You can now buy something. It's the ultimate in consumerism. You buy something. It may be useful. It may not. You probably didn't really need it since you didn't even know what it was. But somehow, they've gotten you to buy it with the angle that you have no idea what you're buying. Just send me $10, I will send you something...
So, I went to see The Cure last night in Boston. They played at the Agganis Arena. I'd seen Wilco there a few years back and thought the sound was okay. I'm not gonna give you a song by song review of the show because that would take forever. The show lasted over 3 hours, which in some ways is awesome, but also made the crowd a little restless and tired.
I've always wanted to see The Cure live as I really dig their records. Robert Smith is a good songwriter. I was disappointed that they are only touring as a quartet, and didn't have any keyboards. I missed hearing some of the very cool synth/key parts. Not that I expected Robert Smith to be bouncing around the stage or jumping off of amplifiers, but I also thought the show lacked a certain energy one comes to expect from seeing a live show. The band for the most part, stayed fairly stationary. That kind of bugs me. It wasn't until one of the encores that Smith finally grabbed a microphone and walked from one side of the stage to the other, serenading the peeps in the cheaper seats.
Let me rant a bit about the crowd... They SUCKED the life out of this show... I felt like I was attending an operatic performance of Carmen... The people on the floor stood for most of the performance, but the people in the upper sections sat on their asses. You're at a fucking rock n roll show, if you want to sit down and enjoy the music, put on the CD or watch the Trilogy DVD!!! Concerts are meant for you to get off your fat, lazy ass and do a little dancing, rock out a little, do ANYTHING that makes it look like you give a shit that a band is performing on stage. I just don't get it. When did people stop letting music move them?
All in all, I had a good time at the show. I heard some great old Cure tunes with a few new ones mixed in. I'm very psyched I was able to score a last minute ticket on Craigslist, and grateful to the dude who waited on the street for me to arrive, as I hauled ass to get there before showtime. Thanks dude. I'm very happy that I was able to see a band I have liked and respected for many, many years. Here's the setlist:
Setlist:
plainsong prayers for rain alt.end a night like this the end of the world lovesong sleep when i'm dead pictures of you lullaby the perfect boy from the edge of the deep green sea hot hot hot the only one the blood wrong number the walk signal to noise push inbetween days just like heaven primary us or them never enough one hundred years disintegration
Encore: the lovecats freakshow close to me why can't i be you?
Encore 2: play for today a forest
Encore 3: boys don't cry jumping someone else's train grinding halt 10:15 saturday night killing an arab
It also brought me up a little after reading the prior article about how the government is preventing a company from voluntarily testing their meat for mad cow: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/bush-government-sues-to-stop-testing.php. I assume they are afraid that if one company tests, all of the others will need to do the same to remain market competitive. Last time I checked, it was acceptable for companies to do things that make their products more desirable to consumers, but I guess not...
The Motion Sick now plans to file lawsuits against awesome bands for making music that is too enjoyable for listeners, preventing them from listening instead to our songs! See you in court!
Here is the video of us meeting Kelly for the first time (in Austin at SXSW). Patrick begins the encounter harrassing her and then we realize that we know her by name...
Some more Austin Kelly bits also w/Benjy Kantor from Sonicbids:
We made the journey down to the N-Y-C to play at The Baggot Inn during its closing weekend after an 18-year stint as an awesome place to see original music with a reasonable cover in the West Village (not a lot of places like that left!).
So as not to let down DTL, who has declared us D-List Celebrity Stalkers and challenged us to meming, we also saw Judah Friedlander hanging out outside the club. Judah is probably a really big fan of The Motion Sick, which is why he was there. Meme response at the end of the message...
On the way down, we learned about larvae and fruit punch...but the two are actually unrelated:
The Meme: 1. Pick up the nearest book. 2. Open to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences. 5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
1. Okay, I am currently at my sister's apartment in the East Village, so I am going to have to look around a little for a book... 2. Opened... 3. Found. 4. Ned knew that she and a young man had begun courting, and he believed her tears must have resulted from something he had said or done. Possibly, the two had been "indiscreet," although he did not think Gertrude capable of so drastic a moral lapse. The more he pressed her for an explanation, the more troubled and adamant she became. 5. I have been tagged by DTL. I am hopeful that even without targeting specific victims, 5 brave souls will volunteer to participate...they will be commemorated here:
We played on Thursday at TT the Bear's in Boston with a notable and wonderful lineup of glam rock locals (and our heroes) Sidewalk Driver, local fellow indiers Vivian Darkbloom, and the insanely energetic and insanely nice Semi Precious Weapons from NYC. The bands were all great and a fabulous time was had by all who attended.
Camera-wielder Sophia managed to get some juicy images and video of the whole bunch:
Last night, I watched the documentary film My Kid Could Paint That. It chronicles the rise and fall and rise and fall(?) of child-painting phenom Marla Olmstead. The filmmaker, Amir Bar-Lev, was lucky enough to begin making the film early enough in Marla's "career" to chronicle both her rise and her fall (after a 60 Minutes II Expose).
Originally intending the film as a piece to examine the meaning and value of modern art when filtered through the lens of a 4-year old, Bar-Lev felt obligated to shift focus to addressing the controversy. As his own doubts begin the bias the scope, he steps before the lens, directly telling the audience his thoughts and concerns. The film closes with his attempt to provide an objective look at the situation, but his view on the subject remains apparent and encourages the viewer to side with him.
What is most interesting about this film is not the arc of the story - "documentary gold" as Marla's mother calls it - but rather the concepts that are tangentially explored and exposed. The actual story, which ends up addressing whether or not any "fraud" or misleading activities have occurred, make for an interesting and compelling whodunnit, but do so without a deep examination of the human psyche.
Other off-the-cuff statements by the reporter who first covered the story, the local gallery owner who acted as the family's agent, and the family themselves regarding the nature of their relationships, the attention generated by the story, and the meaning of art itself are what make this a wonderful film.
Here are some of the basic themes:
1. Art is at least as much about the artist as it is about the art. As the controversy builds, pieces that were admired on the walls of collectors became sources of anger and betrayal despite the fact that the art itself remained constant. All of the work was shown because of the story rather than the work. Without the story, the work loses value and meaning.
2. It is difficult to turn away media attention and to deny fame. The family struggles at balancing their own privacy and happiness with the promise of fame and fortune. Both Marla and her younger brother Zane say little throughout the course of the documentary, but what few words come out are tremendously insightful.
3. People believe the media without question. As soon as the 60 Minutes expose aired, the family became inundated with nasty, threatening, defamatory, and just plain rude e-mails. As compelling as the 60 Minutes piece was, it certainly did not allow the other side of the story to be told. Virtually any story can be given any slant and no opportunity or forum exists for rebuttal. On the same note, the testimony of a so-called "expert" is automatically considered absolutely correct. I can say from experience that "experts" within the sciences have massive disagreements about just about everything, from the fundamental to the niche.
4. The filmmaker and the reporter discussed the struggles they had exposing the family to attention and criticism. The filmmaker films himself driving home at one point and discusses his concern that he essentially has to accuse the family of being dishonest after they have let him into their home and trusted him to portray them in a positive light. There is even significant discussion after the 60 Minutes piece about whether the film will also betray them.
5. Art is a representation of the truth, but never the truth itself. As the film closes, the director admits his bias directly and also adds discussions with prominent figures in the film about bias in art. The movie closes out addressing how all art is inherently a representation of truth, but not truth itself.
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit." - Edward R. Murrow
I'm doing a little cross-promotion to advertise the Cult of Point Break Society's 2008 Project, Marquee Moon by Television. Details for this year's Charity are still being confirmed, but I'll be posting what the specific cause will be and how to donate.
This year, the society has decided to re-create some of Television's studio recordings in an effort to publicize the show. So without further ado, please check out three of the pieces that will be played as part of the performance, probably set some time in October.
Just a summarized update on what we've been up to for the last bit of time...
-"30 Lives (Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix)" included in 2008 Dance Dance Revolution Video Game -"30 Lives" video on "120 Minutes" - MTV Latin Amer., MuchMusic, Fuse On Demand, and many other regional, national, and international stations - 2008 -CMJ Spotlight Artist - 3/14 - 3/21 2008 -CMJ Independent Select Tracks Chart #67 - "30 Lives" - Feb. 2008 -CMJ Top 200 #71 - The truth will catch you, just wait... - Feb. 2008 -CMJ Top 20 Most Added #13 - The truth will catch you, just wait... - Jan. 2008 -Blender feature "30 Lives" Breakout Video - Feb. 6, 2008 -SPIN.com Band of the Year - one of 8 finalists in the Underground Category -Best Boston albums of 2006 - Boston Metro - Jan. 4, 2007 -"Satellite" Music Video screened at the 2007 BIMINI Intl. Fest. of Animation Films -2006 Grammy Entry #60 in Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal -2006 Grammy Entry #127 in Best Pop Vocal Album -2006 Last Band Standing, WFNX and AI New England Competition -2006 Fuse TV Bodog Battle of the Bands City Finalists -SPIN.com Band of the Month - Feature in SPIN Magazine, Apr. 2006 -SPIN Essential - Music You Need to Download! SPIN Magazine, Mar. 2006 -Microsoft - New Music Feature - SPIN Magazine, Mar. 2006 -SPIN.com Band of the Month, Jan. 2006 -SPIN.com Band of the Day, Jan. 13, 2006
When we were down in Austin for SXSW, we met up with awesome fellow Aidan Williamson, who interviewed us for Strange Glue. He was a swell guy and asked us a bunch of interesting things and did a great job writing it all up for your amusement, enjoyment, and education...
"This interview is over!" exclaims The Motion Sick's guitarist Patrick Mussari as he slams his hands down on the table in front of him, and all it took was a small mention of two words, Joy Division...
Today, while buying sundries at my local Shaw's supermarket using the self-checkout machine, I learned that the system is based on Windows XP Embedded when the machine crashed and rebooted mid-transaction. I wasn't fast enough to get the initial computer boot screen, but got a few shots before the application reloaded itself. We had a hard time figuring out if our payment went through or not. It crashed as we finalized the credit card transaction. After consulting the staff, who asked how we managed to crash it, we all decided that we'd best assume it charged us and be on our way. It's not as exciting as the picture I saw once of a laser-surgery machine controlled by Windows software that had brought up a general protection fault, but it's all I've got...
Here I am guest blogging since the motion sick tied me up and took me on their trip to Delaware. The day was nice, it started with some type of chain related mocha beverage and blueberry cake. As we went south the weather greatly improved over the already awesome weather we were having in Boston. Not like any of you folks know me or care (but maybe you should) but I love hot weather. I love windows down with swamp ass while you are driving weather. I would be a liar if I did not state that some of my motivations to go on this trip were: A: it was going to be like 80 down there. B: they were going to be playing near a beach. Both those things are magical. On the way down we were listening to some 80's throw back tunes and some LOC (Left of Center for all of you who aren’t cool kids like me). There were many moments of corny car sing along… But as we went south the devil started calling for me… Maybe it was the warm weather that tempted me… Maybe it was the fake plants at the CT rest area... (Insert fake plant photo here)But I knew he was near and his fingers were firmly planted on my soul. I knew I was in his midst when I took the first bite of my Nathans corn dog nugget. The pitchfork was firmly planted in my fries. The rest of the folks thought it was just there to keep them from getting ketchup on their hands while eating fries, but I knew what it was really for, all red and pointy. I knew then what the devil had in store for me. I watched patiently as Starman ate his pretzel waiting for just the right moment. Then when he was down to his last bite I swooped in with the pitchfork like a dirty gull and stole that last bite of his pretzel. This intern made starman mad which is what the devil likes. Starman vowed to reap vengeance on me later. I told him the devil made me do it. For the rest of the trip I kept the devil's pitchfork in the cuff of my jeans. Other good uses for the devil's pitch folks could be Hole puncher (Maratha Stewart prefers this one), Lock Picker, Fry Eating Utensil, and Shiv. After the devils will had been done we traveled onward. We arrived at the venue a few minutes before those guys had to play so that was my cue to look at the ocean and nearly cream my pants with excitement and check my text messages while taking a dump in a public restroom (I am a classy broad). The venue was a cool place right on the water the guys were on in the early part of the evening, so some families were finishing up dinner. They kicked all the kids out at 9PM and it was like 8:30. While in the restroom, this mom was there with her kids… This is the conversation I overheard as I was texting and pooping... (Mom yelling) "Did you pee on the seat, don't pee on the seat, what are you doing in there?... What is that on your arm?!!!" The obviously terrified kid replied, "chocolate"... Mom, “No it is not, I have seen enough poop in my day to know it is not chocolate, come here and let me wash that poop off right now”. That kid is going to have some hard core public pooping hang ups later on in life. Now it is onto the set. The guys played a good rock show with good energy throughout the whole set. The local crowd seemed to be getting real into it. Also, you know your song is a hit when old people get up and dance to it. During thirty lives an old person impromptu dance party broke out which was for me the highlight of the evening. I had a quiet internal chuckle about the whole thing… Cause shit like that is amazing in the same way that bowling alleys are. The rest of the evening I spent wandering around trying to not look too much like a hanger-oner. Which I don’t want to get pigeon holed into doing since that would totally kill my cred and cause me some stress. I would like to give props to The Influence for A: the lead singers wicked amazing stylish bow tie. B: for their Michael Jackson cover. I am a sucker for anything off of Thriller even if MJ is not singing it. They kind of sounded like A Perfect Circle meets Incubus so if you are into that you should check them out cause that dude has one stylish bowtie. The party award goes to the folks in Wayne Supergenius, It is my guess that they were the folks throwing the ripper at the hotel that night and they were grinding in public with their fans. Now there is some team playing. I think I also caught some of the Ben Jelen set which was good I had a moment alone with it and I think it is the type of music one would have a moment alone with. It was mellow and kind of sad, not like crying in your beer more like crying in your raspberry Stoli and Sprite. In the battle of Leesa vs. Starman, the Starman totally won the 2nd round by randomly stealing and then shot gunning my Corona. Soon after that we left the show to go score some food and found this sweet diner. I heart diners. I have this rule against eating at chains when in new places. You always have to go with the local fair (rest stations when traveling are an exception of course). But since I pig out when I am on the road I ate turkey, it made me sleepy and the rest is history. In an effort to keep this short, the next day I found a giant horseshoe crab shell at this little wild life preserve a block away from the hotel. It now sits at my apartment next to my roommates matching one. The weather was still awesome but the coffee sucked. I ate some BK at a rest station. That night I hung out in Queens for the first time ever, got some good Italian eats, drove past some street that my nemesis used to live on in Manhattan, and hung out drinkin’ beer with Travis’s friend Tony (who is amazing and someday I vow to eat more sliders than him.). The next day we drove back and I ate some nasty rest station breakfast. Back to the real world like back to the future folks...
A lot of super-rad news. First, upcoming shows in brief: 05/08/08 - Cambridge, MA - TT's - w/Semi Precious Weapons and Sidewalk Driver 05/09/08 - New York, NY - Baggot Inn 06/07/08 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East Up - w/Pela, Static of the Gods, Shawn Fogel 07/12/08 - Washington, DC - The Grog and Tankard
If you like to dance, and we know you do, you'll be soon dancing for high scores to the dance remix of "30 Lives," which will be featured in a whole bunch of upcoming releases of the video game DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION. That's not all!! Your feet will be enjoying themselves grooving along while your eyes take in the wonder that is the "30 Lives" music video, which will also be included in the game!
If you haven't seen the video yet (what's wrong with you?), head over to http://themotionsick.com/30lives/index.html and watch. Or, if you are a traditionalist, you can view it on any of the many places it's airing: "120 Minutes" on MTV Latin America, "The Wedge" on MuchMusic, Fuse On Demand, and many, many other regional, national, and international stations. The video is also airing in a number of stores including: Foot Locker (1500 locations), Champs Sports (550 locations), Footaction (375 locations) Harley-Davidson (300 dealerships), 55 Against All Odds clothing Stores, 5 Against All Odds for Women stores in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and a chain of tattoo parlors in NYC. It was featured on a number of web sites including a front-page feature on Blender as the "breakout video." Watch it over and over again!!!!
Don't foolishly forget to read our blog: http://themotionsickreviews.blogspot.com/ or check out new pictures and video: http://themotionsick.com/themotionsick/livephotos.html
We've got a ton of great shows coming up as well...
05/08/08 TT the Bear's Place Cambridge, MA 11:45 PM - The Motion Sick 10:45 PM - Semi-Precious Weapons 9:45 PM - Vivian Darkbloom 8:45 PM - Sidewalk Driver 18+
Semi-Precious Weapons and Sidewalk Driver are two of the best glam rock bands in the universe right now. You really need to see both of them...then, to prevent an overdose of glamity, you've got Vivian Darkbloom and The Motion Sick providing alternating sets of indie rock.
05/09/08 The Baggot Inn 82 W. 3rd St. New York, NY 10:45 - The Motion Sick 21+ Rescheduled from our March tour!
...and, you'll be hearing more from us on this one, but we are throwing a big bash to celebrate our 100th show. It will be awesome and it will sell out, so buy your tickets in advance. 06/07/08 Green Light Go Showcase The Middle East Upstairs Cambridge, MA w/Pela, Static of the Gods, Shawn Fogel 18+ $9adv/$10dos
07/12/08 The Grog and Tankard 2408 Wisconsin Ave, NW Washington DC 20007 7:30 - The Motion Sick 21+ $8
We're back in DC playing early in the evening so we can head on over to our political office for a strategy-building session to examine the possibility of a 2012 bid for President...first band in office!
We've started our political climb by getting involved in a campaign looking at carbon offsetting. Check out http://www.aroundgoeswhat.com/ to learn more.
We've got some more excitement in store for the Summer, so keep your ears on us...
First off, for the record, I don't mind having the windows open in the car, I mind getting my face bruised, blasted, and whipped by the wind, there is a crazy amount of force that goes straight to the backseat, I am sure it's much more pleasant in the front. Aside from this our epic ride to Delaware (Google maps lies! They said it would be 7 hours, but it was closer to 11, due to traffic) was mostly pleasant, including a few singalongs to 80s classics.
During the show I took some video on a few songs and got some cool pictures, including a pictorial of every one's pedal boards. Check those out on The Motion Sick Photos page.
The hotel, as Travis said, was a bit suspicious, but it was pretty cheap, so I can't complain much. Saturday we spent the morning walking the beach and checking out the town. Being that it is April, a lot of the fun stuff still isn't open for the season (including the waterslides), so after meandering around a bit we hit up Crabby Dicks, had a round of Yeungling, and hit the road for NYC.
I was very excited to have my first celebrity siting in New York, Steven Van Zandt of E-Street Band, the Underground Garage Radio show, and Sopranos fame. Of course, he heard me when I shouted, "Hey is that Little Stevie?!," and he looked up and gave an ape-like expression and proceeded to lift his Polka-Dot luggage out of his car and wander up to a building across the street. I mostly recognized him because he was wearing his signature head scarf. He had a pretty sweet ride, complete with fuzzy dice and New Jersey plates. We also witnessed him getting a ticket for parking next to a fire hydrant, and we got some pictures of the ticket being placed on the windshield, which goes to show that Little Stevie is not above parking laws.
We also got to hang out with David T, my old bandmate from Blitzkriegbliss. David exists primarily in the Classical world these days and we got to meet some of his friends at a party in Dumbo (this is the best name for a neighborhood ever! Dumbo is an acronym for the bulky "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"). At said party, we got to experience the Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola, that I had been searching for in Boston (and by searching, I mean I perused the Passover aisles at two grocery stores and promptly gave up). Anyway, David's friends were pretty chill and I had some neat conversations, including how I am going to make a mohito-style martini out of Catnip-and then create a master race of humans spliced with feline genes so I'll have a species to market it to. I also proclaimed, and I'll admit, this pretty much went over every one's head, that in Star Wars, during the "Luke I am your father" scene that when Darth takes off his mask, it should be James Earl Jones instead of Sebastian Shaw (I guess my theory ignores the man in the costume, David Prowse) because by the time we get to the "future" our genes will be so mingled that it wouldn't be ridiculous for James Earl Jones to father Mark Hamill. No one agreed with me. Why I was so obsessed with genetics on Saturday remains a mystery.
After the party we crashed for three hours and then went to meet Travis and Lisa to catch the ride back to Boston. While waiting for them I spotted a Bagel place, and started saying "Gotta Getta Bagel" repeatedly, which also happened to be the name of the establishment. Now, maybe it was because I was delirious from lack of sleep, but this was the best bagel ever, and they had tofu cream cheese which was also delicious. I think I slept most of the way home, and most of the day Sunday, so that pretty much wraps up my Dewey Beach weekend.
Okay, the title is a lie. The pictures you are about to see chronicle the journey to and from Dewey Beach, DE for the Dewey Beach Popfest. If you'd like to see photos and video of us performing, head over here. I wasn't thrilled about my performance, but after being stuck in the car for about 10 hours thanks to NJ and DE traffic, I wasn't much ready to make the rock and roll music. Luckily, the event was well organized, the sound was good, and everyone was friendly, so that helped some. Much of the time, people sat in the back attentively, but we were able to get some people up and dancing in the front area with some minor coercion.
Our setlist:
Here were our lovely female travel companions ("unintentionally" dressed identically during the entire trip, down to the large, white sunglasses):
As for our journey, here are a few things we observed...
Dewey Beach, like the rest of the world loves a really stupid pun. Nothing bugs me more than business names riddled with puns. Most often, it's coffee shops, but the lodging facilities are getting in on it now. We didn't stay here, but I hate the name:
The Rusty Rudder, where we played outside (in the back):
We did not, however, make it to the venue that is allegedly, "the greatest rock n roll bar in the world." It appeared to be closed at the time.
Dewey Beach was also filled with other gaudy, but hilarious nonsense. Lisa demanded a lounging visit to "Crabby Dicks." No food I could eat there, but they did have a nice copy of an ad placed in a local paper essentially proclaiming the silly innuendo-themed restaurant as a danger to children and all decent persons with modest tastes.
Make note also of my allergic reaction to sunlight.
This reaction was alleviated somewhat by the realization that Travis and I both were wearing the same socks, both obtained on separate earlier bowling excursions to Dorchester's magical 24-hour pin party, Boston Bowl.
A popular fast-food chain at a rest stop on the way there had a planted edging around the entrance dotted with some lovely flowers and bushes...but wait! The keen Lisa noticed that there was more there than meets the eye as all of the flowers in this decorative area were plastic...pretty tacky, but I would never have noticed. Some cars in the parking lot also made me feel uncomfortable with flourescent proclamations of capturing incendiary spirit.
Lisa and her keen eyes, however, set their sites on everyone else's pretzels. She claims that she was possessed by "the devil's pitchfork" (shown here - Lisa on the right, pitchfork on the left).
Alas, we left Dewey Beach and made a stopover in New York City to have a night of good times. Sophia and I met up with David T. Little, master of many musical endeavors including musical performances on The Motion Sick's first album. We decided to go on over to Red Bamboo for some vegan soul food. While we waited, a car pulled up on the street in front of us. Sophia exclaimed, "Isn't that Little Steven!" Indeed it was. He heard her say it and looked at her for a moment before pulling out a large, polka-dotted suitcase and leaving the scene. His parking spot, however, was not as fortuitous as he may have believed. The proximal fire hydrant was unquestionably closer than standard fire-hydrant safe-distance regulations. We thought, hey, it's Little Steven, he has an awesome radio show and played with the boss, so maybe he can park wherever he wants. We went inside to eat and came out to find that Little Steven was about to become $100 poorer (assuming he doesn't just call the city and remind them how cool he is) as one of NY's finest was writing him a parking ticket. I took a bunch of pictures, but provided the ones below that are the least revealing. However, I will let you enjoy the copper placing the ticket on Stevie's windshield and then a blurry closeup of the ticket.
After this encounter, we headed on over to a party in Brooklyn, which was a good-time gathering of musical friends of David's, some of whom had stepped out of music into legal affairs. Not only were they interesting folk, but they also had a bottle of the yellow-capped Kosher-for-Passover Coke that I've been hearing about for many years. The story, as I understand it, roughly goes:
Coke had actual sugar in it. People enjoyed it. Coke made an intentionally crappy product "New Coke" and discontinued "delicious," sugary Coke. No one liked New Coke, as it was made intentionally to be bad. Coke met the will of the people by bringing back old Coke and calling it "Coke Classic." However, this time, they replaced the sugar with high-fructose corn syrup, which tastes significantly crappier. The thing was, New Coke was so bad that no one noticed. Now, you can't get Coke without HFCS. When Passover rolls around, there are apparently enough Coke-craving Jews who are prohibited from eating corn products that it makes sense for Coke to release a limited supply of non-HFCS Coke. This batch had sucrose in it.
I don't really enjoy Coke, but I tried a few sips and it did have less of a harsh aftertaste. We did also subsequently see a Kosher-for-Passover can of Coke at a bagel place in Queens. I can't remember the name, but it was something like "Must Eat Bagels...Must!"
We also enjoyed a visit to the rooftop of this swanky building with a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge. It made me realize that "The Brooklyn Rooftops" is a band name that would immediately result in indie success, particularly if the band were Canadian. I get a 10% cut!
My sister Rachel and her fiancé John were kind enough to let us stay at their apartment while they were away visiting my parents. We spent approximately a total of 3 hours there. I guess they actually spent more time cleaning the place for us than we spent inside of it. Sometimes that happens.
Unrelated to any of this, whenever I speak of engaged people, I am reminded of a tid-bit that I only learned about 2 years ago.
fiancé = a man engaged to be married; a man to whom a woman is engaged. fiancée = a woman engaged to be married; a woman to whom a man is engaged.
It's too bad we don't follow that pattern. We'd be men and mene.
Hey kiddies. Its been awhile since I checked in, so I figured I'd take a little time and recap the trip to Dewey Beach for their Popfest. Be on the lookout for some guest bloggery, as we had some friends join us on the trip. Their posts should be up in the next day or two, and hopefully some pictures as well. We left Friday morning fairly early as it's supposed to be an 8 hour drive or so, it ended up taking us just under 11 hours to get there. We sat in a ton of traffic coming over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which made us a little nervous in realizing we might be late to load in and get to the festival on time. I need to mention that it was a beautiful day on Friday, in the 80's and half of the car wanted the windows down and to enjoy the awesome weather, and the other half are crazy lunatics and couldn't deal with it and needed the Air Conditioning on... Bastards! The ride down was fun, though the people in my car have the tiniest bladders in the world, which made for frequent pee stops, which can drive a man insane. We did however hang out at one of New Jersey's fine rest stops for a few minutes and enjoyed some delicious chili cheese dogs from Nathan's Hot Dogs. At least I enjoyed the chili cheese dogs. We ended up listening to Sirius for most of the ride which was awesome because there is just so much to choose from, and can typically find an awesome song at any given moment of the day. We did however have a hostile music take over at one point from Lisa, which I think we all agree was a frightening and traumatic experience. I eventually had to exercise my veto power. We ended up making it to the venue in enough time to check in and load in. The venue was set up with 2 stages, which alternated performances. Luckily for us, the band that was supposed to play before us, didn't make it so it allowed us some extra set up time. Viki who ran the show, was very helpful and made sure we had everything we needed. Most festivals are usually a chaotic unpleasant experience, but this one was not. It was ran very well, and I'm psyched to have been a part of it. We got on stage at 9pm and started rocking Dewey Beach. The beach was literally behind my drum kit, so close in fact there was talk about someone jumping on stage and pushing me into the water. Luckily, my knife fighting and gator wrasslin skills were enough to hold off such an attack. The crowd seemed to really dig us, which always makes for a great gig. Mike had some technical difficulties with his guitar strap, so in between a few songs he felt the need to entertain the audience with his comedic repertoire of "Drummer Jokes"... We had a good time playing and hanging out after the set. Later in the evening a few of us decided to jet and try and find some food. There was a nifty diner open a few miles down the road, so it was nice to sit down and take in some grub. After eating we were exhausted, so we went to the Motel to hit the rack. As I lay in my death coma, apparently there was a party going on in the room next door at one point during the night. I didn't hear a frickin thing, but according to others, it was loud, obnoxious and for a moment there was debate if it was some of our bandmates throwing a rager! I have since inquired, and found out that it was not The Motion Sick. I'm surprised I wasn't woken up by it all, but I'm psyched I was able to get some decent rest. When I got up in the morning I had to take a piss, so I head into the bathroom. As I'm peeing, I notice there are bugs crawling on the floor, sink and ceiling. I'm officially sorta freaked out at this point as I pretty much hate anything creepy crawly like. I report back to the rest of the room that there are some freakish looking bugs invading the bathroom. I try to convince everyone that they aren't cockroaches (I've seen far too many in my day), but Mike gets up to check out the scene. Mike identifies the bugs as Termites. He reassures us that they won't harm us, but I'm still creeped out. I don't do bugs and I don't do snakes! That shit creeps me out big time, I'm like a little girl. So, I get up and shower and try to not have a nervous breakdown in the shower thinking about bugs crawling everywhere and thinking about how they could be crawling into my ears and laying eggs in my brain... I go outside to hang with Lisa for a bit and do some roaming around the beach. It was like 75 degrees fairly early in the morning, so it was nice to walk around without shoes and a shirt and enjoy a little taste of Summer. We meet up with Mike and Sophia and take a walk down the beach to find some coffee. We found a Starbucks/Bookstore which ended up having the worst coffee I've had in a long time. It was terrible. There were two old men who worked the counter and they reminded me of the two old guys from The Muppet Show that sat in the balcony... After we have coffee, we make our way back to the car to head out. In a short period of time, the wind shifted and temperature dropped a bit, so it became chilly. We headed out of town and stopped at a local seafood joint called "Crabby Dick's". It was a cool little spot, and the highlight for me was that they had Yuenling on tap. Mmmmm! We also pulled over to check out a mini-golf place, which happened to be the most awesome thing I've seen in forever. The mini-golf joint had a freakin volcano with an airplane stuck on top of it! It looked AWESOME! There was also a giant pirate! We didn't play, but we were in awe of it. We headed back on the road and started the journey to NYC, as we were stopping there for the evening/night to visit some friends. Early Sunday morning I get a phone call from Mike asking where I was... He tells me it's 7:30am. I get up in the biggest panic imaginable, as I had set my alarm for 6am because we needed to leave NY really early to get back home. My alarm didn't go off and Mike's call woke me. I literally threw on my clothes and raced out the door to pick up Mike from a Subway stop. His train ended up being really late, but he thought I had left without him. I had to haul ass home because I had an appointment at 11am. I ended up being really late, which sucked because it caused some stress. I HATE being late. It is one of my biggest pet peeves, it makes me mental. I felt so bad. Nothing I could do though, bad set of circumstances. So, that was pretty much my experience for the weekend. I had a lot of fun playing the Dewey Beach Popfest, and hope to play there again next year. I'd like to see them try and do it a little later in the summer when the beach is hopping! I'm sure you will get some other stories from the rest of the band and our guest bloggers. Until then, be cool and I hope to see you soon!
I remember reading about this about 10 years ago, but for some reason, it has again arisen in the bloggy world as if it's a new thing. No idea why, but I had not previous actually heard the songs, so I took this renewed worldwide interest as an opportunity to track down and enjoy the songs scientifically determined to be the world's most wanted and world's most unwanted songs.
The Most Wanted song is awful, but intentionally contains elements that are generally enjoyed by people - 72 ± 12% of listeners, they claim.
From the artists' site: Dave Soldier and Komar & Melamid - The People's Choice Music
"The most favored ensemble, determined from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening circumstance is at home."
I really don't enjoy any elements of this song. I guess I am outside the scope of the 72 ± 12%.
Moving on over to the Most Unwanted Song, I was totally blown away. It has atonal operatic vocals about cowboys done in cowboy-mosey style. It's pretty friggin' awesome. The song is very long at about 22 minutes (something that people don't enjoy), but if you get further into it, you get little kids singing ad jingles, different overlooked holidays, often intertwining the topics to tell you to celebrate Veteran's Day and Halloween ("Candy corn for lunch and dinner!") at Wal-Mart. The song is pretty amazing. I really don't know how anyone could not like it:
The best part is the operatic gangsta rap about cowboy. (atonal opera voice) It's cowboy living (kids choir) Yo! Yo! (atonal opera voice) It's cowboy living (kids choir) Yo! Yo! (atonal opera voice) It's cowboy living (in unison) all the way
"Fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population will enjoy this" - I guess there are only 199 more like me out there.
I happened upon a new phrase today, but the origins of the phrase were quite old and established.
Mall Punk
The original connotation I discovered the phrase was in a Salon.com article about some new punk bands (scroll down to the 2nd Paragraph for the explanation). Now, I've always thought that bands such as Green Day and Blink 182 (at least once they have become culturally relevant) have nothing to do with punk or hardcore that I'm familiar with.. (we're talking Sex Pistols, The Ramones, early Clash, The Voidoids, etc). However, though my Googling, I found a pretty awesome website, clearly written by some [hopefully] ironic teenager. I could explain it, but he does such a better job.
http://www.bornbackwards.com/mallpunk/
Go Mall Punk
UPDATE
A friend recently forwarded me an article from The Onion from a few years ago:
Update: This stuff is getting yanked left and right...some of the links might work, some might not...
I've now heard three songs from the forthcoming album of Tom Waits covers (and I think maybe 1 original) performed by Scarlett Johansson (with a quite impressive cast of backers) - album title: Anywhere I Lay My Head
Scarlett Johansson - vocals Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio) - production David Bowie - vocals on "Falling Down" and "Fannin Street" Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) - guitars
The first song, "I Don't Want to Grow Up" sounds like an early Magnetic Fields song arrangement. Her voice is pretty weak, but the whole thing is so far off from what I would have expected that I'll need to hear it a bunch before I can decide what I think of it. I really like the original and I really like the version done by The Ramones, so I may not really have the space in my brain for an additional version of the song...still, it's the best of the three that I've heard.
"Anywhere I Lay My Head" is also a little bit like The Magnetic Fields, but less so... and "I Wish I Was in New Orleans" reminds me of Margaret Leng Tan with its klinky toy instrument sounds.
