Dec
Posted on 13th December 2007
Oh, he was a handful sometimes, but I could never stay mad at him.
Dec
Posted on 12th December 2007
Here is something exciting. A nice fellow by the name of Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 11th December 2007
Mondays- am I right? It’s cold and gray outside and I am using that as an excuse to kick slightly less ass than I normally tend to kick on a regular basis. Anyway, yesterday I was watching an old episode (1971) of “The Dick Cavett Show” (in the popular DVD format) that featured the Smothers Brothers, George Burns (and his toupee), and nutritionist Adelle Davis. If you’ve never seen “The Dick Cavett Show,” I suggest you pick up one of the DVDs immediately. It was such a great show and unlike anything on television today. Dick’s show featured an eclectic mix of guests (When was the last time you saw a nutritionist on a late night talk show, for example?) engaging in a seemingly natural and unscripted conversation that wasn’t centered around promoting a new movie or TV show. I wish there were something like it on TV today. Untl then, I’ll keep watching these DVDs, dammit. Shit. Piss. F.
Particularly interesting on the episode of “The Dick Cavett Show” was the conversation with nutritionist Adelle Davis (pictured above, she was into tennis apparently). Even though the conversation took place 36 years ago, it turns out the keys to eating right were pretty much the same back then as they are today. The general rule is to stay away from bullshit (refined and overprocessed foods). The problem is bullshit tends to be delicious. I know because I eat a lot of it. Adelle Davis, on the other hand, didn’t eat much bullshit. Still, that didn’t stop her from dying at the age of 70, just three years after she was on “The Dick Cavett Show.” As of today, I have started eating just slightly healthier though thanks to Adelle. And with any luck I will beat Adelle’s lifespan by at least a couple weeks. That is the plan anyway. Unless, of course, I die in a plane crash or a sword fight. Then I could go at any time really. Life is unpredictable. Cherish every moment.
In other news, today I got an e-mail from a guy who used to be in the Atlanta Rhythm Section. It turns out he saw my post from yesterday and just wanted to say thanks. How cool is that? Maybe I will try writing about Rip Taylor (above) soon and see what happens. Life is unpredictable. Cherish every moment- especially if Rip Taylor e-mails you, which would be so awesome that it’s not even fucking funny. In the interest of full disclosure, however, I must admit that I did once get a phone call from Rip Taylor (true story) and it was incredible. If his e-mail skills are half as good as his phone skills, well, let’s just say I really cannot wait to get that e-mail from Rip Taylor.
Finally, here is a video by the popular sketch comedy troupe Dutch West. I am totally friends with them and I am totally in this video. I hope you enjoy it so much. You are the best. And Rip Taylor is awesome and should feel free to write me any time. I would be thrilled.
Wait- one last thing. I’ve just read the setlist from Led Zeppelin’s show tonight in London. My friend Will was there and said they were awesome. I wish I had been there. They are the best band ever period. I’m sure this has been posted all over the Internet already, but here’s what they played:
1. Good Times, Bad Times
2. Ramble On
3. Black Dog
4. In My Time Of Dying
5. For Your Life
6. Trampled Under Foot
7. Nobody’s Fault But Mine
8. No Quarter
9. Since I’ve Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway To Heaven
12. The Song Remains the Same
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Kashmir
Encore:
15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock and Roll
Sounds like it was a scorcher.
Dec
Posted on 10th December 2007
I have totally been getting into the Atlanta Rhythm Section (or ARS as they are known to the diehards and- I’m guessing- the guys in the band too) lately. For the uninitiated, the Atlanta Rhythm Section is a band that formed in 1970 in Atlanta (as hinted at in their name). They had a string of hits back in the day when pop songs were sung by real men with beards (and/or other forms of facial hair) who actually sang like men (e.g. Walter Egan’s “Magnet and Steel”) instead of singing like boys who still live with their parents or- at the very least- have several roommates. My favorite songs by the Atlanta Rhythm Section are “So Into You,” “Spooky” (a cover of the song originally done by the Classic IV, some of whose members went on to form the Atlanta Rhythm Section), and “Imaginary Lover” (this is their best one in my opinion).
Because of an iTunes purchasing mishap I had the other night, I now own a whole shitload of songs by the Atlanta Rhythm Section, so I’ve really been digging a lot deeper into their catalog than I had originally planned. Still, I’m loving it just the same. It’s the kind of sound that magically transports you to the wood-paneled bar of some old motel just a few hundred yards off the exit of a highway you’re not sure how you turned onto in the first place. Somehow your hair just got a little wavier and you find yourself sipping an Old Grand Dad on the rocks from a chipped red glass. And with every moment, the idea of bumming a Winston from the Farrah Fawcett lookalike sitting next to you in hopes of starting up a conversation that will hopefully end with her in your bed and you in her pants starts seeming better and better. Of course, most of the wood-paneled motel bars I speak of only in exist in the mind or in movies these days due to the neverending homogenization/lame-ification of America. But still one can dream. And thanks to all these songs by the Atlanta Rhythm Section I now have on my computer, it just got a lot easier for me.
The video above is for ARS’ “Imaginary Lover” and it’s really something. I like how even back in their heyday the band looked like they had just gotten back together for a reunion tour of state fairs and BBQ rib cook-offs. It’s amazing what a little facial hair, a few extra pounds, and a belt buckle can do for a man. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this song and video as much as I have. And thank you, Atlanta Rhythm Section. You have rocked me.
Dec
Posted on 5th December 2007
Hi there. If you are looking for some excitement and/or mayhem tomorrow night, I encourage you to swing by the popular Comix comedy club over there on 14th Street and 9th Avenue for a comedy show benefit for Stockings With Care, a fine organization. It will be a fun and entertaining night featuring the lovely Jessi Klein, the lovely Eugene Mirman, the lovely Giulia Rozzi, the lovely Anthony DeVito, and even more people besides them. Also, as hinted at on the flyer above, I will be there too. You should totally come or I will freak out like a motherfucker.
Dec
Posted on 5th December 2007
There are many reasons I think New York City as we know (or have known) it is over (and yes, I realize this is by no means an original insight). But perhaps nothing sums it up better than the fact that right now, as I type this, some douche is parked in front of my apartment building cranking a song by the “rock band” Train at full volume, sending it echoing throughout my neighborhood. Fuck him for doing so and, furthermore, fuck me for being able to accurately identify a Train song. The question is “What do we do now?” What if we each agreed to send a garbage can crashing through the front window of the next La Pain Quotidien we pass? Or we each make a point of tripping a fratboy in the East Village or punching some douche in the crotch over in the Meatpacking District at least once a week? At least it would be a start. Remember Whoville. We can do it.
Dec
Posted on 5th December 2007
It is Tuesday night and I’ve just returned from eating the fuck out of some Chinese food at Mama Buddha, which is the Chinese food place totally near my house. I was hoping to make it to the gym as part of my incredible new fitness regimen, but I ended up eating a big pile of Mongolian chicken instead. Now I feel like anything is possible. Just not for me.
In other news, it is cold as balls outside and I just can’t stop talking about it. I have a super serious winter jacket that I only break out once it’s seriously cold as balls outside. I figured I wouldn’t have to break it out until February or something but boy was I wrong about that because- as I mentioned in the last sentence- it is seriously cold as balls outside. And honestly I simply cannot stop talking about it. I wonder how those guys who sell the Christmas trees all night on the corner near my apartment do it. I also can’t figure out how they have a little kid in a cowboy hat hanging out with them all the time either. Doesn’t he have to go to school? Maybe they are gypsies or in a cult or something. I imagine if you are a gypsy or in a cult you can pretty much do whatever you want (you know, within reason). Oh wait, actually that might not be true if you are in a cult. I hope the kid in the cowboy hat isn’t in a cult. But it must be a pretty cool cult if you get to wear a cowboy hat all the time.
In still other news, today I submitted my spotty and not at all thorough “Best of 2007” music list to the popular Brooklyn Vegan website and they totally posted that shit right here. Go read it and then you can read all the nasty comments people left after my little list. Man, people can be so mean on the Internet! Geez!
Finally, above is one of the more incredible music videos I have seen in a long time. Not surprisingly, it is a Norwegian black metal video as I am a sucker for that sort of thing. This one is by the band Gorgoroth and features sheep heads stuck to the ends of spears, naked men and women nailed to crosses, and lots of fire. In short, the guys in Gorgoroth have pretty much nailed it with this one. When future civilizations try to decide what was the greatest music video of our time, it will pretty much be between this one and Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back” video I imagine.
Dec
Posted on 4th December 2007
Here is an exciting new holiday-themed video I did for Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 3rd December 2007
Dec
Posted on 2nd December 2007
It’s Sunday and the ground is covered with snow for what I think is the first time this season though I could be totally wrong about that. I just can’t remember really. It feels like the first time though, and that’s what really matters here. I walked outside to get coffee around noon and suddenly had the urge to sit around and drink beer and eat hamburgers while wearing a big sweater and watching the snow outside. This is probably because I was walking by the Corner Bistro, where everyone was sitting drinking beer and eating hamburgers while wearing big sweaters and watching the show outside. I am dismissing this is as coincidence though.
Since I live in a glamorous neighborhood, I have seen entire blocks covered in snow at various points of the year because someone was making a movie that is set in the winter time. It’s pretty cool how they can make a whole block look like it has totally been snowing a ton outside. I would have thought that technology was twenty years off. I wonder how the people whose cars are parked on that block feel about digging their cars out of the snow in August though. Here’s to never really knowing for sure.
In other news, I read an interesting/amusing/annoying article in the New York Times today about a new nightclub that’s opening in Chelsea soon. I think it’s funny how the guys opening the club feel that the best way to battle all the lame clubs full of douchebags, Lindsay Lohan, and people who look like Lindsay Lohan is to open yet another lame club that will invariably fill up with douchebags, Lindsay Lohan, and people who look like Lindsay Lohan the second it opens. Why don’t they just open a La Pain Quotidien while they’re at it? And could these guys have posed for a douchier photo? I wonder if they all agreed not to smile beforehand. “Seriously, guys- don’t smile. We have to make sure everyone knows we are total dickheads and smiling might blow that for us. Okay, on the count of three….” The caption for this photo in the Times should have been printed with these guys’addresses at the end so people could go find them and punch them in the nuts. All of that having been said- God, I hope I get into their new club! Maybe I will finally get to meet Fat Joe.
And now for a palate cleanser- here is the new video by Down for their song “On March The Saints.” You can just tell none of the guys in this band are iPod DJ’s on the side and I really respect them for that.
