i thought i’d finally found something to write about to justify the return of the listening section, but now that i think about it, i don’t think this record has that kind of staying-power. i will however, say that the first two times i listened to it, it was exactly what i expected and wanted at the time: nice simple instrumentation and structuring on the songs, clean, tight recording and melodic lines.

that said, it’s really more of the same from them, but that’s not really something to complain about when you dug the EP as much as i did.

we’re counting down the days to the new weakerthans release, and i missed the newgroup post for this mutha so haven’t gotten it yet, but i did find out you can listen to the first 7 tracks off of reconstruction site right over in the e-card section. for those still unconvinced, they say a full stream will be available when the album comes out next tuesday (aug. 26th).

it looks like belle and sebastian are making their way to the states again, one here in l.a., and two more, one in berkeley (heads up chris!) and one in new york. the details:

August 19th, Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn, NY. Tickets cost $35.00 each, subject to booking fees. i’m an idiot and didn’t look at the dates.
August 22nd, Greek Theatre on UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, CA. Tickets cost $32.50 each, subject to booking fees.
August 24th, Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA. Tickets cost $32.50 each, subject to booking fees.

more details at the b&s site, note that bright eyes is opening the l.a. dates, but i can’t be sure (but it’s likely) they’ll be opening for the others, too. you can get tickets without going through ticketmaster and paying those stupid fees, but they’re limited. again, check their site for details.

i honestly haven’t been impressed with belle and sebastian for a while now, especially since that sesame street sounding track off of legal man (maybe it was legal man) and stewart david left the group. just like when matt sharp left weezer, man, the magic just wasn’t there anymore.
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you suckers missed your chance on felix hernandez, he just got promoted to wisconsin low-a ball. maybe when he gets to tacoma, we’ll all get another chance.
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man, i’m sick of hearing bush in another fucking speech condemning terrorists and their cowardly acts. it’s all fucking lip service with that asshole.
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according to the activision website, the new tony hawk game t.h.u.g. is set to release next month and is completely different from the other tony hawk’s. you can view some screenshots here. there’s some cool things, like a trick editor and i guess you can upload your picture to play as yourself (though i dunno what the big deal with that is). seems like it’s gonna try and play more like grand theft auto, except probably no hookers or killing people (though you never know).
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recording update: another song finished, hit a snag with some drum tracks but will figure something out. i downloaded the reason 2.5 demo last night and it’s pretty sick, but it’s got a hefty price tag. some dude on craigslist is selling a copy for 10 bucks (yeah right!). anyhow, i plan on putting the next few tracks onto tape very soon, and i need to write just one more. rollin’.

everyone’s linking Blogstakes, so why shouldn’t i?

found this thing via something else, but for the life of me can’t remember what site. poops on me. anyway, it’s a cliche finder, which might be fun if you’re into making big sentences full of only cliches. i dunno, i thought it was cool at the time, but the more i think about it, not so much. i looked up three words and then moved on. you should too. move on, i mean, because i am.
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file in CARTOONS:

there’s some
new powerpuff girls episodes coming in september, my favorite description is this one:

Friday, September 19: “Toast of the Town” Trying to get his hair to grow, the Mayor rubs his scalp with Chemical X. But soon enough, he’s so big he can practically crush Townsville with one step. “Shotgun Wedding” The Professor tries to find out what a Lumpkin really is.

i was looking at the adult swim greeting cards and laughed out loud at my favorite one, where thundercleese is fishing in holland. when we were at the comic-con, there was a bunch of cels available that weren’t available on the cartoon network website. regretfully, i didn’t have 300 bucks to drop on that shit.

there’s more david cohen (futurama) interview stuff over at cinescape. it’s actually a pretty weak interview, nothing i haven’t seen before, except for the fact that the X in david x. cohen is fraudulent, because cohen had to join the writer’s guild and someone had already taken david s. cohen (which he used during the simpsons). that was really the most interesting thing, but if you don’t believe me, you can check out the rest of the interviews are here: part one and part two.

as if i wasn’t getting dangerously obsessed with futurama as it is, i rented the game yesterday for PS2 and judging by the lack of level advancement last night, either the game is hard or we just suck. there was indeed a lot of plot advancement scenes– a whole 20 minutes worth all together, so it’s like a new episode. the game play is a bit choppy and the animation isn’t as good as the show, which is to be expected, i suppose. fun, though if not frustrating.
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there’s a few dates up at barsuk for death cab for cutie and nada surf, i expect more dates to be announce soon. keep an eye open.

if you’re lucky, you’re in seattle and should go see joel r.l. phelps at the croc tomorrow night. ali’s going. shouldn’t you?
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for those of you who cannot stop wondering when someone’s visiting your site and constantly look at referrer logs to see when the visitor struck, visit no more, because here’s a script that will IM you every time someone comes around. pretty cool, but possibly excessive. you be the judge. via magnetbox.
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i requested leave today. keep your fingers crossed.

a laundry list of excuses why last week’s thursday and friday posts never made it to the internet, and the leftover links:
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last week that album that everyone’s talking about by the blues clues guy came out, as you’ve probably heard you can stream the whole thing over at his site (www.steveswebpage.com). a few points on this: the gratutious name-dropping has gotten annoying and in most cases would be a flagrant foul, but then again, if you’re the blues clues guy and everyone keeps calling you the blues clues guy and you’d rather from now on be known as the flaming lips/blues clues guy, then two points for you. i ultimately think the album is entirely to derivative, the big drums and fuzzy bass wasn’t enough to make up for the weak voice and ho-hum melodies. i’ll pass, but if you’re the “can’t get enough flaming lips, mercury rev, etc. type,” i imagine you wouldn’t be disappointed. in actuality, i’m incredibly torn about this. hell, if you’re not me, you might not be disappointed. what am i even doing here? what–? who the hell are you?! get off my property!
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i was measuring my collection of toys and gadgets to that of gizmodo’s editor rojas, and found i came up more than a little short, but decided to make a serious inquiry into vonage the dsl phone company. aside from making our phone bill cheaper, it would also be sticking it to verizon and their sucky service. i’ll pull that out of the hat at the next meeting, see if it hops.
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a long list of a few shows and free live mp3’s over at binaryops, including elliott smith’s last few performances here in los angeles. the echo spaceland show is a little annoying, what with the fans being embarrassingly overzealous in requests and their overprotective nature of smith. there’s a few new tracks squeeze in there from the 7″ on suicide squeeze, too, give ‘em a listen.
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this article on republicans have “a set of neuroses rooted in ‘fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity’” is pretty funny. bush is considered a textbook case.

on the other hand, kucinich is always screened at airports, because he buys one way tickets. i like his reply when he’s being searched: “i’m running against george bush.”
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i, like collapsing, also enjoyed bob’s mini-essay on p2p file-sharing. now if only other riaa artists would start thinking like this. regardless, it’s not exactly the artists that are in charge of this, am i right? checking the riaa radar, the search results show that the vagrant albums hey mercedes has released are from members of the riaa, so regardless of whether or not bob thinks we should be sued by the riaa (which he doesn’t, obviously), we’re still susceptible to the lawsuits if we’re caught downloading and the riaa chooses to pursue legal action. in any case, it’s seemingly random the way they choose their next target, but i doubt they’re gonna nail your for trading some hey mercedes, i think it’s a qualifier that you have to be listening to bad music to get it.
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—–Original Message—–
From: Logan
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 10:09 AM
To: Tim
Subject: freddy v jason

logan: gonna go this weekend?

tim: ha, no. are you?

hell, no.

i’m gonna go see open range, then grind, then uptown girls, then maybe i’ll catch jason vs. freddy.

did you ever see “fresh”?

no, but it sounds 80’s. also, kc can do westerns, but that’s about it, i think that’s why he’s giving open range a shot, but that line, “peope are gonna die here today…i’m gonna kill ‘em.” puhhhhleeaase.

it was good, but the director seems to have lost his way. he directed remember the titans and now uptown girls.

fresh.

fuck you.


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i been seeing that nissan quest minivan commercial with modest mouse and flipping my lid every time. a fucking minivan?! “ooooooohhhh gotta see, gotta know right now…..” yeah, i remember the coors light commercial, too, which i understand, but picture issac in a minivan yelling into his guitar and fucked up on sumfin’, like coors light. i’m just sayin’.

last thursday my domain expired and i didn’t renew until after it had expired, thus the errors you were getting on friday. why didn’t i renew earlier? because i was broke until after midnight friday, that’s why. of course, that doesn’t explain why i didn’t post on thursday, but i have a good reason for that, too, which brings me to my last point.

recording update: one more song done (unmixed), one more in the process of recording, which should be done in a couple of days, and one more written. at this rate, i will actually at least have enough for a 5-song release, i only need to write one more, which is the hardest part, you know, the writing shit. you know you care.

wha’ happened?! this post is too long, i’m likely to come up empty tomorrow. no, i won’t, for real, come back, i swear you fuckers!

check out this new parking meter, it looks like an atm. i’d love if meters started accepting credit cards because i never have cash on me and just think what it would be like to have a $2000 limit credit card filled with meter money! i do, however, object to the fact that this makes meter maids’ jobs easier, because really, how hard is it now? also: every meter maid i’ve ever met has been an a-hole.
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according to jason, blade 2 was “injected with pure awesomeness,” and though absent of such one-line gems such as “always bet on black,” it was. one can only hope that the animated series will be able to hold a candle to that vat of oozing awesomeness that was blade 2. and i’m gonna drop this on you: the spider-man animated series with the doogie is floating in weak sauce. i predict it will sink soon, because shit sinks (dunn’ it?), folks.
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so i was watching the news last night and because of the elections, there will be no schwarzenegger movies or gary coleman shows on network tv for the duration of the campaigns (otherwise everyone else will have to be awarded the same airtime, which would be 2% interesting, 98% fucking excruciating), but i’ll sit on the couch and rejoice at the fact there will be no commando, no running man, no TWINS (slap that fucking devito with a 2×4 for that smoochy SHIT), and no differ’nt strokes (where does that apostrophe go?!). aww, wait, no diff’rent strokes?! they should just make a reality tv show with all those dumbshits in it, and then air it and give everyone a chance to shine– i promise you surreal life shit going down, gary coleman standing on arnold’s head while larry flynt rolls around in huffington’s underwear.
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this sounds like a fun game to play, a story about The Case of the Found CDs. like i was saying the other day, eclecticism is hard and you tend to fall right into a certain demographic, and i’m betting that that the guesses on this person’s character are pretty on. one day before thanksgiving i was rolling around with my timbuk2 and had a bunch of food and wine and martha stewart magazines in it, wondering what would happen if someone found that stuff on me. what would they think?! (i was helping cook thanksgiving dinner last year, smart-ass).

right now, i’ve got the same CDs in my case i’ve had in there for months, including a new pornographers CD that i haven’t listened to but once, because i wasn’t really in to it. there’s a lot of different stuff in there. i’ll look at them and tell you when i get home. what could they conclude if someone jacked (okay, even looked through) your CD case?

holy crap. World Beard and Moustache Championships Carson City 2003

baseball fans need only apply: two conflicting reports have showed up today about pete rose’s re-instatement in baseball, one, saying that it’s fa show over at baseball prospectus, and the other, saying the report is “unfounded” and “journalistically irresponsible” over at espn. all i know is pete rose looks like an old balding dog.

if you’re in seattle (or bellingham) you should head out to everett to catch an aquasox game tomorrow night because this kid felix hernandez is pitching and word is he’s off the hizzy. seventeen years old, throws a 94 mph fast ball, and a 50/19 strikeout to walk ratio, kid’s got his shit dialed tight.
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i’m just now catching up from the weekend, yesterday was busy. we caught the lucksmiths over at sealevel on sunday and it was a fun show, a good crowd showed. they played mostly new stuff, notably absent was anything from a good kind of nervous and “frisbee.” i imagine it gets harder for them to play songs the more they use full drum kits on the records, what with tali only bringing around a floor tom and snare. it was good to see them, though, almost enough to keep me fueled until next year, since i only end up seeing them yearly.

i went swimming yesterday in the ocean, the second time in the last week, the first being on saturday when neil and alexi came down, which was awesome. neil fell asleep on the beach and we buried his feet and built sandcastles on them.

i’m slumming it today: chicken flavored ramen for lunch. planning on doing recording for the next two weeks, starting today. an album’s worth of material written and recorded in two weeks? maybe that’s the only way it’ll happen….

the triumphant return of the rub– God’s Audio/Visual Aid

check out dave eggers’s top 10 or so of the moment over at dusted. notice beulah topping the charts, and expect the new album to drop august 26th (that’s THREE purchases for that date: beulah, josh rouse, and the weakerthans) and the tour with vanderslice in october. the slice is currently in japan, so go see him, if you’re on the other side of the world. ii desu ne.
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i tried to figure out what this whole flashmob deal was, and evidently, it’s exactly what it sounds like. a bunch of people show up somewhere and there’s a lot of them there for a little while, then they go away. nothing to do with Flash™ or any other Macromedia™ product. sorry.
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if you haven’t been to onfocus recently, you’re missing out on a ton of nice photos, including this one, a panoramic of the beloved seattle pier.
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new from david cohen in an interview at ign. futurama is a long shot as far as cartoon network producing new shows because it’s so expensive to make, but for a feature, it’s cheap, and more likely that futurama will be making a feature or two. good news.
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i got home and wanted to try out using blogapp on my computer there, but it turns out that while movabletype is supported, kung log was developed solely in mind for mt. the difference between using the mt interface and the blogapp is mainly the offline nature of editing and the addition of customizable tags. no matter i make most of my posts at work, it’s still an interesting and useful little toy.
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so yeah, war robots won’t look like terminators, but they certainly will kick ass. it’s about time they got some of that shit into gear, because remember that story about korea putting like 110 billion into guard robots with lasers and other dope shit? they should make war robots look like that whiny bitch from lost in space, he’d freak the crap out of the enemy (but he’d be deadly!).

danger will robinson! danger!