place. One of the best thing about this film was the inclusion of Sonic Youth’s cover of The Carpenter’s “Superstar”. This has long been one of my favorite covers and comes the reasonably good If I Were a Carpenter tribute album.
I had an inkling as to why...
Concert Review: White Denim/White Rabbits @...
In the battle between The Walkmen and and icy precipitation, precipitation won.
I don’t like traveling to out-of-town concerts during the winter. Inevitably, it will be either bone-ass cold (please refer to the sub-zero Camera Obscura, Chicago ‘07 concert) or there will be a nice snow/ice storm. I drew the latter tonight. Forecasts had called for a wintry mix to start falling at 9...
Chutz's Top Songs O' 2007
Videos brought to you by the fine people of the internet!
1. We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives - Los Campesinos!
Extraordinary catchy. Beyond those two words, I can’t really explain why I like this song so much.
2. Let’s Talk About It - White Denim
This is one of those songs that I only needed to hear once to be hooked. It quite possibly contains my favorite guitar riff of...
Family Guy
I’m watching Family Guy right now. I watch a lot of Family Guy. A LOT. Never before has television offered me so many opportunities to watch the same show over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. “That’s a ton of overs! He must be exaggerating,” you say to yourself. Well, I wouldn’t joke about something as...
Missed Concert Regrets
There is currently a thread on the WOXY message boards about the concerts people regret missing the most. The variety of reasons why these boarders reget missing one show or another is actually much more fascinating than the list of artists. Reading the thread got me to thinking about the shows that I’ve missed over the years. After a bit of Googling and sifting through...
December 2007
2 posts
The Quest for Bacon Salt
A couple of weeks back jado told me about Bacon Salt, a “zero calorie, vegetarian, kosher certified, seasoning salt that makes everything taste like real bacon.” Now, I’m not a vegetarian or Jewish or even a fan of bacon. In fact, I can’t recall the last time I had the real stuff and the idea of salt that tastes like bacon doesn’t really appeal to me. But, I *love*...
