Fucked Up. The band.

I know that both of you guy are not fans of the band called Fucked Up. I'm a pretty big fan of (portions of) the new album. Especially The Other Shoe. I'm not really sure why. There's a really beautiful rock'n roll song hidden beneath the Pink Eye on top. Check it out.

Why musicians are not role models

There seems to be a resurrection of aged late-90's pop punk icons. Not a good thing.

First, go and read this article about Fat Mike's Cokie the Clown act(last year but still interesting). Oh my god. Is that ever messed up.

Then, go read about Ben Weasel punching two girls.

Both at SXSW.

Just crazy bad stuff.

I'm really second guessing any lingering feelings that I have for NOFX. Ben Weasel should have gone away long ago.

Put a nail in it

This might go in circles for a while... I'm finding lately that I'm a bit nervous going to shows because I'm nervous that something is going to be ruined for me. The chance that I'm going to experience something great and memorable is far less than the chance it's going to suck and I'll be disappointed. Case in point, the Dodos. The first time I saw the Dodos, they opened for Les Savy Fav at Richards. Holy shit. Just knocked me right back. There were two dudes on stage, one had an acoustic guitar and the other had a drum kit and they were just so powerful. Les Savy Fav became just a silly little sideshow that came on after the Dodos played. It was incredible. I've seen them a few times since then and it has been less memorable. But the show last week was the definition of mediocre. They've added a member. They play electric guitars. Yet all the power is gone. It's generic rock music now. And I don't want to see them again. Worse, the image of the Dodos in my mind is forever ruined. Now, in other news, LCD Soundsystem helf their "last show ever" over the weekend, whatever that means. I think the LCD Soundsystem show that I saw at the Commodore was the greatest show I've ever been to. One of them, anyhow. I've never felt so immersed in music before in all my life. I went to New York a few weeks later and saw them again and it was amazing, but the inherent repetitiveness of seeing a band twice in one month lessened the experience. The last time I saw LCD Soundsystem was at the Malkin Bowl and the only thing I remember about that show was this crazy old dude doing the weirdest dance I've ever seen in my life. I can't even imagine wanting to go see LCD Soundsystem performing for 3 hours at Madison Square Gardens. Is this what getting old is about? The build-up of knowledge until all your comparables outweigh potential new experiences? (I'm talking about music, by the way) Hopefully you guys actually read this one because I'm curious to hear what you have to say. It's honestly at a point for me that I only want to see bands that I've never seen before because the bands that always killed it live for me end up being a disappointment and if they sucked the first time they almost certainly haven't gotten any better.

Battier

I'm sure Evan will have something to say about this.

A far from new story about Shane Battier, Moneyball in basketball and defending. I thought it was pretty interesting.

More Real Estate

A while back, I was reading some article on how Canada had the highest real estate prices ever and how it was all guaranteed to never stop increasing and how Jesus Christ himself was going to buy a condo in Yaletown. And there was a comment that made me laugh. To paraphrase:

"Stupid Canada. 2nd biggest country in the world and you're jamming yourselves into condos in Vancouver."

Something like that.

So, here we are. A country with 1/100th of the world recognition of the United States and we tell ourselves that real estate keeps going up because everybody wants to live here. Nobody knows who we are.

For hundreds of years, real estate prices have come back to a norm (adjusted for inflation of course). Here's this boingboing post showing where the US is at. We're not different. This makes no sense. Paying $4000 a month for something you can rent for $2000 is not an investment.

I just lied to Dave Letterman

Well...to his assistant.

We're heading off for a week in New York next week (note to robbers, we've hired the H.A. Dogsitters to look after our place. They'll use lethal force if necessary. The dog bites as well). Last week I started looking around for what sort of tickets I could get my hands on. I decided to put my name in for a few TV shows and see what happens.

An assitant from the Late Show phoned me yesterday and asked if we'd be interested in coming. I wasn't sure what the timing was so I said I would phone her back. Anyhow, we sorted it out for the Monday taping (which actually might be for the Friday show) and I phoned her back.

They still had the tickets, so it was on to the lieing.

"Are you a fan of the show?"
"Oh ya. Of course." - Lie #1
"How often do you watch?"
"Oh...you know...once or twice a week." - Lie #2
"Okay. Great. Are you ready for the trivia question? You have to answer it yourself. No help."
"Oh....ya....fire away." - Lie #3
"What item of clothing is Paul Shaffer known for wearing?"
Frantic googling
"Well....he kind of wears wacky shirts?"
"Close, but not quite. There's actually two possible answers..."
I actually gave up at this point, but she seemed to really want to give me these tickets. So after about 30 seconds of umming and ahhhing...
"He...wears....glasses?"
"Close enough. I'll have your tickets ready for you at the box office."

Anyhow. I mean, who the hell has time to watch Letterman? How many shows does it compete with? Anyhow, next Monday (or Friday) we'll be in the audience. I'll try to do something touristy.

Food Perspective

This is just an awesome point of view on restaurant and food culture.