hornbuckle livejournal

honest to blog

2008-04-08T21:59:18Z

this weekend while standing in line for a midnight screening of piranha, the oscar®-winning(!) writer of juno was standing directly in front of me. wearing an unsurprisingly tacky leopard-print jacket, she was talking on her cellphone about something that didn't particularly interest me. however, once the line started moving as we were all being let into the theater, she honestly ended her conversation by saying, "later, gator!" and when i looked at ther iphone as the call was disconnected, i saw "Edgar Wright" in large letters on the screen.

(also in attendance at this screening: quentin tarantino, eli roth, drew barrymore, justin long. i thought it was interesting that quentin and eli skipped out on the midnight screening of grindhouse that was happening only a couple miles away. but perhaps there would have been too many fanboys there, and nobody bothered them at the new beverly.)

...

2008-04-04T07:12:45Z

i started a joke.muxtape.com

postscript: i realize that this does not cover every cover of the bee gees' classic song. in fact, here is one that didn't make the cut, which the bee gees themselves apparently said is "the kind of thing you hear in a lunatic asylum, fused with…an old man with diarrhea." i concur.

muxin' it up

2008-04-02T23:36:42Z

i'm as excited about muxtape as the next guy (or girl), despite the fact that i'm expecting it to be shut down by the RIAA at any second. it's a great idea, and it's executed perfectly simple. sure, there are a few things i would add to it (and maybe they're already in development), but it still works great without any bells or whistles.

so is it lame that i just want to keep listening to my own mix over and over? probably. but it's a good one.*

shellac "spoke"

apollo up! "invisible syllable"

emf "arizona"

dabrye featuring a.g. "get dirty"

medicine "aruca"

blonde redhead "sw"

david & the citizens "until the sadness is gone"

forget cassettes "my maraschino"

shudder to think "so into you"

the donnas "better off dancing"

the robocop kraus "automotive man"

kaada "dammit, planet earth"

*at least to me

mp3 delirium

2008-02-15T08:14:58Z

this probably won't interest very many people on my friends list, but i just noticed that the entire 3rd fantômas album can now be legally acquired for only 99¢ (or 5 "pepsi points") via amazon's new mp3 download service. the album consists of a single 74-minute-long track.

of course, it's still available on cd with cool packaging for a bit more money.. and via p2p for free.

sorry, juno/diablo cody

2008-01-23T19:31:12Z

the wizard of gore ≠ suspiria

suspiria > the wizard of gore

hoof arted

2007-06-09T23:43:08Z

last night after work, i went to the new landmark theatre to see パプリカ (paprika). i've never been a huge anime fanboy (although robot carnival is very dear to my heart), but i thought that this one looked quite interesting. i arrived at the theater quite early, mostly due to the fact that i didn't want to sit at work any longer. the theater has assigned seats, and i had already picked my perfect seat online that afternoon. i was the first to be seated and thought i had made the right decision. i was almost perfectly in the middle, which was my goal.

unfortunately, before the movie actually started an older couple sat directly next to me on my left. at least the couple on the right of me were nice enough to leave a buffer seat. i mean, this wasn't going to be a sold out screening, so there was no need to be all up in a stranger's business. i tried to make the best of it, since assigned seating does indeed have a downside: you never know who's going to be next to you, and you can't just get up and move to another seat because somebody else may have already reserved it. the man sat next to me, and i immediately noticed him breathing loudly but figured that the movie would drown it out enough so that it wouldn't be distracting.

as the movie started, he was getting more and more on my nerves for reasons i don't exactly remember now. then i heard him fart. i was hoping it was just somebody else shifting in their seat, but a few seconds later the smell hit my nose. i immediately moved as far to my right as possible and looked behind me to see if any other seats were open. as soon as the opening sequence had finished and the credits began, i climbed as quickly as possible into one of the seats behind me. there was no way i was going to let some heavy-breathing, farting guy ruin the movie for me.

and it was fine from then on, although i noticed the guy next to me bobbing his head anytime the music in the film got really loud. that seemed kind of strange but didn't really bother me. perhaps he owned the soundtrack and was really, really, really into it. the guy who was previously sitting next to me appeared to be leaning into where i was sitting and falling asleep. at any rate, the movie was good; not quite as crazy as i expected, but definitely one that i will be seeing again.

postscript: tomorrow night i will be seeing brand upon the brain!, with live orchestration and narration by udo kier (which will actually be the second time i've seen mr. kier in person at the same venue). i figured he would be the most entertaining of the narrators scheduled for l.a.; my second choice was mike watt, whom i recently saw tear up the stage at the troubadour with melt-banana.

muthafucka!

2007-04-22T06:33:38Z

i must interrupt my silence of the past few months to promote my new favorite song/video...
panther "you don't want yr nails done"

l.a. style suddenly becomes relevant

2006-12-25T18:46:42Z

r.i.p. godfather of soul

james brown is dead

malibu nights, tangerine dreams

2006-10-07T23:12:55Z

on thursday night, i travelled the winding pacific coast highway to malibu to see what i believe may have been wired all wrong's first show. if it wasn't their first, it was at least supposed to be a "warm up" before they play this festival today. and even though i wouldn't mind seeing peeping tom again (in addition to waw), i'm not really too into outdoor music festivals and thought this show would be a better opportunity to experience matt mahaffey's new project with jeff turzo live. i only saw self live once six years ago, but i still listen to his/their music on a daily basis.

anyway, i arrived at the venue a half an hour after the doors were supposed to open, but the surprise opening band didn't take the stage until at least an hour after that. i was already a bit bored by that point, as i would have never set foot in that place if it weren't for mr. mahaffey. it felt like a bar one might find in the southeastern united states, except the clientele didn't consist of rednecks but a combination of people who just hang out at the beach all day and people who are just rich and live in malibu. on either side of the bar was a barrel full of peanuts, and although i was tempted to partake i refrained because i didn't have enough money with me to buy a drink. so i just sat and watched people, and they were disappointingly uninteresting. i had noticed a guy walking around wearing aviator sunglasses and a sleeveless shirt and sporting a fauxhawk. i thought that he was just some dork who thought he was the shit, so imagine my surprise when he took the stage.. and started singing some of the worst lyrics i've ever heard in my life. the name of his band was ..sosohuman.., and they must have just been double booked for that night because i have no idea why they would have been chosen to open this show. i tried to watch them for a couple songs, but i got tired of the singer's back-and-forth rooster head moves and had to go back to where i was previously sitting.. out of view of the stage. mary lynn rajskub¹ was standing at the bar, and we totally had a moment during a song that started with the following lyrics sung acapella:

i like to punish-uh, aii punish-uh mah-aii self-uh
ah-and-uh i'd like to bang my head-uh against a brick wall-uh
ay-and-uh i'd like to stick my-uh aii hand-uh in the-uh fire-uh
ay-and-uh i'd like to jump from-uh the-hee top of-uh my roof ²

the look on my face at that point must have truly been of horror. i couldn't believe that anybody could ever sing anything so horrible and that i was actually at a show where it was happening. i hadn't heard anything that bad since the first time i heard "never again" by nickelback. a few moments later as he was singing, "and-uh i'd like to-oo blow out-uh the-ee back-uh of-uh mah-ee head-uh" and i was thinking that i might want to do the same if i had to listen to much more of this band, i happened to look over while mary lynn was looking in my direction. our eyes met, and i just raised my eyebrows in shock as she laughed. and that was our moment, but it was nice to know that i wasn't the only person in the building who couldn't believe what i was hearing. they followed that song with one about being homeless, which lamented (among other things) having "no place to brush my teeth." and as if it couldn't get any worse, they even did a horribly watered down version of fugazi's "waiting room." at that point, i really couldn't believe what was happening and had to stand up and get a view of the stage again. i honestly just felt embarrassed for them. but i probably shouldn't have, since a handful of people were there specifically to see them; i know this because they were actually wearing their t-shirts, which said, "i traded my boyfriend/girlfriend for rock 'n' roll."

when they finally left the stage, i was worried that yet another band was going to be playing before waw. i had seen matt mahaffey walking around earlier, so i knew they were going to play eventually, but instrumentation for a full band was being set up onstage. however, my mind was quickly put at ease when i heard a guitar sample from the album being played on a keyboard. even though the album was performed by only the two of them, they had simply gathered a full band for their live performances. the band came out first, followed by matt, jeff, and four women all wearing lab coats. as everybody began playing, the women walked around with clipboards and pretended to take notes, which they continued to do throughout the show when they weren't singing backup. matt was drinking something out of a flask and said that they had been working in an underground laboratory. as far as i can remember, they played the entire album, including the song that has quickly become my favorite, "you're freakin me out girl." as that song (which i would argue is catchier than anything on the new justin timberlake cd) began, matt said, "get out your rollerskates, bitches." he even performed count bass-d's rap breakdown in the count's absence. he also read a "speech" about how he hoped that after the show, we would all call them "wired all right." to reproduce the slick production of the album in a live setting would be pretty much impossible, but they did an awesome job. it's so much easier to write about something shitty like the opening band.. so what can i say? i'm really glad i went to the show, even though i had to suffer through a couple hours of bullshit before they actually played, and i will definitely be seeing them again in the future. i wonder if they are going to do the laboratory schtick every time though? i mean, i'm not complaining because the ladies' labcoat, glasses, and hair pulled back look is almost always hot. if you take nothing else away from this entry, please know that you need break out the battle tapes in your life right now, especially if you have been anxiously awaiting new songs from matt since gizmodgery.

as if this entry wasn't long enough, i also wanted to mention that i saw rick nielsen at in-n-out after wednesday night's billy bragg show (which i'm sure april will tell you more about). at first i wasn't 100% sure if it was him or not, but i tried to take a picture of him with my phone anyway. after that, my phone said the battery was too low and refused to take any more pictures. nobody else there seemed to realize who he was, or perhaps they were just like me and weren't sure of what to say to him. he actually tipped the guy behind the counter, in a "keep the change" sort of way.. although he didn't actually say that. he just walked away before the guy could give his dollar back and then motioned for him to keep it. he then got his order before i did, and i had to be like, "um.. where is my order?" they apparently forgot about it, and "oh, sorry about that, man" was the response i got as they threw my food together.

¹ as a side note, i have to say that while i haven't necessarily cared for her stand-up comedy, seeing mary lynn in a non-comedy/non-acting atmosphere made me realize that she's hot. people are apparently continually debating whether or not this is true on imdb (and being quite rude about it, actually). and while she usually looks pissed off or worried in everything she's in, seeing her genuinely smile confirmed that she is indeed hot. however, she was with some guy who seemed kind of douchey and was probably actually there to see the opening band.

² if you don't believe that these lyrics are real, you can listen to the song for yourself on their myspace page; it is called "punisher."

only in my dreams

2006-09-25T18:41:12Z

yesterday i went to a matinee of the science of sleep, the newest film from the insane mind of michel gondry. i'm not even sure i know what to say about it, but suffice to say it was excellent. however, if you didn't enjoy eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, you probably won't enjoy this movie either, as the lines between dream and reality are blurred even further. and while i may have been a bit unsure about the movie prior to seeing it, i did have faith in monsieur gondry to make it work. the basic premise is that of a guy around my age who has confused his dreams and real life since he was six years old and how he copes with falling in love with his new neighbor. there's not really much else i can say because the rest really needs to be seen, and i highly recommend doing so..

i've never had as severe of a problem as the protagonist in the film, but i have at times thought something i dreamed about actually happened. but in such instances, i almost immediately realize that it was actually a dream. in addition, i realized the other day that in recent years, my dreams almost always consist of one of three scenarios: (1) i am lost in some sort of a maze (usually a confusing shopping mall or store but sometimes an elaborate house or apartment building); (2) i have to take a test that i completely forgot about and am in no way prepared to take; (3) i die in some ridiculous way. and i think that this would explain why i rarely actually feel rested when i wake up because i am completely stressed out in my ~~dreams~~ nightmares. the night that i realized this, i actually dreamed that i was not only having to take a test that i wasn't prepared for but that i showed up at school completely naked. then the next night, i had a dream that my dad and i killed some guy and were hiding out in a trashy hotel. maybe i need to eat better or take something soothing before i go to sleep. but dreams like this have been broadcast in my head since at least the end of the '90s. i really wish that there was some way to record my dreams because most of them could actually make some good horror/suspense movies.

on a lighter note (as april has already mentioned), i have suddenly come to appreciate "weird al" again.. almost 20 years after i thought he was the greatest guy ever. from what i've heard of his new album, it is going to be his best work since "smells like nirvana." seriously, people.. if you don't at least crack a smile at "white and nerdy," you have no soul. ha.

another one where i talk about a few different things at once

2006-09-22T07:23:12Z

unfortunately, i didn't make it to the french line in 3d on friday. toward the end of the work day, i acquired a quite painful headache presumably brought upon the by mediocre chinese food we got for free lunch that day. instead of heading up to the egyptian theatre early in an attempt to get into the movie, i headed home to bed in an attempt to sleep off the pain. after a few hours it worked, and i arrived at the theater just before 11 for the midnight screening of the bubble. i was the fourth person in line, which was quite a difference from tuesday's line for house of wax. well, an hour of waiting turned into an hour and 45 minutes, as the previous show was running late. i stuck it out because i had already bought my ticket, but they made up for the inconvenience by offering everybody a free ticket to any of the upcoming screenings that weren't already sold out. as i had already bought my ticket for paul morrissey's frankenstein, i opted for a ticket to the 11am screening of robot monster. sure, it was early, but i had considered getting a ticket for it anyway. well, the bubble was somewhat disappointing. it had some cheezy 3d effects, including a floating beer tray with visible strings, but it never really went anywhere. i got home around 3:30am and was on my way back up to the theater just six hours later. but i am glad i ended up with that ticket because robot monster is the most unintentionally hilarious movie i've seen since cool as ice. the budget had to be about $100, so it is amazing that it was even shot in 3d. unfortunately, it uses one of my most hated movie endings, but the preceding film was so entertaining that i had to forgive it. anything else i could say would ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it, so let me just say that if you enjoy bad movies you must see this now. i went home for a few hours before returning to the theater for dial m for murder. the line was much longer an hour before showtime for that one. some guy in line gave me his plastic 3d glasses because he had opted to spring for the clip-on lenses instead, which was incredibly nice of him but a bit weird. i actually had never seen this movie before, and i enjoyed it quite a bit. however, i shouldn't really be surprised, as i've never seen anything by hitchcock that i didn't like. instead of going home after that, i decided to stay in the area and got some food at in-n-out, perused the used sections at amoeba, and ate some delicious mango ice cream at mashti malone's before heading back to the theater for another midnight screening. this time i was the second person in line, but a significant audience arrived shortly thereafter. unfortunately, because of the late screening, they didn't let udo kier speak for very long. the main thing i remember him saying was when he was asked what was harder about filming the movie in 3d: "i had to act in three dimensions!" i had never seen the movie before, and it was enjoyable, although i think i probably prefer dracula a bit more. oh, and it didn't help that the guy next to me kept falling asleep and snoring. i had to kick the seat in between us to make him stop, but he would just start again eventually. it was so fucking rude; if you are falling asleep and snoring in a movie, go home! also, i will never again go up to hollywood and highland on a weekend night if i can help it, for it is full of the most vapid and deplorable people — the kind of people that make everybody else hate hollywood and assume that everybody in los angeles must be like them. you know, the ones who are all fake and loud and care about nothing but fashion and partying. i actually overheard a guy say, "i'm gonna fuck somethin' tonight!" ugh.

on sunday we finally made it over for the last day of the banksy show, where apparently the entire city of los angeles went that weekend. the turnout was insane, but every douche in the city was there, too. this hobbit in front of us as we waited in line made some ignorant comments as he held the plastic cup from his starbuck's drink in his hand. looking at a homeless man to our right, he said quite loudly (and i paraphrase), "look at all the effort he is putting into finding a few pieces of trash to recycle. he's going to spend all day doing that for what little money he can get for it. he should put all of that energy and effort into getting a job!" he said this before going into an art exhibit which contained pieces like this one, whose main intention was to comment on similar class issues. i'm sure the message was lost on him, as he was probably only there because it would give him some sort of cred. however, i later saw this article, which unfortunately kind of tainted the entire show and rendered it potentially as hypocritical as that hobbit in the line. i can only hope that some of that money ($226,000 for the aforelinked painting alone) went toward helping the people for which banksy was trying to say that "life isn't getting any fairer." regardless, i am glad that we were able to attend the show, as it was quite interesting. the paint on the elephant had been removed by sunday, but it was still kind of awesome to be that close to an elephant. at times i found myself more enthralled with watching her (yes, the elephant is a 38-year-old female named tai) eat a few whole potatoes at once than looking at any of the artwork. but some of the artwork did manage to leave an impression on me. oh, i almost forgot the other bit of irony at this show.. to view the artwork of a known graffiti artist who has defaced many a wall, the guards at the door were checking people for sharpies.

last night, we tried to make it over to the richest shoppingtown i've ever been in for a free screening of the borat movie. well, we made it there but not into the movie. unfortunately, every other local dork on myspace was there, too. so we just ate dinner and went home. it was strange eating baja fresh on actual plates with silverware and then leaving our dirty dinnerware on the table for somebody else to clean up. i would hate to ever become somebody who expects these things at a mall food court.

nature trail to hell (in 3d)

2006-09-14T06:29:32Z

last night i made it over to the egyptian theater for the 3d film fest to see house of wax (check the link 'cause i'm not talking about the shitty one with paris hilton and the guy from one tree hill). the movie is an old favorite of mine, which i only recently got on dvd. and while it is good on its own, it's even better in 3d — especially since that is how it was shot and intended to be viewed. whenever i saw it before, i could only imagine how things like the the paddle ball guy were supposed to look. seeing the film in 3d and on the big screen actually made it more intense, as well.. although it is still by no means actually scary. paul picerni, who is one of the few surviving cast members, was there in person, and he shared a few anecdotes about making the film, the opening night, and the subsequent promotional tour. he is a nice "fat old man" (his words), so it was actually quite enjoyable to listen to him tell his stories, even if he did go on a bit long. he even dropped a couple f-bombs, which is almost always great to hear from the elderly. i'd say he looks pretty good for being 84, too! it was a great experience, even though i was surrounded by total nerds — including a guy who continually used "imdb" as a verb (but you won't have to do any imdb-ing because i have hotlinked this entry like crazy).

anyway, i wish every movie could be shown in 3d always. i know it's kind of gimmicky, but i love it. i even went to see monster house (on my lunch break, no less) just because it was being shown in 3d. (it actually turned out to be a pretty good movie, and it's unfortunate that it got a bad rep as being "too scary" for kids.) this weekend, i am going back to the 3d film fest to see the bubble, dial m for murder, and flesh for frankenstein. udo kier (perhaps most recently known in the u.s. for starring in a koяn video) is supposed to be there in the flesh for the last one, which will hopefully be awesome. i haven't seen frankenstein before, but i thoroughly enjoyed his performance in blood for dracula. never before have i seen somebody puke blood so convincingly. at any rate, i am excited. and while going to see funny comedians all the time has been and continues to be fun, getting to see a few rarely shown 3d movies like this is awesome and just another perk of living in los angeles for me. if only i had a spare $500 lying around to get a pass for the entire festival..

p.s. — should i try to see the french line if it isn't already sold out? jane russell (who was apparently only the 66th actor to be added to imdb) is supposed to be there, but i don't know how much i'm really into a 3d musical. however, the tagline does say that a 3d jane russell will "knock both your eyes out."

bo duke's air guitar hits

2006-08-24T04:08:53Z

this year i have returned with open arms to the bmg music club in its new incarnation as yourmusic.com. usually, i can't beat $6 total for a brand new major label cd for which i would never pay full price and would probably just download illegally. the way the new progam works is that you keep a list of cds you want, and every month they send you whatever is at the top. this month was supposed to be bloc party for me (yeah, i have been sleeping on that one), but somebody there decided they would send john schneider's greatest hits instead. i didn't even know he had ONE hit, let alone enough to facilitate an entire collection. i almost want to keep this because it looks hilarious, but i'm afraid i'm going to have to go through an annoying return process.

old show pics

2006-07-27T06:04:42Z

since i finally broke down and got a flickr pro account the other day, i figured i may as well upload some pictures from past shows i have attended. i even created a new set to hold them all and sorted them in chronological order. if you are interested, please click on mango chutney and teabag balzac of confederate fagg below to view the rest of the photos.

however, please note that this is obviously not a collection of every show i have attended, as i apparently left my camera at home for most of them (especially during 2002 and 2003). i still have to scour my actual printed photographs for anything interesting from the pre-digital days of show photography.

i'm super; thanks for asking!

2006-07-09T22:04:47Z

so we saw superman returns last night (although not the imax 3d version that i hoped to see because all but the front row was sold out), and it was pretty good. i won't give any spoilers away, like doug benson did the other night. but i'm still deciding whether or not i want to see it again with full sensory overload. it was better than i expected, at least. however, i decided to stop by the ol' superman returns myspace page today to see if they had posted the image i submitted. and sure enough, i saw this scroll by a few moments later:

well, it's pretty small and pixelated on that page, but that is indeed me grabbing supe's super package as he watches over metropolis, illinois. to be fair, it doesn't seem like they're being too choosy about which pictures they actually post, but it's still amusing to me.

(other hot pix from this trip can be found here)

postscript:

oh, no! it's little kid devo

2006-03-17T19:46:57Z

seriously, why does this even exist?

http://www.devo2-0.com/whipit/ (code: whipit5)

at least it's not an entire chorus of kids singing at once, but why do kids have to listen to other kids singing, anyway? why can't they just listen to the original songs?

awesome movies for cheap

2006-03-15T03:07:56Z

if you've been sleeping on this sale at deep discount dvd (it was supposed to be over yesterday), please do yourself a favor and get these two movies for less than half of what it normally costs for one:

if you own those, you will almost be as cool as this lady:

if it sounds too good to be true...

2006-03-10T06:03:50Z

seriously, fuck this place.

the job search hasn't been going very well since we arrived in los angeles. while april was lucky enough to score a nice job, i have been working as a data entry drone for a little over a month now. i expected the job to be much more temporary than that, but finding something good has been hard. i had thought that i found something good at the company linked above, but that all disappeared today.

i first found the job listing on monster.com, and it sounded perfect. it would have been doing html coding for the company's website, and the pay would be more than twice what i'm getting to type people's college transcripts into a database all day. i sent my resume to the recruiter, and they said the company was interested in me. they gave me a test page to complete, which i thought was kind of strange but nothing that i couldn't handle. it was a simple page laid out in photoshop that i was able to turn into an html page in a few hours. about a week after that, i did a phone interview with the other html guy at the company. another week or so later, i went to their office for a tag-team interview with four different people. both interviews went fairly well, although i'm never good at answering bullshit questions. after that, they completely dragged their feet. i exchanged many emails with my recruiters, who told me that the company was considering a couple other people for the job and still needed to bring them in for interviews. i kept looking for other opportunities but wasn't finding anything that really compared. i even got an email from a different recruiter about the same job, so they were obviously searching hard for somebody to fill it.

finally about a week ago, i got word from the recruiter that they were going to give me the job but still had to get some things sorted out before they could give me a definite starting date. the terms sounded kind of sketchy (a two week "trial period," then a three month contract, and then the potential to become permanent), but i was still interested. however, i held off giving my notice at my current job until i got a real date. yesterday evening, the recruiter contacted me and said that they wanted me to start on this coming wednesday. of course, i went in to work this morning and let my supervisor know that tomorrow would be my last day. (i figured i may as well relax for a couple days before starting the new job.) then from out of nowhere at a half hour before i was supposed to go home, i get a phone call from the recruiters saying that the project the company was going to bring me in for was scrapped and that they would no longer be able to hire me. needless to say, i was completely pissed and then scrambled to try to save my current job. my contact person at the temp agency acted totally weird and said she had to make sure that the client still needed somebody for the position, even though i had only talked to her about it an hour earlier. my supervisor said that she hadn't even notified anybody that i would be leaving, so it wouldn't be a problem to stay. but that is the exact reason why i waited until i was given an actual start date; i didn't want to have to go back and be like, "just kidding, guys."

at any rate, i'm back to square one as far as finding a real job. as nice as everybody is at my temp job, i am going to go insane if i have to type in people's college transcripts for much longer. words cannot even describe how pissed i am at this company for stringing me along for so long only to completely shut me out at the last minute. i have summed it up for the sake of this story, but the amount of hoops i have jumped through so far is way more than i have ever had to do for any other job i have had before. even if this place turned around tomorrow and said that they could actually hire me now, i would tell them to fuck off. but the thing is that they have the recruiter do all of their dirty work, so i can't even do that because the recruiters have been nothing but nice and obviously don't have control over the situation. the lady i talked to today apologized profusely and said that nothing like this had happened for them before. unfortunately, that doesn't help me very much.

luckily, i have some work coming up from my friends back in the atl, so that will help out a lot. the downside is that i will have to do that work at night while still keeping my other job during the day, so i will be looking at a computer screen constantly for a while. i'm not too happy about that fact, but i've gotta do what i've gotta do. hopefully i can retain my sanity through all of this.

shoot at the walls of heartache – bang, bang!

2006-02-24T16:13:04Z

so today i'm wearing my (free) "every day warrior" shirt from james hugh potts II: electric boogaloo, and i decided that i should check up on his site. i haven't looked at it in a month or two, since he announced the limited edition x-mas shirt design. well, check this shit out:

So . . . Happy New Year, Every Day Warriors! You seem to be multiplying at an awe-inspiring rate . . .

This morning our office was greeted by about 15,000 orders for Every Day Warrior shirts. 15,000! I don't have to tell you this is amazing! . . . and a little more than we expected.

We enjoy giving our shirts away. We believe giving away American Apparel Every Day Warrior shirts portrays our firm’s attitude – good natured, comfortable, high quality, unconventional - that's us in a nutshell.

We will continue to give away Every Day Warrior shirts. We've always done so on a first-come-first-served basis, as quantities have always been limited. But no matter how much we'd love to give all 15,000 of you free shirts . . . we just don't have that many!

We will fill existing orders for Every Day Warrior shirts until we run out. We are working on a new design for the Every Day Warrior ’06 shirt, and we will give those away too. So check back with us to see when the new ones arrive - they'll be going faster than ever now!

We're very excited to have reached so many of you, and we're happy that there will soon be “Every Day Warriors” just about everywhere!

Originally uploaded by tastypiesinc
i suppose i'm just as guilty as those 15,000 people of simply wanting a free shirt. but honestly, he seems like a nice enough guy that i don't mind giving him some free advertising when i wear it. on top of that, it's probably the most comfortable shirt i own. i would consider wearing it every day if i could. i'm looking forward to a new shirt design, and i suggest you don't sleep on getting your own shirt this time.

postscript: on my way to work today, i drove by a burned-out car under the interstate overpass about a block away from our house. i suppose i can give it the benefit of the doubt and think that perhaps somebody's care severely overheated, but otherwise it's not a very comforting thing to see in your neighborhood. i know that we technically live in south central, but our neighborhood normally feels very safe and is very quiet (aside from the dogs and the fast and the furious cars that drive by honking their horns, blasting their bass, or sputtering their mufflers).

you know you're living in south central when...

2006-02-12T01:16:40Z

...the back of your local grocery store's receipts contain a coupon for 10% off rides to all california prisons.

gram in the national enquirer

2006-02-05T02:59:17Z

i was going through some boxes of books and magazines, and i found the may 21, 2002 issue of the national enquirer that contains gram's photograph. the main cover story is a "world exclusive" about bill clinton's "love child." of course, the article that mentions gram is about the ill-fated documentary and wouldn't have been in there if not for julia roberts's involvement. but it's still pretty crazy that my great-grandmother was actually in the national enquirer, and her picture is even bigger than julia's. anyway, i scanned it for those of you who may have been curious after i had previously mentioned this article...

(i guess it's kind of hard to get the whole effect without holding the actual issue in your hands.)

too much horror business

2006-01-30T07:41:13Z

the recent oversaturation of misfits® products that first hit me like a ton of bricks when i saw the high tops at the mall (sorry, millie) has simply gotten out of control. while browsing a massive chain music store tonight, we came across a collection of simply ridiculous misfits® products for sale, including this scented candle in a tin. april wondered if it was corpse scented (which would have actually almost redeemed it), but it was actually frankincense. i can only imagine glenn danzig hanging his head in shame when he sees these things in stores, cursing jerry only for trying to cash in on everything he had masterminded. there were also plenty of the same products stamped with ramones logos, which was somehow not quite as shocking since they didn't have any songs about raping somebody's mother or cutting off little girls' heads and hanging their skulls on a wall. while it was on its way in the nineties, i'd guess that it's safe to say that punk is officially dead. i mean, when countless people like this profess that they are "punk" because they wear a black sleeveless t-shirt and listen to fall out boy, the word really no longer has any meaning, does it?

sheeyit, "crunk" is my last name, biatch!

2006-01-21T02:30:49Z

i was going through a box of crap (more than half of which i threw away) that i had thrown together at the last minute before we left our apartment in atlanta, and i found this business card from the firestone where i used to get my car's oil changed...

of course, the irony is that he is an unassuming white guy, who probably has no idea that his last name is currently a slang term even though he lives in the birthplace of "crunk".. but he was nice, as far as i remember.

more about gram

2006-01-18T20:26:39Z

thank you to everybody who expressed their sympathies in regards to what i wrote about my great-grandmother last week. i appreciate your thoughts and words. while i am sad about her passing because i won't be able to visit her anymore, i mostly felt as if i needed to do my part to acknowledge the life and passing of someone who had meant a lot to me and many other people. she had lived a full life and was ready to move on to another place, so what i felt wasn't so much about sadness but sort of simply my immediate thoughts and memories of her. i don't think anybody, including herself, imagined she would have such a long lifespan and see the things she had seen during that time.

here is a picture that my dad took at her 105th birthday party, which i was unfortunately also unable to attend because of school. it may be the last picture my family has of her. i like it because she looks happy, and that is how i want to remember her. i also had him scan an article about her from 2001 that was printed in a short-lived magazine from her town. since the old friends documentary may never air, it's the next best thing. if you are interested in reading the article, i have uploaded it in two parts — click for the first and second.

postscript: gram's obituary in the chicago tribune

...

2006-01-12T21:48:52Z

my great-grandmother died on monday. of course, this was upsetting news to me but also not completely unexpected, considering that she was 105 years old. gram lived on her own until she was well into her nineties, but she eventually had to move into an assisted living home when her immediate family decided she was no longer capable. she lived in the same small town of glen ellyn for her whole life and was even officially recognized by the state of illinois for making it "a great place to live." she was supposed to be featured in a documentary narrated by julia roberts (of all people) about gram and her two oldest friends, which unfortunately never aired but did get her picture printed in the national enquirer (i have a copy but have yet to unpack it). she also travelled quite a bit when she could. i remember when she went white water rafting in her eighties, which is something i'm not sure if i would even consider doing at my own age of almost 28. even when we visited her just before her 104th birthday, she was totally with it and understandably not pleased with her "assisted" living situation. while it was great to see her, i felt bad because i could tell that she wasn't happy. most of her belongings had been divvied up among her immediate family, and she lived in one small room with what they had allowed her to keep. however, i was glad that she and april were able to meet. my family had kind of expected her not to have many years left when she was in her nineties, but as the years kept going by i became guilty of taking for granted that she would be around.. at least for a little longer. when my family still lived in illinois, we would visit her regularly. she would always greet us at the door of her condo with a kiss on the cheek and wouldn't let us leave without eating ice cream. i made sure to fly up to illinois for her 100th birthday party, and she made sure to tell everybody how happy she was that i was there. i was her oldest great-grandchild, after all. unfortunately, her hearing had deteriorated to the point where i could no longer talk to her on the phone, so i hadn't actually talked to her in over a year. since i couldn't call her anymore, i had sent her a card during that time, just to let her know that i loved her and that i was sorry for not keeping in touch better. i'm very bad about sending cards and calling people, so i had to really make it a point to do that. with my own graduation and moving across country during the holidays, i only got around to unpacking and sending x-mas presents and cards to my grandparents last week. so i felt even worse about being late because she wouldn't have even received my card by monday. and now i simply cannot afford to go to her funeral. apparently, she died of natural causes in her sleep, which is quite possibly the best and most peaceful way anybody can go — especially someone who had lived for over 105 years. gram will definitely be missed by her family and everyone who knew her, but hopefully now she is someplace where she can be happy again.