The Woods

It's official, Sleater-Kinney's The Woods is easily the best CD of the year, possibly one of the best CDs I've heard in a few years. Review coming up shortly.

Los Angeles

The weather is amazing, the people not so. I think it comes from my experiences driving. It can bring the worst in people. The first day was exciting to get behind the wheel... that lasted about oh 24 hours.

Anyways, it's good to spend time with my mom and it's good that my brother is spending time with dad in Korea.

I am posting this from my cell phone while watching L&O: SVU. Two things I will really appreciate when I get back: high speed internet and a regular keyboard.

I'm beginning to really miss Lindsay and I am so worried about her. Leah is watching her. Alecia went home for T-day and that was about the happiest news.

T-day

I'm off to Gen Con So Cal and to see my mother for Thanksgiving. I will have extremely limited access to the internet. My mom has one of my old computers (Pentium MMX 200!) but she doesn't even know how to "double click" so it hasn't been touched since oh, '99. I doubt I will be able to blog (blogar) while down there.

I'm looking forward to my first GenCon. I can only take one RPG due to space in my ChocoCat Rolling Travel Bag so it's either Gamma World 1st edition or Basic D&D... I could also run Iron Heroes (PDF) but I know so little about the system.

On a weirdly related note (it's a blog), I used to see both sides of the debate in the music copy rights issue, but after the crap that Sony tried to pull off, I'm pretty much against the music industry... despite this new revelation, I went ahead and purchased The Woods by Sleater-Kinney from Tower Records because they had it on sale for $11.99, the same price as amazon online. I wanted to listen to it during my vacation and a band like Sleater-Kinney I wanted to support... convoluted but there it is.

Finally, I'm planning on spending the downtime watching most if not all of my Antonioni films (Il Grido, L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert and Blow Up) and the two books on him. Yes, I will have a lot of downtime.

See you all in 9 days and have a great T-day!

I've got this curse in my hands

It looks like my next band obsession might be Sleater-Kinney, specifically Carrie Brownstein. It all started with Sympathy from their One Beat CD, much like Bull in the Heather started it for Sonic Youth. I love the way the two lead singers (Corin and Carrie) interact. When I first heard the song, I really loved Carrie's part but I thought Corin was singing it. It took a minute to realize it was Carrie and that I loved her voice. The rest as they say is... an obsession.

So with this new obsession, I've also started branching out to other similar groups, most notably The Gossip. I saw them at a concert a few months ago and the guitarist/bassist really made me want to pick one up. Good bluesy stuff. It was a night to remember in more ways than one.

So here is the grand chart:

Sleater-Kinney --> makes an appearance in Sonic Youth's music video <-- Kathleen Hannah of Le Tigre appears in Bull in the Heather --> The Gossip collaborates with Le Tigre and they are on the same music label (Kill Rock Stars)... any other connections?

Days

Today is the sixth day of the rest of my life... hmm...

I saw Days of Heaven at the Castro Theater on Monday and Malik is a film genius. Film editing was in its infancy back then and the quiet and long takes coupled with the poor acoustics and poor print made for a difficult viewing. I could hear every crunch of popcorn that a person four rows down was eating. Everyone was so seriously quiet. I think it would be better enjoyed in the comfort of my home.

Still, it's a beautiful bitter-sweet film. Although it centers around the characters involved in a love triangle, it's narrated by a young girl who follows them. It gives the film a detached innocence (and makes the ending very powerful). I can't wait to see Malik's The New World.

EDIT 11-11 Obviously The New World will be the best film of 2005.

short circuit

My primary desktop computer shorted out today. Or that's what it looks like. Somewhere between the Power Switch connector and the motherboard there is a strange short. When I brush the contacts with each other, the power comes on for about 3 seconds before it shuts down. As long as there is a temporary contact the power comes on. I've switched the power supply so it's not that.

Alors, I've been meaning to get a tablet PC anyways... and my brother just got a nice IBM X41 Thinkpad so he's supposed to give me his "old" PC (which is still way faster than my current dead one).

Until then, I've got my IBM T30 on a loan from work. It's not a bad laptop at all. The only sucky thing is that I have a CAT5 cable running all the way from the hallway to my room to my bed. I guess it's not too bad that I can work on The Internet from my bed.