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July 17, 2008

I'd Totally Still Do Her, Though

Hayden Panettiere, the cheerleader from Heroes, is totally hot. She also apparently risks her life to save dolphins. And although she's a rich teenager in Hollywood, I haven't seen anything about how she's spending her nights doing blow off of guys' cocks in skeazy West Hollywood clubs. And, as near as I can tell, she hasn't nearly killed anyone with her car. Oh, and she's not the worst actress I've ever seen. So, you know, she's got some things going for her. What she does not have going for her is musical talent. Check out her music video: Now, unlike...

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June 10, 2008

Weezer (The Red Album)

As I said, I was pretty apprehensive about the release of Weezer's new album. In fact, I had completely forgotten that it was supposed to come out last week. Forgotten, that is, until Mr. X called me up and reminded me. At his insistence--and on his recommendation--I went out and bought the thing. And I've been listening to it nonstop since. In broad terms, it is simultaneously a very typical Weezer album and something completely new. I say that it is typical because it has all of the elements we've come to expect from Weezer albums good and bad: it's...

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May 28, 2008

Weezer! Now With 98 Percent More Lightsaber!

I have to admit two things. First, I really liked "Beverly Hills," the lead single off of Weezer's last album, Make Believe. Second, I fucking hated the rest of the album. I was pretty much done with the whole band. I mean, I guess I've already talked about what I think of each of Weezer's albums, so I won't rehash that. But the point is that I was somewhat sad but mostly relieved when I read that Weezer had broken up. And then I was cautiously excited but mostly apprehensive when I heard that they were actually releasing a new...

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May 10, 2008

"Disarm You With a Smile."

I remember the first time I heard The Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm." I had recently fallen head over heels for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, but I had yet to venture out and explore more of the Pumpkins' work. This was due partly to the fact that I was afraid of being disappointed but also because I didn't know what else they had done--I was completely new to the whole "listening to music" thing. Still, my friend Kenny--who had introduced me to the Pumpkins to begin with--kept mentioning another album the Pumpkins had done that had some awesome songs on...

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March 22, 2008

I'd Be Just Fine Without You

A friend of mine once described U2 as a band that people who know absolutely nothing about music really like. I think she meant that it's an easy enough band to enjoy but that they're really not all that special. I tend to agree, which means that the fact that some people call U2 their favorite band. I mean, ok, U2 was the biggest band in the universe at one point. But that point was twenty-five years ago--I think we can move on. I mean, sure, The Joshua Tree, and Unforgettable Fire were decent albums. But the fact is that,...

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March 18, 2008

Acoustic Guitars Totally Rock

I don't know why, but I almost always like unplugged versions of songs more than the original, plugged versions. I mean, that might be a bit of a stretch, but I almost always really like unplugged versions, even if I like them in a completely different way. For example, "Cherub Rock" is one of my favorite songs generally, but I especially like it if I need to get excited or pumped up--it's a great song to listen to at the beginning of a night out, I think. On the other hand, the acoustic version is awesome in a whole different...

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March 9, 2008

There Will Be Blood, but it's OK--I'm Going to Graceland

My friends and I watched There Will Be Blood tonight. I'm going to discuss the plot, so if you haven't seen it and don't want it ruined, skip down. Actually, nothing I could tell you about the movie could ruin it. See, the entire concept of ruining a movie stems from the assumption that there's, well, a plot. Like, if you hadn't seen The Sixth Sense or The Empire Strikes Back and I told you that Bruce Willis was a ghost all along or that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, then you could say that I ruined the movie...

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February 5, 2008

Setlist

So, like I said before, I want to get out and play some open-mic nights sometime this year. The first thing I have to do in order to do that is to create a setlist, so I've been listening for some good songs that could be arranged for one guitar. It's generally easy to play a version of a song that's recognizable regardless of what the original instrumentation was, but it's often difficult to keep all of the important elements while removing all but one instrument and still put your own spin on the thing. I've done some vaguely risky...

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February 4, 2008

Super Bowl XLII

As I've said, I'm new to the whole "caring about football" thing. Still, last night's game as awesome. Or, well, the fourth quarter was awesome. And, actually, the rest of the game was much more exciting than the score might suggest. I was rooting for the Giants for a few reasons. First of all, I hate the Patriots. I hate the Patriots because the fucking media seems to be unable to stop themselves from felating Brady and Co. They are an amazing team, Brady is an amazing quarterback--even I can see that. But do we really need to mention it...

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December 28, 2007

I'm Tired of Boring Music

I've been hearing for a while about The National for a while, but I hadn't bothered to check it out because, well, I'm lazy about finding new music. Someone essentially needs to foist new stuff on me for me to listen to it. That's exactly what Rachel did last night. And now I'm just annoyed because Boxer, The National's first album, kind of sucks. I mean, ok, maybe there's something here that's not terrible. The instrumentation is very complex and lush sounding. There are a bunch of instruments at work--guitars, strings, pianos, horns--and they all come together really well. The...

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December 20, 2007

Clash of the Choirs

I've been watching Clash of the Choirs on NBC for some reason. Actually, I know the reason. See, I'm kind of a sucker for choirs. There's something about a bunch of people coming together to sing with one awesome voice that I really get into. I really like the interaction of a bunch of different voices, and there's not a more natural-sounding musical tone than the human voice. So, yeah, I like choirs. So I've been watching Clash of the Choirs. But here's the thing. I've been recording all of the episodes on my DVR and I've been using the...

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December 13, 2007

Christmastime Has Come

It hadn't actually occurred to me how close it is to Christmas until I was at the mall today. I was helping a friend do some Christmas shopping and the store was playing Christmas music. I recognize the song, but it took me a little while to realize that they were playing The Smashing Pumpkins. I had actually completely forgotten that SP had recorded a Christmas song sometime after Siamese Dream but before Mellon Collie. Anyway, the song actually took me from being completely out of the Christmas spirit to being completely in it--I'm really excited about it now. Which...

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December 6, 2007

Why the Fuck Is Amy Winehouse Famous?

Seriously? How the hell does someone like her end up not only famous but nominated for six Grammys, including four nominations in the top categories? That's fucking fucked up. Granted, I've never actually heard one of her songs, but just look at her: She actually looks frightening. And what is with that fucking beehive hairdo? What the hell is going on here? I guess I lied earlier when I said that I hadn't heard any of her songs. I have heard this: But, seeing as how she's just mumbling in a vaguely rhythmic fashion, I don't think it counts as...

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October 10, 2007

In Rainbows

Lots of people have already discussed the fact that you can download Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, and pay as much--or as little--as you want. I think it's great that Radiohead is doing this, but mostly because it means that I get their new album for free and don't have to feel guilty about it. I don't think that it'll have any effect on the music industry at large, though. What's more important, though, is the music. So, here are my thoughts on my first listen. 15 Step. I think this is a really strange opener. It just sounds to...

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October 7, 2007

Electric Six Kicks Ass

Ph, Mr. Vice, and I went to the High Noon Saloon tonight to see Electric Six, the Gore Gore Girls, and We Are the Fury. I had never heard any of these bands tonight, but I was blown away by how awesome the show was. In fact, I'd have to say that this was the best show I've seen in a while. In terms of musicianship and performance quality, it probably wasn't as good as Built to Spill. But, in terms of sheer fun, this was definitely the best show I've seen at least since college. And in terms of...

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September 7, 2007

"Sky of Blue and Sea of Green" or "In Defense of 'Yellow Submarine'"

I recognize that this may be controversial, but I would put "Yellow Submarine" in my personal top-five Beatles songs. In no particular order, I think the other four would be "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Love You To," "Yesterday," and maybe "All You Need Is Love." The last three are definitely up for discussion, but I won't budge on "Yellow Submarine" or While My Guitar Gently Weeps." In the past, when I've told people about how much I like "Yellow Submarine," I've been laughed at and mocked. I don't really understand why. The song is awesome. In the dark days...

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September 4, 2007

What the Fuck Happened to Coldplay?

I know I'm a few years late on this, but, seriously, why did Coldplay decide to call off being a good band? After some initial waffling following the release of A Rush of Blood to the Head, I have since concluded that Parachutes is definitely their best album. The first five songs off of Parachutes are all excellent--they each earn at least four stars on my iTunes list. "Don't Panic" is a great opener that really sets the tone for the album; "Shiver" is a really good follow-up to the first track; "Spies" is one of my favorite tracks on...

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August 29, 2007

Honor Shakespeare, Dishonor Nirvana

I went to see an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing tonight. Although I have read several Shakespeare plays, this was the first time I actually got to see one performed. I thought it was pretty good, although I still think that Shakespeare is pretty ridiculous and the dialogue is sometimes impenetrable, especially when it's mumbled in an outdoor venue. Still, the outdoor stage made the whole thing much cooler, except for the part where it started raining really, really hard. But that only lasted for about ten mintues and, after a brief break, the play resumed. The second...

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August 20, 2007

My Weekend and Myspace

So, as I expected, I did pretty much nothing this weekend. In fact, I forced myself to go for a drive tonight just so that I could say that I actually left the apartment this weekend. I did some reading--I finished Over Sea, Under Stone, the first book in the Dark is Rising series, which is apparently about to be made into a movie or something. It was decent, although really short. I think I'm going to read the rest. Man, I love young-adult literature. I rule! I also watched some TV. There's this show on GSN called "Without Prejudice?"....

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August 16, 2007

Stevie Ray Vaughn

Seeing as how I have almost nothing interesting to say about myself or anything that's going on right now, either in my own life or in the world at large, I've decided to do what comes naturally: be pissed about things. The thing I'm most pissed about right now is Stevie Ray Vaughn. Some of you might think that I, as an aspiriing guitar god, should probably love SRV. But the fact is that the man sucks balls. Although I fully admit that he was an extremely talented guitarist, he is--along with Eddie Van Halen--a perfect example of why a...

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August 5, 2007

Why the Fuck Is There a Song Called "Radar Love"?

I was driving around this afternoon listening to the local classic-rock station, The Lake. They usually stick to the pretty standard classic-rock stuff: the Beatles, the Stones, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin--that kind of stuff. It's usually pretty good, although they sometimes play some unmitigated crap--seriously, who the fuck likes progressive rock bullshit? Anyway, "Radar Love" came on. And I thought to myself "why the fuck does this sone exist?" It's such a terrible song! First of all, I hate call-and-response arrangements. If you can't come up with a better idea than to constantly switch back and forth between stupid lyrics and...

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July 16, 2007

Zeitgeist

As you may or may not know, The Smashing Pumpkins--my favorite band of all time--released their first album in seven years last week. I haven't been as excited as you might think, though, for a few reasons. First, it's not really The Smashing Pumpkins--it's just Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin. While Billy was always the main songwriter and the Pumpkin sound always depended heavily on Jimmy's drumming, I was afraid that the absence of James Iha (not to mention D'arcy, who I maintain was an underrated member) would result in a diminishment of the band's awesomeness. Maybe the band was...

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July 8, 2007

In Defense of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Twilight to Starlight

You can read my thoughts on the "pink CD" here. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"--5/5 This song is really simple, but it rocks a decent amount. Moreover, I really like the way it starts off this side of the album: from disparate sounds it builds to a relatively steady, driving rhythm. It's one of the simpler songs on the album--it doesn't involve a solo or any lead work, really--but I think it's a good song to drive to. Also, it features the explosions from the video game "Doom" that are mentioned in the liner notes. "Bodies"--5/5 This is, by far,...

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June 30, 2007

"I Have So Many Ass-Blood Stories!"

For the first time in almost two months, we gathered at a table and played poker. It was awesome. The awesomeness culminated, I think, in Mr. Utah delivering the above line. I could give some context for the remark, I suppose, but I'm not going to. Another of my favorite moments was when L-dawg lost a significant amount of money to Eugene, who's known for playing in a completely ridiculous fashion. On this particular occassion, Eugene beat L-dawg with a Jack-five off-suit. And that's after there was a significant preflop raise. I love watching L-dawg lose. Bar/Bri sucks pretty hard....

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June 25, 2007

Lyrics

I think I'm a pretty decent writer. I mean, one of the things I spend a lot of time doing is editing other peoples' work, so I have to be decent at it, right? I think that, where prose is concerned, I can express my ideas in a coherent and compelling way. And I also think that I can write music pretty well, actually. The original songs I've put up here don't represent my best efforts, unfortunately, but I think that I can write pretty decent music. What I can't write to save my life is lyrics. I think everyone,...

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June 24, 2007

Maybe Things Are Going to Be Ok . . .

Ok, I know this is my third consecutive Smashing Pumpkins post. I'm sorry, but there's a lot of Pumpkins-related stuff going on right now. Anyway, here's a video of the newly reformed band playing "Tonight, tonight" in Paris. I think it sounds pretty good, and I can't wait to see them when they come to the States. It's still really strange to see some other guy standing where James should be, and the new bassist is no D'arcy. I wonder if the original line up will ever get together again . . . . Anyway, enjoy:...

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June 23, 2007

In Defense of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Dawn to Dusk

In my last post, I called The Smashing Pumpkins' fourth album one of the best albums of all time. Several commentators then challenged that assertion. Which is fine. But you guys are wrong. Let me explain why. Although I've previously explained why I love The Smashing Pumpkins generally and Mellon Collie specifically so much, I think that I can defend the album on its own objective merits. So now let's evaluate each song--all twenty-eight of them (in two parts). I'll give the title, my iTunes rating, and a brief opinion. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"--4/5 This serves an excellent...

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June 8, 2007

Fuck You, Bono. No, Seriously.

If you go to CNN.com right now, one of their top stories is a video about how Bono, who's at the G8 summit, got so angry that he took his glasses off. The man takes off his fucking sunglasses, and it's fucking headline news. Am I in some bizzaro universe right now? If I push something off of my desk, will it fall ip to the ceiling? If I throw a ceramic plate against the wall, will it bounce like a rubber ball? Seriously, what kind of a universe am I living in? First of all, what the fuck is...

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June 6, 2007

Stars

Some time ago (was that first year? No, it must have been second year, right?), I went to this show here in Madison with Wade Garrett and afs. We saw this band called Stars. They were really pretty good--even though I had never heard of them before and was not familiar with their music, I really enjoyed the show and the songs. Mr. Garrett got their CD, Heart, and was kind enough to share it with me. I put it on my computer and listened to it a few times, picked out my favorite songs, gave them four-star ratings in...

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May 26, 2007

Live Music

By sheer luck, I've now lived in two cities that have a pretty awesome music scene for their size. Flagstaff had a ridiculous live music scene and I, as a friend of one of the more popular bands in town, ended up seeing a lot of the music the town had to offer. It was a lot of fun--live music always is. Madison has a good live music scene, too. Or so I've been told. The problem is that I haven't checked out the live music here nearly enough. It's not that I don't want to, or that my friends...

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May 21, 2007

Tarantula

Thanks to an anonymous tagboard poster, I learned that the first new Smashing Pumpkins song in about seven years is available for download on iTunes today. So I downloaded, and I'm currently listening to it for the first time. My first reaction: it's a punk song. The rhythm guitar part sounds pretty simple, and it doesn't involve a riff; it's just a few chords. The lead work is also minimal and, frankly, unimpressive for a guitarist of Billy Corgan's caliber. There's also a fair amount of palm muting. The palm muting actually has the strange effect of making some of...

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May 9, 2007

Who Needs Electric Guitars?

I've been looking for some new music for a little while. After I burned myself out on "Neon Bible," which was the only album I listened to for about two weeks straight, I decided that it was time to add some new blood to my usual music mix. I've had the Soundgarden best of on my computer for a while but never really listened to it. So I called that up and got hooked on "The Day I Tried to Live" for a few days. Now I'm sort of leaving that phase. And where I've ended up at a new...

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May 4, 2007

Name That Tune

There's either way too much stuff on my mind or not enough. Either way, I can't come up with a good topic, so I'll come up with a lame one. After recent events, I made what I think is a pretty awesome mix CD. The songs on it reflect my extant state of mind. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do one of those things where I quote the song and you guys name the song. Maybe it'll be lame, who knows. Anyway, here goes: 1. "Now from his pocket quickly flashes, the crayon on the wall it...

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April 19, 2007

I Don't Care What Anyone Says--Janis Joplin Sucks Ass

I was driving into school this morning listening, as I usually do, to The Lake, a classic rock station that recently switched over to a "shuffle" format. I don't really understand why they did that, but whatever. In any event, Me and Bobby McGee came on, and I realized how much Ms. Joplin sucks. She's really fucking bad. I know some of you out there (I'm looking at you, Dee) are Janis Joplin fans, but I just don't get it. Anyone can scream! It's not "distinctive" or "unique" or "revolutionary"--she's just a bad singer, so she screams. She's the Sanjaya...

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March 20, 2007

Riffs that Rock

As you may or may not know, I play the guitar. I'm not necessarily very good (let me know what you think), but I like to play anyway. Although I haven't gotten to do this as often as I'd like, I can tell you that there's nothing more fun than playing an awesome, loud, distorted riff with a full band. It's one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had. And definitely one of the best ways to get pissed/pumped. While I don't get to do that nearly often enough, I do listen to music fairly often, and a derivative...

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March 13, 2007

Of Flaws and Family (and My Favorite YouTube Video)

I've been feeling pretty good about myself the past few days. Although there's still a hell of a lot I've gotta do between now and the end of the semester, I've been making progress, and that's a great feeling. Further, getting ready to finally actually be a real person has forced me to realize just how far I've come. I used to be anxious about getting out of school, getting a job, and actually just being an adult. Then, a while ago, I started to fear it and I started to wonder if I'd be able to make it. Now,...

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March 6, 2007

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

I stand by my initial assessment that the Arcade Fire's first album, Funeral, is the best album of the new millenium thus far. That album was simultaneously energetic, catchy, and thoroughly depressing. It's a great album to listen to when you're by yourself and you'd rather not be. It goes without saying, then, that I love the Arcade Fire. Still, when I heard that they were releasing a new album, I was kind of nervous; I would almost feel betrayed if the album sucked. Well, I just bought Neon Bible on iTunes and I'm going to offer my first thoughts...

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February 10, 2007

Great News and a New Poll

It's almost as if today hadn't happened. I spent the whole day recovering from last night--man, I was worthless today. In any event, I'm back amongst the living now and, I suspect, will be back at 100 percent efficiency tomorrow. Which is good, because I've got an insane amount of work to do. I've gotta be better about staying in touch with my friends. Thankfully, the blogosphere has kept me in touch with some friends, and IM fills other gaps, but I've really gotta step up the phone calls. So, if you get a random phone call from me just...

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February 5, 2007

What a Disappointment

Football doesn't interest me in th least. However, I usually enjoy the Super Bowl because of--what else?--the commercials. But this year's commercials were pitiful. There weren't any so-cool-you've-gotta-talk-about-them-the-next-day commercials. And, strangly, there were a lot of really depressing commercials. For example, that commercial with the car-building robot that fucking kills itself? That was just . . . wrong! Why would the ad company spend all this time humanizing a robot, making me identify with it, only to have it jump off a bridge. And then, oh, it's ok--it was all a dream. No, that one sucked. And so did the...

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February 3, 2007

Damn Stupid Cliffhangers

The last few days have been pretty quiet. I felt pretty bad for a few days, as if I was getting sick. I still might be, I'm not feeling 100% yet. I've been almost nonstop busy, although, somehow, I'm about a hundred pages behind in classes already. I got home at about ten o'clock last night and, though I had previously said I was going to bar review, didn't. In fact, I went to bed at around eleven. And then I slept until about one o'clock this afternoon. It was awesome. I went into the office for a while today...

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January 17, 2007

Can I Create a Meme?

I figure that if some asshole can come up with the "what's on the top twenty-five most played songs on iTunes" meme, I can come up with one, too. Maybe I'll fail--who knows. My proposed meme is simple but it'll make you think, maybe. The rules are as follows: 1. In no particular order, name your top ten favorite songs--ever. 2. Justify each choice. 3. The list should be completely subjective. The point is to name the ten songs you think are best, not the best songs you think everyone else thinks are best. So, here's my list (remember, in...

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January 15, 2007

I Was Just Thinking . . .

I've got a bunch of stuff on my mind right now, so this is going to be one of those random posts. First off, I was reading Althouse today (I don't know why, it's one hell of a crappy blog), and I suddenly realized: I hate coffee shops. I don't necessarily hate the people in the coffee shop, I just hate the coffee shop itself. Althouse posted pictures of herself at one of the coffee shops here in town (she didn't say which one, although it's pretty obvious from the pictures. Still, if she doesn't want to give away which...

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December 12, 2006

Baby's Got the Bends

I don't care what anyone says. The Bends is definitely Radiohead's best album. I mean, look at the fucking track list! 1. Planet Telex. A great opener. Definitely gets the album going really well. 4/5. 2. The Bends. Good. Not great, but good. 3.5/5. 3. High & Dry. Excellent. This song used to be one of my favorite Radiohead songs. Although it's since been surpassed, it's still great. 5/5. 4. Fake Plastic Trees. Another awesome song. Since this song was on MTV after I stopped watching MTV, I wasn't burned out on it. Same with the radio. So, this song...

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December 8, 2006

Infinite Sadness

I know that December 7th is a day that will live in infamy, but the day is special for me because something positive happened that day. You see, it was ten years ago today (or yesterday, I guess) that I first saw the Smashing Pumpkins live and in concert. It was on their Infinite Sadness tour, in support of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It was at the very height of their popularity, and it was the biggest crowd I've ever seen them play for. It was at the America West Arena in Phoenix. And it was awesome. The...

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November 6, 2006

Cause I'm a Punkrocker, Yes I Am!

I've got the song from this commercial stuck in my head: It's called "Punkrocker," and it's by a band called the Teddybears, featuring Iggy Pop. I really like the song, even though I recognize that it's not the best song. That brings me to something I've been thinking about for a long time. Why is it so hard for contemporary bands to combine excellent musicianship, melody, and loud guitars? Most current bands have, at most, two of those three. But it's not just doing it for me anymore. That brings me to something else that's been on my mind. I've...

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October 31, 2006

Maybe This Will Make Donnie Shut the Fuck Up (AKA: Another New Poll)

Gandalf by a landslide. Moving right along. At Donnie's request, I am now asking you to help decide, once and for all, which is the best Journey video. Your choices are as follows: Open Arms (Live) Faithfully Chain Reaction Why Can't This Night Go on Forever Separate Ways and Don't Stop Believin' Personally, I don't think anything can top Separate Ways. The keyboard on the wall and the drum kit made out of trash cans, in addition to the ridiculous premise (some woman walking around for no apparent reason) puts that video over the top. But, as always, you should...

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October 24, 2006

Jimmy's Love Letters

Jimmy Chamberlain, the drummer for The Smashing Pumpkins, has started posting on the band's Myspace blog.Greetings from Pumpkinland! Sorry it's taken so long to write! I'm here to tell you that great things are on track for the future. As some of you know we are indeed creating music again. Music that comes from a place so pure it will burn the lies off the very souls of those who try to discount it. We have arrived at a place in our lives where truth and honesty prevail and we are creating from that place. I will try to keep...

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October 18, 2006

Stuff That's on My Mind

I noticed something yesterday as I was walking to school. Or, rather, I didn't notice something. That's right, those fucking cows are finally gone! Happy days are here again. I honestly can't believe that they kept them out that long. That's fucking bullshit. Two days of those ugly things was way too much, in my opinion. Apparently, a Massachusetts school has banned playing tag. That's one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever heard. Tag is what kids are supposed to play - that's just what you do. The game's got everything - running, screaming, chasing, tagging! And there are...

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October 4, 2006

Brown and Nerdy

Weird Al's got a new song out called "White and Nerdy." If you haven't seen the video, you have to watch it now. It's awesome. Now that that's out of the way, here's an update on what I've been up to: I was at school all day today working on various things. I have to say - although today was a 16-hour day, I didn't mind it very much. I find most of my classes interesting. My favorite right now is probably Remedies because I want to litigate so I find the topic inherently interesting. My second favorite class is...

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September 25, 2006

Fuck You, Charlie

So, I like listening to the random music station, Charlie, on my way to school in the morning. There's something about Charlie's mix of classic rock and so-bad-it's-good 80's music that I find relaxing and non-offensive. If I listen to pretty much any other station, especially the hard-rock station, I find myself getting angrier and angrier at how much the music fucking sucks. I mean, seriously, have you heard the latest Godsmack song? It's bad. Really fucking bad. In any event, I'm listening to Charlie this morning, when the unthinkable happened. At first, I was sure I had misidentified the...

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September 24, 2006

My Foolish Ship

First and foremost, a hearty congratulations to Mr. Zachar who, in a stunning display of his trigger pulling abilities, beat 50 other competitors today and took home the Dean's Cup Texas Hold'em championship. His prize? Pride. And, together with the second-place finisher, the knowledge that he helped bring 9 additional points to the law school, increasing our lead to over 20. We're gonna fucking win this year, I can feel it. After poker, Zachar and I went over to Laurence and Cristina's, where we watched Dodgeball, which is awesome, walked to State Street, I ordered way too much Taco Bell,...

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September 16, 2006

Built to Spill

So, on Thursday night, Ryan and Elise and I went and saw the Built to Spill concert. It was awesome. The opening band, however, sucked worse than almost any other band I've ever seen. They were called Helvetia or some such shit. They were fucking worthless. Their songs didn't end, they stopped. They were half-assed. They were not dynamic or interesting. The guitarist was a one-trick pony: instead of playing a guitar solo, the guy would turn on this strange phaser/pitch shifter effect and then play a guitar. What a fucking douchebag. That's another thing, the lead singer was clearly...

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September 14, 2006

New Poll!

Given this picture: 36.36% of you guys think that number 5 is the biggest douchebag. I'd have to say that I agree. In second place was 6 with 24.24%. Number 7 was third with 15.15%. Number 8 was fourth with 9.09%. The others, while extraordinarilly douchy, were not douchy enough to overturn the extreme douchebaggery of Number 5. You know what that means - time for a new poll. This one comes as a result of my driving around Madison listening to The Lake. The other day, when "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton came on, I realized a few things....

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September 3, 2006

2006 MTV Video Music Awards (Updated!)

For some reason, I woke up yesterday and I was convinced that I was going to have a shitty day. I felt all lonely and shit. But then the universe sort of knocked me around until I realized that I have a large number of extremely high-quality friends. So I'm feeling pretty good today. What that means for you is that you get to read me ranting about something rather than wallowing in self-pity. It has come to my attention that the MTV Video Music Awards were held recently. Now, as far as I'm concerned, the single best VMA performance...

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August 23, 2006

You Suck, Modern Music

So, as I've mentioned, being at my parents' house allows me to watch TV, something I'm not normally able to do at home. Today, I accidentally stumbled onto the most horrific show I've seen in a while. It was called "Rock Star: Supernova." Let me tell you about the show. Apparently, Tommy Lee, Dave Navarro, Jason Newsted (the former bassist for Metalica and the only person with any credibility), and some other guys have started a "supergroup" called Supernova. I put supergroup in quotes because, while the band meets the technical definition of a supergroup, i.e., it consists of members...

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August 5, 2006

Not the Best Day

First and foremost, I want to congratulate someone on something. The person who is being congratulated knows who they are. My happiness for my friend notwithstanding, I'm feeling kinda shitty tonight. The worst part about it is that I can't really put my finger on why. Or maybe I can and I'm scared to admit it. The fact of the matter is that I don't know where I'm going. No, that's not true. I know exactly where I want to go, I just don't know if I can get there. The "where I want to be" part is simple: a...

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