Friday

A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze

I was up late like usual last night. I got a hold of Sufjan Stevens new album Illinois a whole 3 months before release. It doesn't even have album art...I think. I like the variety of instruments he uses but then again he wouldn't be called a multi-instrumentalist for nothing. I hear he is a very good banjo player, I like his drumming too. Illinois is a 22 track and I listened to most of the whole thing straight through as soon as I got it last night. Every Sufjan release sounds different than the others, this one is no exception. This one is more floaty, kind of airy in some portions and also more angelic because of all the backing vocals. This release has a nice selection of happier songs but then a song like John Wayne Gacy, Jr pops up and I'm pretty sure you can figure what its about. Like his last proper album Michigan, this one has the crazy long titles which are way too long for file names like the second track; "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!". This album is #2 out of 50, of the 50 states albums. He started with Michigan where he was born and followed it with Illinois. I'm trying to rank this in my head as either my favorite by him or second favorite competing with Michigan, I haven't formed a solid opinion. I thought he would of done New York since that's where he lives but if he keeps the good tunes coming who am I to complain.

Speaking of Indie-Folk that new Okkervil River album flat out knocked me out. Its less folk/country than their usual but it is their best in my opinion. This album ranks right up there with my favorite albums of the first 1/3 of the year. I've been really rocking the folk lately. There is so much you can do with music.

The Games Afoot

Today somehow I completely slept through class until about 30 minutes until it was over. My only explanation I can think of is that I was so sleep deprived yesterday from sleeping late after working on my project and waking up early to complete it. It was my best work for the class though so I'm happy.

I just came back from my Philosophy class, we had a guest speaker, Dr. something or the other, a doctor of theology. There are few instructors that I respect and my Philosophy instructor is one of them, I can only think of 2 others in the 4 years of college that I respected as instructors. So guest speakers in this class are always kind of lame. This guest speaker I will remember because I haven't ever seen a man of 60, a man with a ph.D almost break into tears. His voice started to break, his lips started to quiver and his face contorted. He was telling a story about what happen to a friend of his. Right before he was energetic, laughing and smiling, he was taking questions and making jokes. All this emotion because his friend said he left his camera in the first building. Of course this is a simplification of the story and doesn't actually address the reason, which was a valid one for him to get emotional. But the fact of the matter is that only after he regained his compusure we realized why he was reacting like this. After some explanation. So to us, some guy left a camera in a building and this guy was about to cry about it. It was a strange akward moment. The whole class was all looking at him with a puzzled look on their face.



My favorite quote of today:
"You can drop that cheesy accent"
"I can't...I'm British."
Then followed by akward silence.

Dig For Fire

I worked on my presentation and project most of yesterday as soon as I got out of my last class. In doing so I missed the Mavericks but they lost. I really thought this was there year to make it. I don't have any school work and I'm jamming some new Four Tet and the and their debut. They have some great organic electro-acoustic music, I used to only know them for their remixes, especially the Radiohead remix they did.

Has anyone heard that song on that target commercial where its a lady singing, she sounds like Nico. Sounds so familiar but can't put my finger on the song. Maybe it is Nico.

---

I figured I should use my superpowers for the good of mankind;

Lots of Beatles albums

Wired Mix CD

Geto Boys - Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangster

John Lennon - Imagine

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind

Pixies Live @ Coachella

ample parking

Make Believe

Weezers new album was leaked this past Saturday and I got a hold of it today. Some parts are better than others. Its over produced, you can tell that from the first track/first single Beverly Hills. It sounds like a glossy 80s album at some spots. That whole time I was listening to it I thought that it seemed more designed to appeal to the top 40 sound, maybe to push more albums. Some of it is not bad but Rivers, the lead singer doesn't seem to believe in Make Believe. In the new Rolling Stone he said he signed a contract with his record label to only support this album just for one year then he's through with it. You can't ever tell with that crazy weirdo Rivers, sometimes I wish he would just not give anyone his opinion or comments anymore.

I think this new album has the worst song that he ever wrote called We are all on drugs. The lameness of the song starts to come to realization on the first listen when he says give it to me right before the chorus. Its worth a listen, it has some good tracks here and there. From what I heard on the last two Weezer albums there was about 3 good tracks and the rest was filler, this one seems like it has only three good tracks. At least Rivers gives us consistently on that. One track sounds the close to a track that you might hear on one of the first two album, not as catchy but you can hear it.



I'd give it a 47 out of 100

Kip

Check out this cool shirt;

Solid

I hate these early games. You can't really drink and watch...well you can but it doesn't feel right when its early and you're by yourself. Anyway the Dallas Mavs and the Houston Rockets are playing game 1 of the 7, the first game of the playoffs for both teams. I think I'll just get ahead of myself and mention that the Mavericks lost game 1, it hasn't happened yet but I'm pretty sure thats the soon to be outcome. We had a nice come back after being down my 13, then that went away.

Yesterday was weird, not bad weird just weird. Went to a small party at someones house but it was lame. Then about 25 drunk people from the party went to IHOP then a shack in the middle of nowhere full of cow chips. Might I mention it was haunted. It was funny though, 7 cars and I was the one person with a flashlight. That thing comes in handy more than you'd think. There is something about drunk people and going out to the middle of no where after a couple of drinks.

Worlds Apart

Whiskey and Basketball don't mix too well, atleast in my stomach. I felt it sloshing around as I was playing and eventually winning. After the victory I sat down for bit and all was better.

I woke up today after sleeping 4 hours and revised a paper I wrote yesterday and went to class. I was walking out the door and Jason was asleep on the couch using a bean bag as a blanket. Few hours of sleep, booze, people passed out around the apartment and the apartment being trashed; the signs point towards the weekend approaching.

I had this nice post all typed out but netscape crashed. I'd have to blame the trail of dead for this one. Well the band, I was streaming there music video and it crashed. I summarized what I wrote. The the trail of dead have a new website layout which looks pretty rad with the flash animation and all, the old one was looking pretty archaic. The new album is growing on me, I just had really high hopes after the last album so I judged it quickly as a dud. There are some great tracks on Worlds Apart, just not as many as Source, Tags and Codes.

Check out Mr. T doing a little rap while wearing cool shorts.


"The Interscope marketing department thought long and hard and came up with...Trail of Dead plastic figure?"

Minor Place

I've been listening to a lot of Slacker Jazz, the name surprisingly fits really good with the sound other than the incorporation of noise samples instead of horns. So now I'm walking around campus humming bass riffs. dododododo dooooo doo dooooooo doo do do do. Its better than me singing Baby Beluga, trying to figure out the first verse while walking to class and thinking that there is no one around then all of a sudden you hear a twig break and you look back and bam 10 feet away is someone walking behind you. I laughed it off but still felt like a retard. I was just having this flashback moment on the bus to class and remembered something from preschool and it was this song.

Okay, that was a moment of pointlessness. I followed a link to the Patton Oswalt blog and read a little, had a laugh or two, especially from his audio clips. His page is good for a few laughs but not as funny as Jim Gaffigans website. He's got a lot more video clips [including the time he hosted the late late show] and more stuff to read. He's going to be on Conan on May 4, so keep your eye out for that. Hot Pockets

wink

I hear there is a new Foo Fighters track floating around. I still like the new coldplay better.

To the Nap-Mobile

I wish every webpage I published online were still up...well few are but I've gone through so many the older ones are just lost. I think it all started 6 years ago when I was in high school and I just made a webpage for the hell of it. I don't personally remember it in my mind but I do remember what I wrote about and I can tie that to six years ago thoughts. My how much I've grown in those short 6 years. My first page was as I like to call it "my whinny webpage" where I just complained about stuff that pissed me off. More of, I wrote like I thought no one would read it. But I have grown, I saw the errors of my ways. The point is that I still wish I could read what I wrote just to get in my 1999 head and see what was going on. Although I do remember analogies involving Godzilla and Mothra but that just makes me want to know more about the content. My new chair is the publish for entertainment value, which is where I think I'll be sitting for a while. I hate getting too personal about things online. I have this phobia of people who I don't know well knowing me a little to well maybe even to an uncomfortable extent. Plus that takes away my element of mystery that I like oh so much. I don't mind meeting strangers, actually I like it a lot but meeting someone for the first time on a web page would be the first entry they see. "Hello my name is Doug and I lose control of my bowls 4 to 6 times a day". That would be Dougs brand for a long time not to mention the impression on his friends who reads his page.

Damn, thats how I get off topic in a split second, I sat down to write about self interest.

To the nap-mobile.

Ron Mexico

Here is a little insight of what the British thinks about America. Nice for a good laugh. They like their Homer Simpson and Mr. T

Is anyone following this Ron Mexico thing, if you're a sports fan, especially a NFL fan you would of heard of Michael Vicks (Falcons QB, one of the best in the league if not the best) escapeds as his alter ego "Ron Mexico". I don't really care about the story or how he gave some girl herpes the only thing I care about is that sweet alias RON MEXICO. So much authority. Anyway I visit some pages regularly that are having a field day with this Ron Mexico thing and I found this link. Hercules Macedonia isn't as good as Ron Mexico but what can I do, Michael Vick beat me to it, what can't this guy do.... other than preserve his repuation as a role model.

Do you like Transformers? Do you like break dancing? If so I think I found the video for you, well me but looky.

Ah damn I have class. Also I think I made an A on my 2 day research project just a guess. The instructor was naming out different topics and then all of a sudden "alcohol" and then I hear laughter rumbling through the 200 people in the class of students on the brink of sleep. I gave myself a hi-five in my head.

Mondays

Feeling lazy right now but here are two links and another painting by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips

..... with an amazing view of about 5,000 squirrels running around rabid with fancy jewelry

Bionic suit?

"Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!"

The Good Life

Yes another weekend gone by and not much of anything got accomplished but I had fun doing that. I haven't had a weekend like this because I've had papers, research and projects to do the past month and a half, a break was nice. I think tonight I will listen to much of the music I downloaded recently which include Superwolf by Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (can't ever get enough Bonnie 'Prince' Billy), two Refused EPs, couple of Death Cab 7" and More Parts Per Million by the Thermals and hopefully The Hearfelt by Figurine. I got my night set for me, life can't get better than that.

Bitter Buffalo

We finally got rid of the pumpkin that was sitting on top of our tv stand after he sat there for 6 months. First we tossed him around which was pretty funny then he assaulted Joe so we had to teach him a lesson. So we packed in nine m60s in him and took him out to the parking lot.


One side had six the other side had three.


My expert placment.


Here he is looking kind of scared, I think he knows whats going to happen.


Turns out that fireworks couldn't do much damage so I smashed it, then he got couple of kicks.


He ain't pretty no more!


then he was laughed at


the aftermath

Disconnect the Dots

Has anyone heard the new Coldplay? They have this song called Talk, the hook sounds just like that Killers song, Somebody Told Me, just for a second. Right when he says "Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin" in the Killers song. But alas the new Weezer single rips off Nerf Herders, New Jersey Girl but just for a second. But what about that Gwen Stefani song, her first single that steals from the Weezer song Hash Pipe. Both songs were lame and I think Weezer was hitting the hash pipe a little too much when making the Green album....or anything after. That my music rant for the day....or is it? Nope

Some guy I met online and trade some music with randomly sent me this Mississippi Delta Blues album by RL Burnside. Nice I'm-waking-up-early-to-finish-my-project-in-the-last-minute music. You can't find that everywhere and plus I took a class about early American music and in that class I learned to appreciate and understand the genre. Other than that I'm listening to the most excellent, Satanic Panic In the Attic and still listening to the new Mountain Goat LP.

I had this really good post in mind Monday about figuring people out and how you really don't know anyone. I had this bit about how people are constantly reinventing others in their heads with actions they do that surprised you. It had a nice metaphor too, it was the best and most coherent part of it. It was more relevant when I was thinking about it and I had more to say but it wasn't good timing so I let that go. I didn't want it to completely let it go so this was my summary of what I remember about it. It was kind of an epiphany while studying, thinking about what a friend had said.

The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

I changed some stuff and can't figure why I can't get center alignment. The thing is that when I preview it looks okay but when I bring it up after publishing it aligns left. Nothing too bad so I'm not worried. Also I have a "just-in-case" log of how the code looked like before this happen I'm just too lazy to check on it and rather nap.

Another Stake Out

I spent a nice hour staking out the convenience store at the corner. I took note of who all bought booze and who didn't and some profile information about them and interesting observations. Some guy hit his car door against mine the first 2 minutes I got there. I just waved it off and he went to the payphone and started yelling angrily in Spanish. Every once in a while you'd get a phrase or word in English like, "who are you talking to?, who are you talking to?" and lots of "mother fucker" with some uttering of "shit" and variations of those in Spanish. Then he went in and bought beer. Good thing I waved that off he looked pretty drunk and mean. There are some weirdos that go/hang out there like me but I'm harmless until I'm armed with my golf club. Other than the various pay phoners and that one crack head who was just standing there smoking cigarette after cigarette and staring at me, it was tame. I guess that's what I get when I go to the nearest beer store to the "hood" as the police referred to it last time I got pulled over on my bike. Well, back to the Qualitative research. I'm trying my hardest to make a mockery of the system, doing a 3 month project in 2 days. A worthy risk.

Vaudeville Villain

Broom People

Askmen.com has their 10 manly drinks, which is worth a looking.

This is worth posting just for the domain name and the rest is pretty funny too. I knew who he was before seeing the page, that probably made it more funny.

The new Mountain Goats album The Sunset Tree leaked onto the net I'm guessing Saturday or Friday and I got it Sunday. In my personal opinion its better than any album he ever put out...he's put out 15+ since 1995. I had to go through an hour of negotiations with a guy named "big chief" to get it but yea I got it.

Dilaudid

This past weekend I was told that my website was linked to various other ones online which was a mystery to me. I comment on so many sites and most of them I don't keep track of so its easily understood that this could happen. Anyway I think I should return the favor and link them back. So I will try to beef up some links here and there but don't expect much, I have a three month research project to do in 4 days.




Pretty good weekend.

My pal foot foot

Transmissions from the ....

I'm bored so I did my usual bored thing, I read every website of everyone I know and don't know, every online news magazine I frequent, emailed some people a song or two and now here I sit. When I'm bored I usually download some new music but I think I played that card a little too much this week. Lets see I've been up for 2 and a half hours, an hour and a half of that I was in class and I some how managed to download 3 albums already today. Yesterday I downloaded 8 [tortoise discography put me over the top] but the day before I didn't get anything according to my records. Yea I think its an addiction but there is so much out there. I'm trying to listen to everything in a timely manner, right now its "Monday at the Hug and Pint", one of yesterday acquisitions.

So here is my list;
Grocery store?
Sign up for Summer and Fall classes?
Poke around the kitchen and find some food?
Clean my wreck of a room?
Research Project?
Piano?
{variable)
Video Game?
Read?

I'm sure I can pick two or so and get those done "quick snap".

Chef Tattoos

These comes from a New York Times article about tattoos that chefs have.

X&Y

Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Computer 14

All my school work is pilling up. Right now I'm in the COBA labs trying to record a stupid sounds for my homework assignment. It has to be your voice reading or saying something and so I decided that I would read a quote from a book quoting another book. My line;

" Filled with rapture, his soul yearned for freedom, space, vastness. Over him the heavenly dome, full of quiet, shining stars, hung boundlessly"

-Dostoevsky

I hate saying that line over and over again here in the computer lab. I can't even come close to a whisper. I wanted to announce to everyone that I was mentally sane and that I'm just doing an assignment but I decided against it. I haven't even gotten a level that I can use. I think I might have to yell loud enough so the whole first floor could hear me from here to get a decent recording. I hate this class, easy concepts, difficult assignments especially when there is one due every class and this class there is a presentation and assignment due. The instructor is pretty lame too...and she wanted me to give her my web address, ha. How do I bitch about her class then?

Creek drank the cradle

check it out, you can see the tip of my shoe

Emu

Ah yes the weekend, but this weekend like the last few I have a lot of school work and once again it seems like school has ruined my weekend. But I won't let it. There is a party brewing this weekend for Davids birthday and I like free beer in large quantities thats exactly what I'll find there. Last weekend somehow a keg arrived at Bens and with it a lot of people, this weekend there should be two.

Check out Google Gulp


double team you with an emu