Pharewell
18 November 2008
Tuesday, 1:30 PM
What a year this turned out to be.
Shortly after the year began, my time with the amazing team at Happy Cog ended. It was the best thing for all concerned, even if my lack of an exit strategy left me without direction. My comfort zone was toxic, so really, any direction would do.
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2008 US Air Guitar Championships
13 August 2008
Wednesday, 1:32 PM
Sometimes, you just can’t fight the urge to have your hair shaved into lightning bolts, hop a plane to San Francisco, and stand glaring in chaps on a stage in front of 1,500 drunken lunatics. I did this at the behest of my alter-ego Windhammer and the 2008 Cuervo Black US Air Guitar National Finals last Friday while the rest of the world had decidedly less fun watching the Olympic opening ceremonies.
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Something in the Air
09 June 2008
Monday, 8:13 AM
I like adjectives that are both crystal clear and totally vague. For example, you may be coming off a “good” weekend just like I am, but it’s entirely possible that the “good” elements of our respective weekends were completely different. Perhaps you were served an amazing slice of peach cobbler, or your blind date turned out to be George Clooney, or you finally disposed of some incriminating evidence that’s been haunting you for years. But you definitely weren’t crowned the Philadelphia regional champ of the US Air Guitar Championships. Nope, that was all me.
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Retro Format War
29 January 2008
Tuesday, 10:37 AM
I was recently involved in a music exchange with a handful of friends, in which we each put together a compilation of songs, and everyone involved got a copy of all of the compilations. Aside from giving me a good excuse to put together a fun mix, it allowed me the ever-cherished opportunity to do some unsolicited philosophizing, and I thought both were worth sharing with a larger audience.
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Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
20 February 2007
Tuesday, 10:43 AM
One doesn’t often have the opportunity to work on a project that strengthens his skills in multiple disciplines and helps him reevaluate his connection to his heritage. I have been fortunate to have just such an opportunity, and after months of hard work, that project is now available for public consumption.
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Titonic
13 June 2006
Tuesday, 11:59 PM
It was the beginning of a new millennium. School was in my past, a magazine production job in Manhattan was in my future, and limbo consisted of waiting tables in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It may as well have been Mars. I knew no one, and my ghetto neighborhood, animosity for hostile Jersey traffic, and underdeveloped sense of direction prevented me from venturing out much (to say nothing of the dearth of places worth visiting). In social and cultural isolation, I turned to the World Wide Web for aesthetic guidance and discovered Epitonic, a champion of independent music whose calculated mix of information, editorial content, and free, legal MP3 downloads would help shape my listening habits for years to come. Hundreds of musicians from the worlds of rock, folk, pop, electronic, hip hop, jazz, experimental, and modern classical music were there, catalogued, cross-referenced, and waiting to be heard. The site’s design was not especially inventive or breathtaking, but it was attractive, functional, and easy to use. All in all, Epitonic was nothing less than a godsend.
As so many great sites do, Epitonic fizzled out almost two years ago. It remained online, but updates ceased completely and without explanation. And so I was delighted to find a brand new Epitonic newsletter in my inbox yesterday, heralding its rebirth and redesign. I raced to the hyperlink at the bottom of the e-mail, giddily anticipating a tearful reunion with an old friend. Imagine my horror when I found my friend covered in sores, barely able to stand.
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1976
03 June 2006
Saturday, 10:42 AM
I was born on 3 June 1976. Today, I am thirty years old.
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Open Letter to South Central Philadelphia
17 September 2005
Saturday, 4:32 PM
I understand that a strong community is important to you, even if a busy schedule and certain cultural disparities have kept me from truly being a part of it. I fully support your desire to have a block party every single weekend of the summer, to take over the streets with charcoal grills and picnic tables, Motown and soul. If I get annoyed at the noise sometimes, I remind myself that you are celebrating the neighborhood, that your joyous spirit conquers the poverty and violence that surrounds us, even if only for a day at a time. So I hope it’s clear that I’m on your side before I make a humble request.
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Into the Maze of Darkness!
07 July 2005
Thursday, 6:15 AM
Late last year, my friend Scott added a Philadelphia-based band called Chromelodeon to the roster on his Bloodlink record label. The band initially piqued my interest with a nine-song EP called The Dark Sword of Chaos, which was dedicated exclusively to the music from Ninja Gaiden II, the second installment in the greatest video game series of all time. It was clear that these guys shared my enthusiasm for the game, and they brought its music into an epic rock context that served it quite well. But since video game cover bands with limited appeal have been coming out of the woodwork for the last couple of years, I didn’t bother to look into what else Chromelodeon had to offer, even though I knew they had original material. Seeing them play with the Minibosses this past weekend changed my mind. And then some.
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A Musical Baton
16 May 2005
Monday, 4:15 PM
A musical baton has been passed to me by Stan and Ethan. Who am I to refuse them?
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The Kids Are All Right
18 April 2005
Monday, 12:59 AM
The weather of late indicates that Spring is finally making a gesture of commitment to Philadelphia, and with it, my annual resolve is reborn to get the hell out of the house and find things to be excited about. I’ve been both busy and lazy these last couple of months (a paradoxical combination at which I excel), which, along with the temperature, has caused me to miss the first half of this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, countless rock shows, and other local cultural miscellany. I have, as usual, carefully pored over newspapers and web sites and meticulously catalogued dozens of local events of interest in iCal, most of which would ultimately be ignored. But on Saturday night, my momentum lurched forward violently with the help of whatever it is that’s in the water they drink over in Japan.
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Action-Packed Silence
24 July 2004
Saturday, 7:47 PM
In the 77 days since I last posted: I started a new full-time design job at TMX Communications. My face graced television screens nationwide in several episodes of VH1’s ILL-ustrated. I finished the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University that I started ten years ago. I saw Andrew W.K. for the ninth time. I had my 28th birthday.... more »
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Mountain of Fire
03 May 2004
Monday, 8:48 AM
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal survives in Philadelphia, thanks to the majesty of Wastoid, whose performance Saturday night at the Pontiac Grille made me feel like I was 13 again. The love of leather and swords and dazzling guitar heroics never left me, but this was a sublime rediscovery all the same.... more »
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Dawn of the Tortoise
01 April 2004
Thursday, 12:11 PM
Spaceboy Music got the new Tortoise album, It’s All Around You, nearly two weeks ahead of its release date, so I did too. I like it, and I expect to like it more as I listen to it more, but there are no great departures from the oft-imitated Tortoise sound to report, and nothing noteworthy about this newest assemblage of... more »
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Weekends of DV and Earplugs
28 March 2004
Sunday, 12:06 AM
BREDSTIK Entertainment made its second foray into frenetic weekend filmmaking, this time for the 48 Hour Film Project, on the weekend of the 19th–21st. Our randomly-drawn and decidedly unsavory genre options, Musical or Western, actually proved to be less of an impediment than the generally intensified circumstances; contrasting our last project of this sort, we had less time, fewer people,... more »
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The Darkness Falls on D.C.
01 March 2004
Monday, 12:39 PM
I’m not often interested in shows that could conceivably sell out in less than five minutes after tickets have been made available, so imagine my disappointment when that exact thing happened on Friday as I waited in line for Darkness tickets. Now it appears that my only chances at seeing what will probably be the best show of the year... more »
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Trachtenburg Sleeps with the Fishes
10 February 2004
Tuesday, 2:24 AM
Okay, here’s a pretty charming concept: You’re a musician who combs estate sales for the personal slide collections of the deceased—family vacations, corporate presentations, educational slideshows, etc. You create stories from the photos, write songs to tell the stories, and project the slides on a screen as you perform their accompanying songs live. You sing and play guitar and keyboard,... more »
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JasonSantaMaria.com v3, MyDoom/Novarg, Snow in the Air
27 January 2004
Tuesday, 12:11 PM
Philadelphia is in the eye of a winter storm today; the snow and ice already coating the ground will soon be joined by reinforcements. During this temporary absence of airborn aggravation, my inbox is relentlessly pounded by dozens of MyDoom/Novarg messages. I delete them to the tune of Talkie Walkie, Air’s triumphant return to the magical realm of Very Good... more »
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More Stalling and Some Links
22 January 2004
Thursday, 12:00 AM
Over the last couple of months, this site has offered its visitors little respite from boredom. I’ll make no apologies for this, since the lack of updates results directly from my own boredom, which is itself respite from my heated, ongoing battle with the coding of the site’s long-overdue web standards-compliant redesign. There have, however, been a few recent occasions... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Site
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Winter
06 January 2004
Tuesday, 12:30 AM
You know, neither my physique nor my personality suggests a similarity to any hibernating animal that I can think of, and yet, this site routinely falls silent at the beginning of winter, as if I had found a comfortable cave in which to reduce my vital signs and nap for a few months. If South Philadelphia hides any such caves,... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Personal
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The Darkness
25 November 2003
Tuesday, 12:23 AM
I emerge from over three weeks of silence to tell you about The Darkness. If you’re like everyone else on the planet, the band is already old news (as evidenced by a tour spanning three continents that’s nearly sold out through March), but if you’re like me, you had never heard of them before a month ago, didn’t bother to... more »
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NTSC
08 October 2003
Wednesday, 9:40 AM
Last night, I registered team “BREDSTIK Entertainment” in the National Film Challenge, which works like this: At 7:00 PM on Friday, October 17, we will receive an e-mail with a randomly-generated genre and list of elements (a prop, a line of dialogue, and a character). We then have until 12:00 noon on the following Monday (a total of 65 hours)... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Random
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What’s Goin’ On
01 October 2003
Wednesday, 6:27 PM
There has been plenty going on, but I haven’t had much to say about any of it. Lightning Bolt, Hangedup, Battles, and Lost in Translation are all great and were all taken in last week. Over the weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said “Abortion Causes Breast Cancer,” watched my dear friend Mary get married, and cheered as some... more »
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Stars
21 September 2003
Sunday, 11:38 PM
I pedaled to the Khyber last night to see Stars, my second blind date in as many nights with a Canadian pop band. Once again, the decision was a good one. Live, Stars could be described as an atmospheric Britpop outfit; on record, it’s more of an electro-twee-pop affair, without the detached cynicism. The band does both equally well. You... more »
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Broken Social Scene
20 September 2003
Saturday, 1:31 AM
I hadn’t heard Broken Social Scene before tonight. Having recently been informed that the band is comprised, in part, of Do Make Say Think and A Silver Mt. Zion members, the power of Canada compelled me to have my first listen in a live setting. This was such a good idea. As all three bands on the bill (including Jason... more »
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Bearskinrug, Rock Shows Can’t Bring Back the Man in Black
14 September 2003
Sunday, 8:58 PM
Kevin Cornell recently launched Bearskinrug version 4; it is as delicious as might be expected. Lots of shows lately: The Raveonettes, Luna, Stinking Lizaveta, Mogwai, Andrew W.K. Some scattered moments: Meathead Group A on the TLA floor uses cell phones to call Meathead Group B in the balcony to alert Group B to being given the finger by Group A.... more »
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2003 Chicago Adventure
03 September 2003
Wednesday, 1:37 AM
The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65° and... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Books, Music, Personal, Travel
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R.I.P Wesley Willis
23 August 2003
Saturday, 12:50 AM
A moment of silence for Wesley Willis, who died at the age of 40 around 9:00 Chicago time Thursday night, August 21st. Visit Alternative Tentacles for more information.... more »
Filed under: Music
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Omar, Cedrick, and Harvey
11 August 2003
Monday, 11:45 PM
Massive Attack and Mondays don’t mix. My eyelids weren’t giving gravity much of a fight this afternoon. Last week’s lucky sneak preview was American Splendor, and it was great. An adaptation of the underground comic of the same name, it is an unassumingly unusual film, whose fusion of documentary and dramatization (both factual and fictional) is only occasionally seamless, but... more »
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Dismembering the Magdalene Sisters
27 July 2003
Sunday, 8:46 PM
After redeeming my pass to a sneak preview of Dirty Pretty Things, I somehow stumbled into the wrong theater; when the lights went down and the film began, I discovered that I would be seeing The Magdalene Sisters instead, followed by a Q&A with its director, Peter Mullan. Since Magdalene was one of many movies on my wish list that... more »
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Philadelphia: Providing One-Man Bands, Erections, and LEGO
18 July 2003
Friday, 1:47 PM
Every year, I take a trip to Chicago to visit some friends and spend some time in one of my favorite cities. Every year, my trip to Chicago is scheduled to coincide with one or many Philadelphia events that I’d really rather not miss. It’s uncanny: bands, film festivals, exhibitions, and all manner of special events all pop out of... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Philadelphia, Travel
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Saga
11 July 2003
Friday, 1:35 AM
I was going to begin this long-overdue post with a verbose description of the difficulties of keeping a weblog like this: the busier a person is, the less time he has to write, and the larger the pile of experiences to write about becomes. I have opted instead for the succinct description you have just read, which still has not... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Music, Personal, Philadelphia, Web
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Wiring the Friendship House
23 May 2003
Friday, 12:00 PM
I ventured out to the Friendship House last night, a cool space in North Philly previously unknown to me. DAT Politics made it hop. Espers made it sleep. Lucky Dragons made it buzz and squeak. Nathan Michel made it chirp. Wrist + Pistols made it twang. There was much knob-twiddling and pointing and clicking. It was a long night, but... more »
Filed under: Music
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Keanu Karaoke
19 May 2003
Monday, 12:28 PM
My roommates and I have found a rather nice apartment in South Philadelphia. We signed the lease on Friday. We will move around the end of June. Friday night was unusual, to be sure, finding my Conshohocken cohorts and me receptive to the idea of following our friend Stan (or “Jason,” as he prefers) to a hotel sports bar in... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Philadelphia
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I Am Spoonbender
14 May 2003
Wednesday, 12:25 AM
I did a stupid thing Monday night: I forgot to bring my camera when I went to see I Am Spoonbender. When one considers the fact that I was actually thinking about skipping the show, the forgotten camera is almost trivial, but, oh, the images I failed to document… Needless to say, the show was amazing. Drums, synthesizers, samplers, telephone... more »
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If It’s Not Scottish, It’s Crap
25 April 2003
Friday, 11:00 AM
Last night was the sixth installment of R5’s “In the Sanctuary Concert Series,” featuring Essex Green, Aereogramme and The Delgados in the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church (shows at the church are usually in the basement). Essex Green plays polished, country-tinged psychedelic pop. I’m told their music is the most authentic of the modern psych-pop revivalists, but having little... more »
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2003 Philadelphia Film Festival, Part 2
13 April 2003
Sunday, 6:16 PM
More film fest stuff this weekend. I caught a little bit of the Lost Film Fest 8.0 on Friday, including 156 Rivington, a documentary about the legendary New York arts/activism space ABC No Rio, and a selection of short films and interesting copyright lecture by Carrie McLaren, curator of the infamous Illegal Art exhibition and editor of Stay Free magazine.... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Philadelphia
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Rock and Roll Madness
02 April 2003
Wednesday, 9:54 PM
Two shows, seven bands at the Church this week. Sentence fragments ahead. Sunday Dysrhythmia: My favorite Philadelphia band; missed the first half of their set. LickGoldenSky: Screamy hardcore not unlike other screamy hardcore. Hot Cross: shrieking metal/melodic hardcore hybrid, a la Drowningman. Burnt by the Sun: What Pantera might have sounded like if they ever got into Black Flag. Singer... more »
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Wonderful Rainbow
17 March 2003
Monday, 7:26 PM
Lightning Bolt’s Wonderful Rainbow refuses to detach itself from my playlist, and has come dangerously close to bullying the rest of the playlist’s discs into silence. I very much like the other music currently in rotation—such as Isis’ Oceanic and Aereogramme’s Sleep and Release—but have thus far permitted Wonderful Rainbow its thoughtless self-indulgence because it is so damn good that... more »
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Buzz Bands
05 March 2003
Wednesday, 7:36 PM
Interpol and The Raveonettes played the Troc last night. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the feedback-drenched Raveonettes, who sounded kind of like a garage-y Jesus & Mary Chain. I think I shall purchase their record. Interpol turned in another stoic performance devoid of spectacle, which is not to say I did not enjoy it. I admit my attention wandered... more »
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Instrumental
04 March 2003
Tuesday, 9:32 AM
I waited in line for an hour last night in 20° weather to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the first of what is supposed to be many R5 shows at the Starlight Ballroom on 9th St. The Black Dice opened up. Apparently they decided at some point to take a very different direction from the crazy noisecore stuff I’ve heard.... more »
Filed under: Music
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Dilemma
14 February 2003
Friday, 6:21 PM
What to do? I’ve been cursing Clear Channel because their inflated ticket prices are keeping me from attending four anticipated shows in the next two months, including Mission of Burma ($22.50), The Roots ($27.50), Sigur Rós ($29.50), and Television ($25.00). But now I see that King Crimson is playing on March 7th, and tickets are a whopping $45.00. I’ve never... more »
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Turn Off the Bright Lights
22 January 2003
Wednesday, 11:08 AM
Peter and I took a trip up to New York yesterday. The early afternoon was occupied by sifting through galleries in Chelsea, the highlights of which were the Tim Gardner and Michael Craig-Martin exhibitions, held (respectively) at 303 Gallery and Gagosian Gallery. The late afternoon was spent being herded around NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center, waiting to see Interpol perform... more »
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The Relapse Contamination Festival
20 January 2003
Monday, 2:25 PM
The Relapse Contamination Festival took over the Troc for the weekend and what a wicked weekend it was. To avoid exhaustion, I pared it down to the essentials and saw only seven of the fourteen bands that played. And I was more than satisfied. I began the weekend’s festivities Saturday night, battling over parking with the cursed throngs of Philadelphia... more »
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ActionScript Gone Wild
11 January 2003
Saturday, 12:09 PM
I had a dream that Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row fame) moved in with my next door neighbors. In the dream, I was really excited to tell the world about it here on my web site, so out of respect for the “dream me,” I’ve decided to tell the world (or at least whoever reads this site) about it anyway.... more »
Filed under: Music, Random, Web
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Winter Happenings
05 January 2003
Sunday, 12:20 PM
I guess it’s been pretty quiet around here. In the last month: I braved the Philadelphia blizzard fallout to get to the sold-out Interpol show at Gasoline and was rewarded with a terrific performance. I caught the final two Andrew W.K. club dates of the year and even got kicked out of one of them (apparently the Chameleon Club in... more »
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Blind Guardian
22 November 2002
Friday, 12:42 PM
Okay, Tolkien by himself (or even filtered through the eyes of demigod Peter Jackson) generally bores me, but somehow the mythos of Middle Earth becomes completely tolerable when in the hands of a German power metal band. And so it was with great excitement that I ventured to New Jersey last night to see the triumphant Blind Guardian on the... more »
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This Day, Anything Goes
01 November 2002
Friday, 9:05 AM
Halloween was fun. The afternoon was begun with a matinee of P.T. Anderson’s pitch-perfect Punch-Drunk Love, and rounded out by a few hours of my traditional Halloween rock-a-thon, jumping around the house to an exclusively old-school Misfits soundtrack, careful not to expend too much of the energy that would be needed for the evening’s Andrew W.K. show at the Troc.... more »
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Lethargy Month
28 October 2002
Monday, 10:55 AM
Happy Birthday, Dad! Lethargy month is drawing to a close. I’ve been out and about for the usual films and rock shows, but the time spent at home has been occupied with less will to be creative than to stare at the walls and play countless hours of TimeSplitters 2, which might be time better spent if the game wasn’t... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Personal, Video Games
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I Could Live in Ottawa
12 October 2002
Saturday, 12:16 PM
I’ve been back from Ottawa for nearly a week now and the annoying cold I contracted while I was there is on its last leg, so I am finally getting around to reporting on the festival. This was the third bi-annual Ottawa International Animation Festival I have been to; I counted seeing 162 short films in just about three days... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Travel
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Genesis P-Patton
23 September 2002
Monday, 5:00 PM
Apparently a 2-disc Faith No More tribute album called Tribute of the Year: A Tribute to Faith No More was released in July. Considering the numerous superstar nü-metal wankers that cite Faith No More as a major influence, I would have expected this thing to be soiled by Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, et al, but instead it’s soiled by a... more »
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Rock, Rock, ’til You Drop
21 September 2002
Saturday, 11:37 AM
There was much rocking this week. Saturday night was Andrew W.K. in Jersey, at this weird sprawling complex filled with teenagers called The Birch Hill Concert Hall. Not quite as much fun as the last A.W.K. show since it was so packed and I couldn’t be bothered to wade through the masses to get on the stage. Still a good... more »
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Turn on the Bright Lights
02 September 2002
Monday, 2:56 AM
Oh man, this Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights album is soooo good; I cannot stop listening to it. Spacey, melancholy, shoegazey rock with touches of goth and ’80s influences like Joy Division and The Cure. The singer sounds like the offspring of a secret marriage between Peter Murphy and Michael Gira from Swans. I’ve never been a huge fan... more »
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And in My Last Hour, I’m a Slave to the Power of Death
28 August 2002
Wednesday, 12:12 AM
During a relaxing and uneventful four days in Ocean City, MD, I couldn’t say no to “The Metal Issue” of Spin on the rack at the 7-11, and shucks if I only own half of the 40 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. I know this is all a matter of opinion and everything, but I thought that even a... more »
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When Good Dogs Do Bad Things
18 August 2002
Sunday, 3:21 AM
After having been informed that an MP3 from the forthcoming Dillinger Escape Plan / Mike Patton collaboration is now online, I rushed home to download it. I had to listen to it like five times in a row. So far, it sounds even better than I had hoped (which is saying a lot considering how highly I regard the talent... more »
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I Got Wet
13 August 2002
Tuesday, 9:57 AM
I drove 100 miles last night to see Andrew W.K. play in Towson, MD (near Baltimore). I found out about the show three hours before I left. The show was opened by some crappy Seattle screamo pop punk band with matching tattoos called Vendetta Red, followed by the carefully groomed punkers Total Chaos (they’re still around and they’re still not... more »
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Chap…stick
28 July 2002
Sunday, 1:14 PM
Mary and I were all set to go see Tuatara last night before we discovered that they cancelled the show in favor of a second stage opening slot for The Who. Rather than pay $35 to see them do a shorter set on an enormous stage from seven miles away, I was talked into renting The Mothman Prophecies, which turned... more »
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The Weekend in 14 Fragmented Sentences
22 July 2002
Monday, 12:25 AM
Friday night was a rewarding but ultimately forgettable show at the Troc with The Shins, Beachwood Sparks, and some horrible band whose name I didn’t bother to remember. (I should probably look into it so as to avoid accidentally seeing them play in the future.) Saturday night I went with some friends to see Road to Perdition. I gave Sam... more »
Filed under: Film, Music, Random
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Elbow Room at the Khyber
10 July 2002
Wednesday, 1:20 AM
Ah, the Khyber. I hadn’t been there in awhile. Tonight’s crowd was just the size I like: the audience was large enough to make the bands feel loved, but small enough to allow me to breathe. Tonight’s highlight was Aereogramme (not coincidentally the band I went to see), a melancholy Glasgow rock band with loud/soft dynamics kind of similar to... more »
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Pots and Pans
01 July 2002
Monday, 4:37 PM
I was very pleased today to discover that the lineup on the new Skeleton Key album Obtainium is identical to their original lineup, with the apparent exception of the drummer. There was cause for alarm when I saw them in NYC last year with a new stripped-down lineup that did not include junk player Rick Lee or guitarist Chris Maxwell,... more »
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3 for Rocking
30 June 2002
Sunday, 12:51 PM
Great show last night at the Balcony. Thoughtstreams kicked off the show around 10:00. I’d heard of them before (mostly from them playing shows with Dysrhythmia), but this was the first time I’d seen them. Impressive. Very technical, jazzy avant-metal, kind of reminiscent of Cynic, but less focused. I have to appreciate the genre parody of such song titles as... more »
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New York, New York
10 June 2002
Monday, 6:13 PM
Just got back from a weekend in New York, primarily for two nights’ worth of sold out shows at North Six in Brooklyn. Saturday night was The Fucking Champs, Rye Coalition, and Drunk Horse, the denser of the two shows in terms of quality. The Fucking Champs were excellent as usual, Rye Coalition was significantly more entertaining than the last... more »
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The Good, the Bad, and the Okay
26 May 2002
Sunday, 11:13 AM
The bad news: Tuesday’s Mogwai show in Brooklyn sold out before I could get tickets. Although I bet if I stuck my head out my window, I would’ve been able to hear the show. (Mind you, I live about 100 miles from Brooklyn.) The okay news: The Fucking Champs’ V is pretty much exactly what you expected. The good news:... more »
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Tied Together, You’re Shrew Hutch
21 May 2002
Tuesday, 1:52 PM
My Def Leppard Pyromania cassette is about fifteen years old now and barely plays anymore, so I finally replaced it on CD. The CD liner notes actually have the lyrics this time and I was astonished to discover that many of the lyrics I’ve been singing all these years were wrong. For example, right before the first bridge in “Photograph,”... more »
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Marked for Death
10 April 2002
Wednesday, 3:28 AM
Detroit is interesting in a ghost town kind of way. About half of the city’s buildings are vacant. And aside from business hours, there is virtually no activity. Weird. None of this stops the place from having some sweet bookstores, though, and looking through those took up much of the day. I also got to check out a nifty arcade... more »
