You Forgot Your Brain......

wireless internet is ruining my trip

2009-03-15T13:01:00.002-04:00

Wireless internet is a good thing. A good thing if you have a laptop computer and the conviction to carry one. Unfourtunatly, I have neither due to the imbalance of my mooching desires compared to my independence desires. That said, I am typing on what I think is an Apple IIe complete with a 5 x 9 floppy disk drive and green and black screen.

A hotel no longer needs to have a good lounge computer when they offer free wireless, which just about all of them do these days. One of the unforseen consequences of this services.....for moochers.

So I'm going to hand write a few posts and put them up once I get home cause I can't work with this thing. But a quicktrip update is that it has rained steadily and been in the mid 40's both days that I have been in south carolina. It snowed while we were in Virginia, and I may have drooled on myself after eating a chocolate protein bar, and that drool may have looked like poop. Of course to battle this weather, I have a hooded sweatshirt.......and that's it. So my disposition has been anything but sunny. I could tell you some of the scary things that have been going on beneath my undergarments that are reachig unprecidented levels of intrigue and surprise due to the levels of coldness and water saturation, but this is a family blog.

Keep checking the twitter for random useless updates till I get back. Me and little S.Vincent miss you PoVegas :)

A gorilla with a microphone in its mouth......

2009-03-12T15:04:00.004-04:00

I know I have been a bit sloppy in my posting habits as of late, but I am over some of the small humps (lovely lady lumps) that have gotten in my way. Now we are back with a bizz-ang....

Our good buddy Rob Dyrdek is back with an awesome new show on MTV called "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory". I can't say how happy it makes me and how happy his receptionist Chanel could make me with just 15 minutes of her time.

Quarter Year Album Analysis.....I figure we can talk about some new music every quarter. That way your whack-ass can be updated on the freshness and tight with all the big money beezo's.

I will be going on an extended trip for the next 10 days or so, but I plan on posting on the goings on with plenty of pictures if I can wrassle myself a computer. I'll also be twittering as much as I can so get wise and follow me already!

Wait.....do they have computers and electricity south of the Mason-Dixon yet?......shit

like a foreign pizza delivery guy......

2009-03-04T15:39:00.003-05:00

You're looking for me and waiting for me, but I am no where to be found.

You call me, and I tell you "5 more minutes".

30 minutes go by, you call again, and I say "5 more minutes"

You were just craving some pizza when you ordered, but now you are like Tom Hanks towards the end of "Castaway".

You're considering calling another pizza place, but you know karma is not your friend and as soon as you hang up the phone from ordering said pizza, there I will be, in my 84' rusted grey civic looking frazzled.

So you wait, and you call again, and I say.....

"I no pizza for you?"

Goonies never say "Die"

2009-02-20T12:10:00.002-05:00

First, I will acknowledge that it is uncool to blog about blogging. I have made an effort to stop that and although this is post is somewhat related to that bad habit, I think that the bad habit is blogging about your blogging instead of the act of blogging as a whole.

You lose audience members with self involved drivel. I believe this to be very true reading others crap and thusly have strived to remove it from my own blog, but it's hard to stay away when you are low on ideas.

The 20SB community helps with this issue, so long as you want to join in on their activities, they provide a wide variety of topics to take up internet space. However, their ideas frequently border on my perception of self in this crazy internet world. Not mixing words, the ideas are blog-writer centric, meaning people who enjoy being creative and outward and to some effect, shameless. People, who as a whole, look at all the oppertunities the internet can provide and they jump in with both feet. I respect their cunning, but I am decidedly more careful about how I jump in, what shoes I am wearing, and whether its being video taped or not.

I think that we are kind of like Goonies. Just a couple of people who don't mind taking something too far. Comfortable in their own skin and doing things that are important to them even if it isn't important to anyone else. My place in this movie is like Andy, the girl struggling between her need to be popular and her intrigue with Brand and his younger brothers co-horts. Disgusted with popular society, but not quite ready to dive in Goonie lifestyle.

This is because I have not fully removed myself from the "too cool for school" lifestyle. I look at many internet activity's as borderline "loser" "nerd" "creep". Not so much in how other bloggers do them, but that if I participated I would lack the skill to make it definitively not those things. I am not "arty" "expressive" or "unique" in a acceptable outward style. I wear jeans and t-shirts and drive a common model sedan with a 10 dollar haircut. It's like old people at young persons music concerts. Some old people can pull it off with style and grace, and some people are "who brought their Dad to the concert?". If I did these things, I would just ruin it for you and that would make me un-happy.

So I'll give you 20 bucks and I'll drop you off at the door. You can call me when you need to get picked up.

Recently, there was an oppertunity to Video Log (vlog) for a day under the topic of "Things you love". I was tempted, but ulitimately did not participate for those reasons mostly involving social fear. But if you want to know what I would have talked about if I did a Vlog, it would have been my iTunes/iPod. Which would be A)obvious and B) a little boring with a lack of visual aids.

I couldn't stand work without it and I just love the whole organization and layout of it all. I like collecting songs and albums and knowing how many times I have listened to certain things, and the album artwork too. I love making playlists and I like the radio stations and the podcasts and of course the iTunes store! Its like a big scrapbook that plays music!

So there you go internet fans, maybe in the future we can get S.Vincent over his fears, but for now he'll be standing near the concession stand trying not be noticed.

we are so smart. S-M-R-T

2009-02-18T12:42:00.005-05:00

Conversation takes place on the 20 minute drive to the gym.....

Fit Cop: "What the hell is that thing on his antenna"

S.Vincent: "I think it's like a happy face or something. You know, one of those lame antenna decorations"

Fit Cop: "No I know that, I was hoping you could see exactly what it was"

S.Vincent: "Jeez, I don't have super vision, it's like a mile away"

Fit Cop: "Well I dunno, I thought maybe you could"

Fit Cop: "Dammit! I am gonna run into this guy trying to find out what it is. It's driving me crazy"

S.Vincent: "I think it's a Sun. Like a little version of the Sun"

Fit Cop: "No it's not"

S.Vincent: "Well I have no idea, it could be anything"

Fit Cop: "Ummm, I think it's one of those Science Ball things, you know?"

silence.............S.Vincent processing Fit Cop language

S.Vincent: "Yeah, you mean an Atom?"

Fit Cop:(very excited) "YEAH!"

Fit Cop and S.Vincent laugh to the state of tears for the next 5 minutes

stampede!!

2009-02-16T11:41:00.003-05:00

Last week was a wash for me. Nothing got done despite some of my valient efforts in the face of sickness. I ended up retreating to my bed and trying not to think about anything except healing my diseased body. No music, no tv, no food, no light. All of these stimulations could only impede my progress back to superior health.

7 days later and I am about 80% of the way there. The doctor provided little insight into what could knock a 27 year old super human to the turf for such a long period of time, but he did provide me with a prescription for Amoxicillian in 875mg tabs. Which is what doctors do these days. Why am I telling you the dosage? Because an 875mg tab is roughly the size of a peice of Bubbalicious.....for me to swallow. Fast forward to around 3am and I am tossing and turning up a storm before I remembered my youth and how hyper and restless Amoxicillian used to make me. You forget a lot in 20 years. All I needed was some detergent and water in bed with me, and I could have washed my sheets for all my "agitator" impersonation efforts.

In the midst of my sick week, I was positioned on a couch, staring off into space, contemplating if it was worth breathing air anymore when a young child asked me a simple question.....

"Is Rage Against the Machine one of the greatest bands of the 90's?"

My head exploded. All I could give him was the simplest form of an answer. An answer in which I am sure he was unaware of the computer overload on my diseased and over heated brain. It just spit out.....

"No, they can't be"

He said more things, but I just waved my hand in a shoo-fly fashion so I could get back to more serious endeavors like not dying and assigning blame elsewhere for my troubles. But the question still needs a proper answer and then follow up information to support the cause.

The reason why they aren't: Not because I do not like them (because I really really do) and not because of a lack of musical talent (because they are easily one of the most talented hard rock groups all time). Its because they didn't sell enough records or get enough main stream play. They would be in a top 20 discussion, but not the top 10.

When you are discussing "Greatest", you must include how well the stupid stupid public and the critics see them. I know, I don't agree either, but those are the rules because everyone has to agree that they are great in order to get the label. Now if you want to include great to you, then thats a different list. That's a "My favorites" list.

So since we are here, the greatest bands of the 1990's (in my order cause I can do that). The criteria includes first or first acclaimed album released 1990-1999. Critical success at award shows, critical success by music reviewers, album sales, longevity, and consistency.

1) Radiohead
2)Pearl Jam
3)Nirvana
4)Beck
5)Pavement
6)Oasis
7)Dave Matthews Band
8)Green Day
9)Smashing Pumpkins
10)Weezer

*foo fighters, third eye blind, rage against the machine, Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails, Built to Spill, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and Tool is probably 10-20

This story is due to the fact that I got run over by the internet while I was away. There isn't much hope for me to catch up. I tried for about an hour today, but you bloggers need to slow the fuck down!

The comment box is where you complain or challenge my music knowledge superiority. I don't want to hear any U2, Chili peppers, Beastie boys, and REM talk people, they are from the 1980's

requiem for an S.Vincent

2009-02-12T16:39:00.003-05:00

It's starting to look like a drug rehab movie around the old dugout. Sheets everywhere, blood and puss filled tissues, dirty dishes, flickering lights, hallucinations, sweating, wild looks at one self in the mirror, and coughing and screaming into the night begging with the gods for it to stop.

So all hope is obviously lost, but I have comforted myself in this dark thought.....

I think it would be the coolest thing EVER to die on friday the 13th or on valentines day.

call the whaaaaaa-mbulence

2009-02-09T14:16:00.003-05:00

today, I am sick.

I am so sick that I am not even reading any blogs. If you have a podcast blog, I would consider it, but definitly not reading anything I don't have to. Sorry friends, maybe tomorrow.

being sick is my number one enemy because I am shallow and I can call it a awesome day so long as I get 2 good workouts in. Everyone and everything else can go straight to hell in a martha stewart basket. But when I am sick, my life has no purpose besides going through the motions.

The good news is no nasal or sore throat symptoms and only a light fever. But my chest has got a nasty dry cough and my body feels like I went 10 rounds with sarah mclauchlin on steroids.

Speaking of steroids/illegal performance enhancers......when is someone going to bust Madonna? I am sick of all the obvious guys getting brought out there like Stallone, Arnold, Bonds, A-Rod, Canseco and no one is addressing this obvious juice head. You think a 51 year old woman can work out enough to look like that without help? Have you ever seen any 50 year old menopausal woman at your gym who looked like that? Puhhhleasssseee. Plus. she's linked to Jose Canseco and a bunch of other juicers from the early 90's. I would bet all the 900 dollars in my bank account that she would blow up a drug test quicker than a Jamal Anderson heart beat.
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Madonna Now

Madonna Then:

More Human than You man.

2009-02-04T11:30:00.007-05:00

If you are Sarah McLachlan, don't read this post. Actually if you are Sarah McLachlan, call me and we'll talk about it and then I can blog about my phone call with Sarah.

I hate animals. I read Fuck You, Penguin everyday and laugh my sick little heiney off.

Now don't get all bent out of shape. I don't run around abusing dogs or kicking cats or make squirrels target practice for my slingshot. I would never harm an animal unless it's for food or self defense. So this isn't some "lets kill and mistreat animals" post. It's a "lets back off on how cool pets are" post.

The main reason for such an aggressive stance? I am allergic to them.......All of them. Every single breathing land creature besides a fellow human (but still stay away from me) shuts down my airways with severe asthma, causes non-stop sneezing, and painful itchy and watering eyes. This is not a cute little flower pollen allergy or hay fever. This looks and feels like the monkey disease from Outbreak. A prescribed super dose of anti-histamine, means instead of 5 minutes of reaction time to animal dander, it gets pushed to about 30 minutes of time.

Does that mean that one single person cares about my plight? Of course not. They only care about their own needs to have the mastery over a creature who's lifespan is shorter than a Twinkee. Someone to ACT excited when they come home. They think allergies are not THAT bad. Oh really? I may not hurt your cat, but I don't have a problem giving you a punch to the ribs and euthanizing your old ass at the vet.

Where's the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to S.Vincent? Where's my tear jerking montage? Where's the photos of me looking pitiful and helpless? Where's my self righteous rent-a-cop to come pull me out of a dangerous home?

This whole tirade was started by last weeks "Stuff you Should Know": How hypoallergenic cats work. Basically, there are a bunch of scientist messing around with cat genes and breeding to create a cat that doesn't secrete the fluid that causes an allergic reaction. They figured it out and they cost about 4 thousand dollars and isn't guaranteed to work. It's not exactly surprising news in a society where we tinker with just about everything. The surprising thing was that ONE THIRD of cat owners are allergic to cats......

WHAT!?! Read that ish again and tell me you are not flabbergasted. I have had enough with the whole love my pets charade.

I find it absolutely RIDICULOUS that people would put up with their allergies or take unnecessary allergy medicine for a flea bag cat. A piece of fur that rubs on your legs, shits in the corner of your house, makes your house stink, and throws hair all over the place.

In a world where we all have trouble feeding, walking, cleaning, and entertaining ourselves and possibly other human beings. WHY are we wasting our time with animals that make 33 percent of us sick? Cats are not cool. Animals are not cool. This is why we built houses and fences, people!
Fucking EVOLVE already! We invented the wheel and the gun and shoes and pizza. We're better than this! Stop being friends with animals because A) They don't love you, they love your food. Think I am wrong? Put yourself in a car with the door open, and then put a bowl of food 50 yards away from you. Put your hungry dog/cat on the 25 yard line and see where it goes. B) You're making me hate you and a snarling dog or a hissing cat has nothing on 170lbs of S.Vincent fury.

Plus I can climb your fuckin fence

......it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.

2009-02-02T14:37:00.006-05:00

A visual blog of sorts today. I am super busy with work to do, but I wouldn't leave all you bottom feeders with no scum to suck.

Since it is Groundhog Day, we must acknowledge one of the greatest movies of the 20th century. When it came out in the mid 90's, I was just a young chap making my way in the world. The concept of the movie is why I liked it at first. Day after day of the same day with no consequences? Awesome. Learning awesome chainsaw ice art? Check.

But now that I am older with a lot more life experience and a seasoned appreciation of dialogue, I realize that this movie is much more than just a cool concept. Its a touching view on so many aspects of our daily lives that we don't realize are happening because the days come and go so fast. Plus Bill Murray is the M-A-N.

This is one of many of my favorite parts. If you were to capture me in front of camera in a social gathering or ceremony, you could bet a million dollars I would say something exactly like this.

Wandering around PoVegas, I managed to find this place of business. Ye should not be fooled, our specialty foods are not to be underestimated. Thusly, we proclaim our superiority for all passers-by to witness.

have you ever been experienced?

2009-01-28T10:51:00.002-05:00

I worry too much about what I write. I realized this today while I read total strangers "25 Things" list that have been going around the blogosphere and facebook. They didn't even do good 25 things! They did stuff like, "once my mom beat me with a shovel, and thats why I walk with a limp and think of myself dirt"..... ZZZZZ.....borrrrringggggg.

Anyway, I figure if I can trod through other people's drivel because I am addicted to reading/listening whatever asinine thing you want to tell me, then you must read this because you are hopelessly addicted too. Shame on me for caring so much in the past.

I was listening to "How Stuff Works: How a coma works" and they were talking in depth about the circumstances that cause your brain and nervous system to go into a coma. Well they were describing how in a violent head collision, your brain slaps into the side of your skull. I don't know why, but while they were describing this I had a very vivid picture of my own brain moving around inside my skull. From the viscous fluid, to the pink fleshy brain, to the white slimy bones on the inside of my skull. I was very creeped out by this visualization and how very real it felt. Like I was looking from the inside of my brain out. I tried to recreate the sensation later in the day, but for some reason I couldn't get inside my own head again. Bummer.

That said it takes a lot of experience to be good enough at living alone so that you can not only enjoy it, but reap the benefits. Until about a year ago, I was just very satisfied with the idea of living alone. Comfortable in my own skin, ego and situation. But during that comfortable time, I had never really come to reap the possible benefits of zero rules. One secret is to be un-ashamed with being absolutely bat-shit crazy. Once you let yourself go, things can get wicked awesome. Say your jokes out loud, they always sound better in the open air. Wanna talk to the TV? Go right ahead, let 'er loose. There's no reason you can't sing along with the Subway 5 dollar footlong jingle (complete with hand motions!) or openly pine about how Ashley on Rock of Love Bus is the bomb. Perhaps you're angry? Go ahead a scream out a ton of colorful obscenities. Don't bottle them all in. This expressive behavior is what makes you an expert at expressive behaviors.

Why should you verbalize your thoughts? Well, practicing in the comfort of your own home is where you work out all the kinks so that you can use them on other people and blow their minds with your improvisation ability. Behind every "That swamp assed donkey fucker better watch his mouth or I'll turn his liver into paté" is countless in home repetitions of inflection and accents and slang. If you want to win on the battle field, you have to start on the practice field people.

In fact, just today I was watching an infomercial for the slim clip. Well the slim clip is basically a large dual sided money clip but advertised to look like the solution to all your problems. In describing this marvel of engineering, they begin to exclaim the numerous places you could keep the money clip discretely and comfortably where that bulky wallet could not be stored. Unfortunately for them, they forgot to include the most obvious place you could keep objects of value. Fear not, I added it in at the end of their list for the viewing pleasure of. Perhaps a fellow infomercial watcher may have been offended at my suggestion that you could shove a wallet in your lady parts, but they weren't there to object were they? So, I win! .....because........ I win!

I submitted my blog to be reviewed by a smarmy and snotty blog review service, so I am going to attempt to appease them by polishing (polish-ing? ha, no kielbasa around here) up this site and updating a few features. Hopefully a new header, but I don't have the time, resources, or education to make a super snazzy one, so don't get your hopes up. But once they finally get around to it, you guys can all laugh at me and I will join in with a fake laugh at myself while plotting your deaths. Ungrateful jerks.

got a bucket of ice water?

2009-01-26T12:09:00.007-05:00

This is me at my desk today, trying to keep out the light. The past week into weekend was rough on my sleep schedule since 430 morning wake up calls and 11pm bedtimes were the theme of this week with my work schedule getting another 3 hours added to it with the start of the spring semester.

I find that I have a lot of trouble blogging when I put together a few consecutive nights of 5 or less hours sleep. The other responsibilities that I have I can push through, but it doesn't exactly take a creative intellect to verbally and emotionally abuse people all day long. Just a whole lot of bottled anger with a weakened conscience. I do my other responsibilities better when I am exhausted as a matter of fact.
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Unfortunately, even caffiene can't help stir the creative juices when you get this tired. It just keeps your eyes open. Which enables you to wish you could blog, but without the ability to put together coherent thoughts or sentences. When my schedule gets this full, more stuff gets done, but the quality starts to suffer. This means the long term goals are not met. So basically, I am a walking Circuit City. Day to day, I look up and running, but behind the closed doors, the S.Vincent corporation is hemorrhaging cash.

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I could write about a dream that I had in which I was or was watching Kanye West go through hardship in the release of a Kanye West robot that plays Kanye West songs and comes up with Kanye West ideas to everyday situations. I think I was rotating back and forth between being Kanye and watching Kanye. But I can't write any more of the details because I did not stay in dreamland long enough to figure that out. I hope it ended with a version of me in a cartoon music video.

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Instead, I will post for you a "missed connection" listing posted in the PoVegas section of Craigslist.

"You clean the Main Street Bistro most nights... I'm not sure exactly which nights but I'm pretty sure Sundays and Wednesdays at the very least. I see you in there all the time. Maybe one of these nights you could stop by for a cup of coffee after you get done mopping."

Some of you know where PoVegas is, and some of you do not. It's not big, so there are'nt many "missed connections" on there, but the ones that do get posted are classic. I check everyday to improve my outlook on life through the hardships of others. I felt that this one wraps up the kind of displaced hope we have in a better future around here.
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Now I am going to slam my head in a desk drawer for my lunch break.

because you had a bad (hair) day

2009-01-23T12:09:00.005-05:00

didn't think guys had bad hair days? Didn't think that if a guy did have a bad hair day, he would care? Well my friend, you have never met yours truly.

My hair and I should be in counseling.......well actually, the fact that I suggested that hair could be in counseling suggest that I should definitely be in counseling, and my hair is but an innocent by-stander made of nothing but dead protein or whatever it is that hair is made of.

I have shaved it all off, had my mom cut it, cut it myself, had a random friend of my fathers cut it, waxed it, gelled it, pomeaded it, dyed it pink (seriously), bleached it blonde, grown it into a pony-tail, and even had a fun night with a faux hawk.

Due to all this chaos and tragedy, my hair has some life experience. If my hair could talk, it would say "listen bro/bro-sita......I have seen some shit"

Aside from my ghastly face, my hair is my number one insecurity. If I have to go somewhere nice with people, my butthole will tighten right up when it comes time to "do my hair". Not what I am going to wear, not what shoes go with what, not my cologne choice or which pair of sunglasses. It's all hair, all day.

What's my deal? Well, I wish I could explain it better (Blogger FAIL) but as you can see, I can't seem to feel comfortable with any one thing. The problem with all this boloney is I need my hair to be at least be a stream of pee in the blaze of fire that is this hideous visage. Maybe if it was cool to walk around with a phantom of the opera mask I could worry less about my hair.......but I don't have a good enough singing voice, so my face is out there in the open and worry I must. Either that, or just board up my front door and discard all 3 of my friends. So what happens? Well I stand in front of the mirror till I can't stand to think or try anything else and just submit the public to my latest dog and poney show (what is that anyway?)

Bad hair + ugly face = Ashlee Simpson

Anyway, my routine for the past 2 years or so has been to just throw a little after-shower conditioner in there and let it fly. It's thinning out in my advance years and without a little substance to keep it together, my hair would look like one of those dust balls from the laundry room with the rogue hairs wrapped around it.

So todays dog and poney show is that I accidentally added a little too much conditioner and now I look like a less attractive version of this. Which, if you know your history, actually makes me THIS

Olde Time Internet humour

2009-01-22T14:07:00.006-05:00

I had a buddy in college that used to find the best internet stuff ever. PS....this is before google and blogs and facebook were invented, so it was a major feat for us old timers.
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This is a copy paste job from http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule, so it's not my original material. However, since I have used it for years, I think I have some rights to it under the squatters rule. Readers Note: This is much funnier if you read it aloud. I work myself into a Robert Downey Jr. impression and then pause for dramatic effect before saying F!! real loud. Even better if you can read it while a friend looks on.
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I am better than your kids.

If you work in an office with lots of people, chances are that you work with a person who hangs pictures up that their kids have drawn. The pictures are always of some stupid flower or a tree with wheels. These pictures suck; I could draw pictures much better. In fact, I can spell, do math and run faster than your kids. So being that my skills are obviously superior to those of children, I've taken the liberty to judge art work done by other kids on the internet. I'll be assigning a grade A through F for each piece:

Megan, age 4
First of all, I don't even know what this is. If it's supposed to be a dog, then it's the shittiest dog I've ever seen. F

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Kyle, age 8
You spelled America wrong asshole. Also, I could have sworn America's colors were red, white and blue. There's no yellow anywhere, traitor. F

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Lisa, age 6
Holy shit, I almost had a seizure when I saw this one. Three words: too many colors. Also, eggs aren't supposed to have ears, dipshit. F

Cameron, age 4
Terrible. F

]

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Bryce, age 10
This one wouldn't be too bad if the color were kept inside the lines, you picked a new perspective, used non-abrasive colors and asked someone with talent to paint it for you. On one hand I want to give an A for effort but.....F

>

Jon, Age 8
Ding Ding! Here comes the shit-mobile. I've never seen a fire truck that needed to be shaved. I would rather be burned to death than be saved by this hairy piece of shit.

F

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Rachel, age 7
That's interesting, everyone in this picture is white. Even the rainbow is white. Perhaps in an ideal world, everyone would be white isn't that right, Rachel? Or should I call you RACIST?
Nice try, Hitler. F

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Jason, age 6
This one would receive an "A" if the assignment was to throw as much random shit onto a paper as poorly as you can.

I've pissed patterns on snow that look more coherent than this...F

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Seth, age 4
Vrrrroooooooooooommmmmm!!!...F!

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Kelly, age 9
This was a Christmas gift from Kelly to her parents. Good job Kelly, now pack up your shit and find a foster home. If my kids tried to pass this off as a gift, they'd come home from school and find all their shit outside in a box. What a lousy gift, seriously. You give them video games and toys, and they give you some half-assed drawing with a crooked tree. I wonder how much a gift like this would set someone back. Five, maybe ten minutes to find a napkin and some markers? F

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I win. When I go into work next, I'm going to surprise all my co-workers and put up pictures of myself instead of their ugly kids and their inane drawings.

get down with the sickness

2009-01-21T20:50:00.001-05:00

no other way to describe this kind of activity

http://vimeo.com/1778399

through the eyes of s.vincent

2009-01-21T12:32:00.013-05:00

Didn't have anything super to write about today, so we're going with a little photo blog. The blogging headquarters and author in a series of snap shots.....
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I call it my Edgar Allen Poe water bottle. In a certain stage of exhaustion at a certain time of day, I will zone out into the weaving gray. It's a very dark and moody water bottle, maybe I should just call it Robert Smith? The coffee cup is used for about 3 cups of green tea a day. And the orange is to remind you to eat plenty of fresh fruits, just like your favorite cartoon hero S.Vincent!
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Wearing one of my favorite t-shirts. Number 1: One of the greatest bands of all time 2: It's black 3: fits great and is 100% cotton. I hate blends. Bonus points for identification left in the comment box

I am a compulsive page checker and will check sites that I like probably 15 times a day. Sometimes out of sheer hope that I missed something from when I checked it 5 minutes ago. Seriously, I click on the site, check my email, and then check back again. ESPN.com is one of these sites. Nice picture Lance. You look like Emporer Palpatine.

If I was to have some sort of obscure marketing logo for myself, it would have to include this fleece somehow. I wear it from September to June every single day. Again, its black, it's warm but breathes very well in warmer conditions. Has awesome pockets and sits high enough so that it doesnt get all tangled near my waist. I feel naked without it.......and sometimes I am.

The tool of the trade. Rollerball mouse. I hate sliding my hand all over a desk. Blank keyboard for security purposes and all around geek points. Plus its metallic switches are like heaven to type with. So soothing on the senses. When the old ladies get cranky, when the co-workers start yelling, it's clicky clack noise calms me right down. Gets a little tricky with intricate passwords that come up as *'s on the screen, but otherwise 100% worth it. "Plus, its so choice. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up"

The doorway back out to the real world. I made the lettering for this door back in high school. You can see now that it is beginning to crack. Just like my old and tired brain.

FIRST! (and a bunch of shout outs)

2009-01-19T12:04:00.008-05:00

Before we kick off on a weekend of blog related activities that I never thought would have blog related activities, I'll start by linking a much stronger argument to my original suspicion of Twitter being a questionable web resource. Think of her as Thomas Jefferson, and me being Thomas Jefferson's gardener saying "Hey T Jay-izzle, you know what sucks? People on the other side of the ocean." Anyway, I have said in previous posts that I always kick things off before anyone knows they are popular (moustaches, fashion trends, "pun intended", facebook at Marist College, etc. etc.) and now I will take at least partial credit for the start of a Twitter revolution. Le Resistance!

But seriously, for a more educated argument, go see Your Ill-Fitting Overcoat. If you are really interested, check out her comments for peoples rebuttals or agreements. Beamer, makes a good rebuttal against twitter hate. So that makes him the British......imperialistic bastard that he is.

On to the weekend! Spent some time down in New York City with strong YFYB supporter The Grzy and his first lady R-diculous (which I just made up). We wandered about out in the cold, rode on some subways, made a tally on the total number of animal fur related hats (15 I think), and ate some prime steak, ate some awesome burgers, coat-teased the coat check people at dance clubs, chatted up cab drivers, ate the best pancakes ever, got lost for 5 minutes in the Village, and didn't do 90% of the stuff we had planned. But we had fun never the less.

At the steak house, we met up with a friend of R-diculous who is a fashion entrepreneur and start up blogger; Mint Julep, who just launched a portion of her store online. Of course being in the presence of my blogging greatness, she offered to pay for dinner if I plugged her site. Since I knew that association with my blog often causes stores to go bankrupt, I counter-offered to pay for her dinner, give her a metro card, and take care of her children in the future when she is forced to dance the Charleston in the subway for quarters.

After I ate a cow, we all went out on the town to a place Mint Julep knew. A swanky little basement club on Bleeker that had "Finding Nemo" playing on 10 HD flatscreens and bass-laden electronic music blasting. There should have been tons of overly attractive people there, but most were very normal. So I was a little lost in the observation of it all till I spotted a victim for "Shirt or Dress" . She had to be mine! Oh yes, she will be mine. I wasn't sure how I was going to snap the picture at this small party without being more creepy than I am usually comfortable with, but then a sparkler appeared. She was entranced like a moth to the flame and whammy, blog duties complete. Keep an eye out, hopefully she posts it.

That's 4 blog shout outs for you. I bought a new camera this weekend, so once I have something thats not my shoes to photograph, we can bring back more visual entertainment for you.

Bless me father, for I have sinned

2009-01-15T15:11:00.007-05:00

I have to admit a strange fetish. No, its not necrophilia or whips and chains or feet.......

I wanna see what's in your fridge......

I know, it's very strange, but I can't help it. I've sought help, but then the doctor said something like "we'll talk about that after you let me put my fingers in your colon to check for blah blah" I stopped listening and walked out of the office cause he wasn't going to help me. No one can.

For some, its the medicine cabinet, but that doesn't really rev my engine. I will look in there, perhaps borrow your tweezers and do a little manscaping, or check what type of toothpaste you use if I feel your teeth are spectacular, but otherwise it's an un-exciteable enterprise for me. If you are messed up, there's a good chance I have already considered what drugs you should be on or are currently on anyway, and I don't need to see a box of laxatives to confirm my suspicion that you are constipated. I can tell that by asking your thoughts on a spontaneous ab workout session.

But the medicine cabinet is for amateurs. You can close and lock the door in the bathroom and no one would ever know you looked in there. I prefer a much more personal item of the home.

Ahhhhh, the sensation of discovering treasure stored at a delicious 34-38 degrees. So many exotic and exciting items lie just behind that insulated door. With a pull of the handle that peels the rubber strip air locking the treasure; the barrier between me and your most personal items is broken.

So many things to observe. Things such as cheese preferences, condiment selection, fruit choices, milk location. How full is the fridge? How many of each item is there? Are they running low on eggs? Do they refrigerate their bread? How fresh are the leftovers? WHAT are the leftovers? Do they know you don't have to refrigerate peanut butter?

And those are just a few of the questions I may have about you that can be answered in just 20 seconds of me getting inside your refrigerator. Or as I like to call it, the window of your SOUL.

How much junk food is there? Are you getting enough fiber? Do you use light salad dressing? How important is soda to your diet? Are there many organic items? Is there anything with mold on it? What brand of pasta sauce do you like? Do you have a lot of raw ingredients or do you have a lot of processed stuff?

Ohhhhhhh golly.......I am in heaven inside your fridge. My favorite part of MTV's cribs is when they show you what's in their fridge. The only way it could be better was if the celebrity didn't know we were looking in there. Can you imagine? That way they couldn't change it and you would know exactly their innermost secrets and needs.

And thus, this is why I sneak a peek.....I need it.......just a quick one.....I swear......you won't even know I did it.

write before you read

2009-01-14T09:25:00.004-05:00

I decided to write today before I get myself locked into reading all the daily entertaining blog updates. I spend all my time reading and thus pigeon-hole myself into making a mad 3pm scramble for my own post. This "read before writing" activity often results in some of the un-edited trash I have been putting out. Only some of the trash, because the other trash is on purpose.

Was the origin of the word "Orange" a color or a fruit first?

I don't know how to use Twitter effectively. Everyone is apparently doing it, but after 5 months or so, I am still not seeing its obvious prevelance or effectiveness on the web except for everyone talking about it. I am begining to think its all a elaborate joke like something we'd do back in high school.
"Seriously dude? you're not putting Icy Hot on your balls? What's wrong with you, it's the best thing ever. I do it twice a day it's so awesome. It makes em feel like your balls are brand new balls. You could have fresh infant balls man! You GOTTA do it!"

I have been drinking a lot of tea lately. Does that make me effeminate? Anytime I pick up a "new thing", the possibility of that trait is the first thing I worry about. I do enough borderline effeminate things, so I feel compelled to monitor myself to make sure I am only tap dancing on that line and not into full on Pete Wentz territory. I feel once you cross that line there is no going back. Kind of like a tatoo of a unicorn on a woman. Even if she were to get a doctorate, buy a big house, drive a BMW, and get a lawyer husband, you would still know that deep down she was white trash enough to display her white trashiness on her body.

Anyway, the point to that confession is that I recently found out English Breakfast is nothing but plain black tea. What Tea Master of the Universe decided that black tea can be named after the most important meal of the english day? I am pretty sure that is just some kind of marketing to make plain black tea seem more exotic, but either way, from now on S.Vincent refuses to call it anything other than black tea. Fuck the british and their colonization of tea naming without adding any significant infrastructure to that tea. This BS has gone on long enough!

Speaking of tea......again. Starbuck's has thrown themselves into a more aggressive stance on tea-based hot drinks. Fantastic idea! Something we can't burn! Anyway, they have a drink called a "London Fog". Which features one of S.Vincent's favorite teas, "Earl Grey". (a tea name that I can get behind because The Earl added something unique to his tea) It's extra bergemont-y, so be warned that you gotta really like Earl Grey to like this starbucks concoction, but I thought it was lolli (british term for Money)

And I can't think about English anything without thinking about my favorite American Express commercial.

Indeed Jerry, that was a wicked googily

lip smackin

2009-01-09T13:23:00.007-05:00

I have been away for longer than I thought I was. That's what happens when you go on vacation. If you don't use a computer daily and miss all the feeds, it takes you 2x as long to get back in the groove. 3 days in the blogging world is like a week in the real world. By the time I made my way consistently in front of a computer, caught up on all the feeds, came up with some material, and overcame laziness; it took like...... a whole bunch of days to make a post. So lets play catch up.

New Years Eve? zilch, zero, nada. Got no call back on my hopeful date, so I sat on my couch, did some laundry, watched a Dashboard Confessional concert on the "Best of Madison Square Garden", and was in bed by 11:30. Happy new year indeed. All I needed was some eye shadow, an eating disorder, and some cigarettes and I would have been a hit emo song. Good thing NYE has never been my thing anyway. I prefer Arbor Day!

Trip to Chicago? Ooooo, I could go on and on, but I will try to keep it short and sweet.

Travel: The flight in over Lake Michigan was really cool. Seeing the ice sheets get thicker and thicker as they reached the shore was a highlight of the trip. It was also a less than 2 hour flight, so that's awesome too. O'Hare is a big airport, so the Chicago subway goes out to it, which is nice. The subway ticket machine nearly lost its life via my foot for being faulty, but the ticket prices are on par with NYC. The trains go FAST, are pretty clean, and have less homeless people on them then the Big Apple

Sidenote: The hotel was next to the biggest McDonalds I have ever seen. It was 2 floors, had escalators, flat screen TV's, an entire 1960 Corvette, and 2 drive thru lanes. It also had leather couches, a time capsule, gelato, cappuccino, and pastries.

City layout? Really good and is designed in almost a strict grid. (NYC'ers love this) The subway layout could use a little more work, but its efficient and logical enough. They have plenty of space to work with and have used it to accommodate big sidewalks, big streets, big parks, and big alley ways. There is a lack of non-franchise stores/restaurants, so just about every store is a chain. It's makes it feel a little bit like a giant mall, but its got everything so it's acceptable for S.Vincent.

Culture? I don't think I stayed long enough to get a feel for the true culture. I'm not sure it has much, and like I mentioned, there are a lot of chain stores and it makes it feel a little "un-unique?" The most signature Chicago thing I saw was Lake Michigan, Soldier Field, and the Bean. I don't know what separates a chicago-in, ite, er? from other major city residents, but I can say that everyone I talked to was super friendly and super helpful. Which is.....pretty cool to see in a big city.

Weather? Surprise! It's fuckin COLD in January. I hate using chapstick, (the muse for the title) and thankfully have never had to use it in the humid northeast in the winter, but Chicago is windy COLD, and DRY. So if you love using chapstick, this city is your "Graceland".

Food? Well, its not quite New York, but what is? The lack of specialty restaurants makes it easy to go to most of the signature places in one weekend. Alinea was awesome, but as the number 1 restaurant in Chicago, it ought to be, right? Portillo's hot dog? delicious, I wish NYC had these and I never thought of using lettuce and tomato on a hot dog. Didn't get a chance to go to The Weiner's Circle, but that looked really cool. Giordano's deep dish pizza? Overrated, but not a waste of time. I wish it had more sauce. I think if I spent another 2 days I could have gone to all the good places in Chicago. This is great if you are a visitor, but if I lived there, I would be upset.

Attractions? The Sears tower is really cool. Nice sky deck educational material and since no one was there it took 10 mins to get from ground floor to top floor. Aquarium: due to renovations there was no dolphins, no seals, no penguins, and therefore; no S.Vincent. Planetarium: as cool as any other planetarium, but I get as excited about planets as I get about botany so Zzzzzzz. Art Museum: is a very good one, and is featured in the movie "Ferris Buellers Day Off". I wish I spent more time in there because it has a ton of great peices. Second City: This was even better than I expected and I had a really good time there. The ticket price was only 20 bucks and was totally worth it. I highly suggest making it a stop if you go to Chicago.

I think that about covers my trip to Chicago. Did I mention it was really fucking COLD? I also noticed that every single building had apartments/condos for rent or sale. I could definitely see myself living there, but it doesn't have any rowing.....so it's "no go" for S.Vincent. On the bright side, you would totally get to taunt people from Milwaukee!

Random Travel Observation: I don't think it was just Blue Car syndrome, but there seemed to be a lot of young females on the move. The airport was full of old people, and young girls. So, if you're looking for a place to pick up girls, live next to a major airport, and dabble in skeevyness; dust off your suitcase and head to the Delta terminal.

New widget for Witnesses. Right now I only have one (much love to the VA), so I am the opposite of LeBron James, but I always thought putridity was better than mediocrity.

drain bamage

2008-12-29T14:38:00.006-05:00

When I first started blogging, I didn't need any help remembering ideas. There was so much to talk about and update on, that there wasn't any way I could run into a writers block. Plus, I sucked (still do?) at blogging, so all of my stuff was self indulgent crappola, and as many writers know, that's the easiest stuff to write about.

Eventually my brain (intestines) ran out of pre-stored topics (shit). So then I started to carry around a little notebook, like Harriet the Spy. The problem with that is; it's totally nerdish, and instead of pulling it out at instant thought, I would wait till I was in my car, and then nearly crash into stuff. Or, I wasn't able to read my own scribbling and thus, the notebook was ruled ineligible for play due to risk

Then I got the smart idea of a voice recorder. At least 10 times more nerdy then a notebook, but twice as discreet. Crashing into stuff would only happen while I was texting and driving (a fashionable way to die if you ask me) and my voice is that of an angel, so there would be no deciphering to do. This worked pretty good, but playing it back was a "man in the mirror" moment where I would question what a completely awesome 2o-something was doing listening to his pre-recorded tom-foolery. I got over that ego-trip quickly for the sake of all 3 of my readers, but my zest for writing was gone and the topics seemed less and less enticing.

Then my zest came back (hooray?) and my thoughts and memory were strong enough to remember my blog topics. However, in the past month or so, I am finding myself in a zone where I know I thought of stuff to blog about, but then lose it when I sit down at the keyboard. My old age is catching up with me. It's like when you are in the grocery store and you know there is something else you need, look at the stuff you already got in your cart, and can't figure out what is missing. So, you get yourself all the way home.....FUCK!.......THE PAPERTOWELS!

So I am considering a revisit to those methods, but currently, I am fighting the little nerd inside me with a "You're better than this!" light-saber.

But here some good news....I posted more in this year than any other and I am still hot on the "blog more, dummy" quest. Ran out of time today, but hopefully some late posted christmas tales and observations for you tomorrow.

Merry awkward Christmas

2008-12-24T12:52:00.003-05:00

I would totally be this guy. Merry Christmas you bunch o' nerds.

Fin

2008-12-23T14:59:00.004-05:00

Today is the last day. I think it worked out well that its the day before the day that is the day before the day. I guess I just have that natural sense of perfect timing. That and a natural sense of being completely arrogant when I don't need to be.

So many promises to keep, lets get started!

1) She bought the PC....suckerrrr. Ruining her life begins this weekend.

2) The UNRATED bonus material. (Albums that looked good in 2008, but I never got around to buying). Santogold . Department of Eagles "In Ear Park". The Hold Steady "Stay Positive". Crystal Castles. Kanye West "808's and Heartbreak". The Cool Kids "The Bake Sale". The Whigs "Mission Control". The Cure "4:13 Dream". No Age "Nouns" . Hercules and Love Affair. The Killers "Day and Age".

I will probably buy some of these based on how they do in the 2008 reviews that I haven't read yet and how much money I get(steal). Sorry gang, but you can rest assured that in 2008 there is going to be a shift to quality, not quantity.

3) I have made a "Christmas music that doesn't suck" mix. I am going to put it up on iTunes under "PoVegas Christmas". Feel free to search for it, or hit up the comment box for a track listing.

#1 album time. Put your happy hats on!

1-Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant EP" I am not sure if it is legal to group them together like this, but since they came out within a month of each other and contain different songs, I am grouping them as one album.

Why is this the number one album? Good question. When I put together this list, it was easy to come up with the order that felt right in my head (subjectively), but to come up with reasons as to why I put the order as I did it became more difficult to validate my feelings. Music is such a deeply rooted entertainment source, that it becomes difficult to explain why something is better. It's so philosophical that you can come up with so many reasons as to why or why not one sound is better than another sound. DIGRESSING.......

So, why does S.VINCENT think Fleet Foxes is the number 1 album of 2008? For me, they simply did the most subjective things right AND I knew that other people would like it. If I had my ultimate way, this album and Cut Copy would be a dead heat. I like them both so much, one is fun and one is magnificent. Cut Copy is like winning your first game against your dad and Fleet Foxes is like winning your final game against professionals. They may be equal to you, but the public will only remember the last they see of you.

Basically, this album is number 1 because it's more respectable than Cut Copy. Fleet Foxes have a hymnal folk sound that just soaks through your skin. It's crisp, it's clean, and it's timeless. You would never get sick of their harmonious voices soaring over their effortless melodies. If you like Neil Young or Crosby Stills and Nash, this is right up your alley. When I first heard them, I thought instantly of My Morning Jacket, and it's true, there is a similar sound to the vocal instrumentation, but there is something a little deeper here than My Morning Jacket. I still haven't figured out what it is, but it has something to do with Fleet Foxes poise in the production. Their songs feel like they summon them from the earth, where as My Morning Jacket cranks them out of their endless creativity. This could be why Fleet Foxes seems so effortless, because it sounds like they aren't even trying. Jimmy James uses my morning jacket like a costume. He puts it on and he does his fabulous act of wonder. Fleet Foxes seem to blend into the background in some kind of a forest lullaby. Every melody and lyric eases out like a new plant or bird fluttering in.

I know this all sounds very melodramatic, but when you have to come up with ways to explain music, its very hard to conjure up what is going on, so you find yourself creating this picture of the sound. Its especially hard with the more musically dense albums because there is so much going on here. So put some headphones on, close your eyes, and let the number 1 album of 2008 soak in.

Jittery Monday

2008-12-22T13:56:00.005-05:00

I am all jittery today and I don't really know why. Maybe it's a hangover from the hunkey-ness of Hugh Jackson in Australia that I watched last night. Maybe it's endorphins from attacking the wheel wells of my car with a broom handle to dislodge the ice blocks so that I could make more than 10 degree turns. Or maybe it's just the excitement for Christmas!

I was quite productive at the mall and found some good presents (and if they aren't, maybe a shank between the 3rd and 4th rib is something I could interest you in). I even bought some wrapping paper! How un-male of me, eh? Between that and driving my little puddle jumper around 5 inch snowbanks out of fear of getting stuck, I'd say my balls may have shrunk a little this Christmas. I guess I am going to have to go to a strip club on NYE to make up for it. Or maybe go outside and chop down a tree. Or lift a big snow shovel full of wet slushy snow RIGHT OVER MY HEAD! "I am S.Vincent, the man of men, hear me roar!"

ALBUM REVIEWS

Tomorrow will be a post of all the UNRATED albums that I didn't get to listen to. And I am working on a cool Christmas music list. Meaning Christmas songs that don't make you wanna throw up. That is, if I can find any.

Alright kiddies, here we go. Down to the last 5 albums of 2008. I hope you are as excited as I am. Actually, you should be more excited because I have been staring ENDLESSLY at this list for the past week and I know what it says. But you have no idea what they are going to be, so this one is for you!

Without further delay......

5-Kings of Leon "Only by the Night": This is one of my current favorite bands ever since I got into them last year. I love the music, the style, the lyrics, the image, and the lack of any big time exposure they have. Many critics use say that this is their ultimate sell out album. That this album goes against their musical roots and simplifies their once unique country rock sound. They say that their lyrics have been dumbed down into a preen for the ladies. All of this is more or less true, but at least they have albums where they didn't do those things. Albums that were more intricate, raw, artistic, and critically acclaimed. You can buy them on Amazon and I suggest you do. My point is, they did it already, so why not come up with an album that reaches a wider audience? Maybe they didn't do it with enough tact, but they did it. And to tell you the truth, the album is still great. I saw them live about a month ago, and the songs that really resonated with the new crowd was the current hits and not because they are current, but because they sound better live in a larger venue. The old songs are better as album songs, but their sound gets lost in the crowd noise and venue reverberations. Bands make their money touring, so if KOL can get earn some bucks and still rock the house. I am going to say "rock on". I love all the songs from radio-rocker "sex on fire" to industrial-istic "crawl" to slow jam "cold desert" to party rock "Manhattan".

4-Bon Iver "For Emma, Forever Ago": It gets really tough here in the top 5 to pick who is 5 and who is number 1. I don't remember where I got this album from, I think I read randomly about it somewhere, and the name stuck with me, so when I was on iTunes I looked him up. This is a perfect winter album (that was released in the summer) but I heard it was written and recorded by Justin Vernon (lead singer, creative force) in a cabin in Wisconsin during a winter that he spent by himself. The music is slow, sad depression type tunes. But its not as pathetic sounding as it sounds, so if you are a big fan of folk, you will like this album (also if you TMOE that we talked about earlier, they tour together). The lyrics are incredibly cryptic, but you don't really need em to understand where he's going. Catch a word here or there and it all starts to come together. His voice is fantastic and there is some sort of studio harmonizing with himself going on, making all his tracks sound like much more than simple singer songwriter. But there is still a whole bunch of background noise (like his shirt sleeve rubbing on his guitar, an fire siren in the distance, weird clicks and tape reel noises) that make this album feel so personal. Like Justin made the album just for you in his basement. All this makes it feel so fresh, pure and spontaneous. All the tracks are awesome, Headphones are a must or a really quiet room.

3-M83 "Saturdays = Youth": You take a leap of faith when you tell people you like M83. Because it really does teeter on the line of dork emo-ish music. You really almost have to find it yourself because if someone tells you how great it is, you'll probably end up criticizing its lack of subtlety. And I guess this is a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. It's incredibly luxurious and lush sounding, and on the surface it sounds like something out of a Planet Earth segment or a commercial. But if you really listen with an open and fresh ear, you can hear that there is a real artistic quality to this album. I like to call them an English speaking Sigur Ros (if you know who they are). But as much as it is atmospheric shoegaze type music, there is a real simplicity to the stories of the songs. Mostly about being young and innocent and stressed, but not as immature as that may sound. Just go with it, pretend you're not as cool as you think you are. Embrace your inner low self esteem nerd! The music does go over the top, but its supposed to be that way and its the simple lyrics which keep it grounded, focused and give it the ability to be appreciated by common (albeit open minded) music fans. It's the style in which Anthony Gonzalez basically gets his really good electronic shoegaze across and I think it works out a lot better then other uptight elitist shoegaze I have heard. All the tracks are good here in the top 5, and this applies even to teenage french-inspired electronic shoegaze in this case.

2-Cut Copy "In Ghost Colours": Can I say that I get excited about listening to this album most of all. That even though its number 2, it holds a special place in my heart? I think it may be the fate of a non #1 album to be my favorite despite the lack of respect that I give it. Maybe because its a deep rooted emotional problem. Last year it was #4's Kings of Leon's "Because of the Times" and I have listened to that album a bajillion times too even though I gave the crown to NIN. I guess there is a difference between what you enjoy the most and what you respect the most. This is the case here. I am at a loss of words to explain it........summer, dance music, 80's chic, snarky female smiles, big hearty laughs, cold glasses of iced tea, slip on sneakers, cool night air, sliding on car hoods, booty bonks.........
Cut Copy is from the rockin city of Melbourne, Australia and they specialize in new wave-esque dance tunes. Think Duran Duran with a little more emphasis on dance electronics then top 40 hits. This album has everything I love. Great builds to the highs, audible lyrics, definitive new sound, a great percussion foundation, variety of sound (once you listen more) and EXCELLENT track order. It's fun, it grows on you, it doesn't get old, and a song ending just means another great one is up next. I don't think there is one teeny thing I would change about this album. I don't think the video on your computer does this justice. Listen to it in the car, or out with your friends. And turn it up loud! If you buy one thing from this list or remember this list for one thing, remember it for Cut Copy and that I love it and that I stuck up for it. Tell your grand kids and have them tell their grand kids, for the love of PETE!

Number 1 tomorrow ;) OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!!

The Grinch(internet) stole Christmas

2008-12-19T12:10:00.008-05:00

There is a common theme that happens at my place of employment involving everyone but S.Vincent. Everyone YELLS all THE TIME! Despite my anxious web scribblings, I am actually a very Zen like creature when it comes to my physical actions. I wake up very early, I go to sleep late, and there are many hours of intense labor inbetween. I don't have the energy to talk above a normal speaking voice, something my co-workers are oviously unable to control. It's absolutely deafening in the office, no exageration, and I can't even move because the volume paralyzes me. Between co-worker yelling at co-worker, bosses yelling at customers, co-workers yelling on the cell phone, bosses yelling on their cell phone, my co-worker yelling at himself, and crack addicts outside yelling at the garbage cans, I feel like I am riding in the landing gear of a 747 everyday. Its not even angry yelling, its just talking in a EXTREMELY loud voice. Someday I am going to stand up in the middle of it all and just scream "ALL IS WELL, REMAIN CALM, ALLLL ISS WELLL!!!!!"

The internet ruined my christmas. For the past week, I have been hounding Amazon.com to find a gift for everyone on my list. It took me about 3 days to collect it all and then on Monday I was ready to hit CHECK OUT. Well only 4 of my 15 items were able to get here before christmas EVEN if I used 1 day shipping. What the Reindeer-Fuck is that? Now I have to trek my ass to the mall with every other idiot out there to buy christmas presents that I will be settling for, instead of being excited about. That's more work for less satisfaction. Screw it! Everyone's getting kisses this year. DEAL WITH IT GRZY!

The album review has once again driven more hits to this site then in the previous month. I am getting almost double the traffic that I usually do. Probably because people are copy-pasting my idiocy into e-mails to their co-workers and friends saying "Look at what this idiot said, lets go stab him with a rusty spoon and poop in his car". Either way, I am blog rolling today to hopefully get some of my internet buddies some biz-nass, and that will be their christmas present, unless they come to my house in which I will also give them a kiss. DOUBLE PRESENTS! So check that out over yonder......(right hand side of the page dummy.....no, your other right)

ALBUM REVIEWS

As many albums as I bought; there are a bunch sitting in my shopping cart right now that I didn't buy. (There's a pants-shitting surprise) Some of them are very popular choices and will probably be on a bunch of "album of the year" lists. Unfourtunatly, Superman turned down my offer to do his "fly around the world in the opposite direction, and thus reverse time or destroy the earth's gravitational center and send it hurling off into the universe manuver", so I am stuck. In the next post I will go over the UNRATED version of the album review. You see what I did there? I figure if it can work for "American Pie", it can work for S.Vincent.

10-Ray LaMontagne "Gossip in the Grain": Looks like jesus, sings like christians think jesus would sing like. He could make a killing singing church songs. Probably make more money and be more popular then he is now. Appearances aside, this is a better version of classic Ray LaMontagne. (When Grzy told me about this guy during his first album, he said "it's spelled like Lasagna, only it's LaMontagne" and I actually knew exactly what he meant) His previous albums have been a great example of his talent with a simple guitar and great signing voice. They are really good, but what pushes Gossip over the edge is it's production quality. He has background singers and full band sets and a wider variety of styles to show off his skill set across different platforms. But, its still got its classic LaMontagne feel. It's like LaMontagne on Steroids!! Call the cops! I Really like "Sarah" (weeper love song) "Hey Me, Hey Mama" (extra hill billy folksy) "A falling through" and "Roses and Cigarettes"

9-Vampire Weekend (self titled): This is the first 2008 release album I bought in 2008 and it seems like that was forever ago. I liked it immediately. It was cool, easy, simple tunes that had a real fresh sound with plenty of new band enthusiasm. But I wasn't blown away by anything. They don't build to big rocking highs or slow it down real nice or have crazy lyrics or some cool new method. It was like this ever chugging pretty enjoyable music machine, with no real defineable attribute. Over time I moved on to more exciting options. So why did you put them here, you ask? Well this is a pizza album, as I like to say. Even bad pizza is still better than a lot of other bad things, and mediocre pizza is great, and good pizza is really really great. Pizza might never be gourmet cuisine or something to brag to your friends about eating, but it's not supposed to be. Basically this album does enough things that involve not screwing anything up, having a real good and unique sound, and not trying to be anything more than really good pizza. I challenge you to NOT like it. Every track is solid (except for the one that oddly enough has the same name as my sister, and thus, creeps me out) and if I had to name their music, I would call it "Ivy Rock". Cause they only sing about fun school times, use stuff like violins and weird keyboards, and they all went to Columbia. So yeah, I just did that.

8-The Tallest Man on Earth "Shallow Grave": Ahhh, what a pleasant album. TMOE is a guitar plucker, country twang/howl folk singer. He sounds a lot like Bob Dylan so if you are a Bob Dylan fan, you HAVE to buy this album. I had a tough time picking between Vampire Weekend and TMOE for this spot, and what clinched it for him was the sudden death tie breaker in which I check the playcount on iTunes. I listened to this album 8 more times than Vampire Weekend, so there you go.

TMOE is not at all tall in stature, as evidenced by this photo which Grzy sent to me while he was at his concert. I was so upset with him for living in a large city and thus having only 15 min drives for Live music. It really makes me laugh whenever I see it. Don't you just love the cute little bugger already? And he sounds like a little old "general store" man. His album is a series of simple love folk songs with lyrics that highlight missed lovers, attraction, investigation, admiration, and journeys. Its your basic folk album, but it seems much less bland than a basic folk album and I really can't say enough about the twing twangy guitar plucking. It really sets the album off on a good foot. Love "Pistol Dreams" "I won't be found" and "The Gardener"(My Favorite)

7-MGMT "Oracular Spectacular": One of the rare finds that I got from a free iTunes single of the week. See kids? There is a point to downloading those songs! Ha, in your defense they are crap most of the time, but every once and a while you can find a little golden nugget like MGMT. You've all heard "Time to Pretend" which is the highlight of this album, but there are actually a ton of good songs to accompany it. I am not sure if it counts, but I got a deluxe version which has some other really good songs on it that may not be on most of the albums. What makes this album unique is the way that they sing with a echoey howl and electro music. Plenty of good builds in all their tracks and kind of a bizarro version of Vampire Weekend, in that it sounds like Vampire Weekend only a little more eccentric, experimental, and with specific build up points and more instrumentation. They aren't so hot live, but they are new, so give them some time to refine it. But I think this album may have "one hit wonder" written on it. Usually the people who are not good live, don't have enough chops for more than one album. Thankfully, they released a hum-dinger. There are a few duds but the hot tracks are hot. "Time to Pretend" "Kids" "Electric Feel" "Destrokk" "The Youth"

6-Jack's Mannequin "The Glass Passenger": (cue 15-18 year old teenage girls screaming) I admit that this is a little girly. But if you didn't know that and just tried to enjoy some pf the well crafted pop-music from a good musician (featuring piano, which I am a sucker for), then you will like this album a whole lot. It sounds similar his first album under this band-title but a little more musical, if that makes sense. Deeper cuts, more sound, more instrumentation, less vocal priority. They are sing a long songs, and I am always glad when I can actually hear and understand each one. Sometimes you need music like this which you like from the start and is easy to get into no matter what the occasion. I am pretty guarded with my music (despite the blog where I talk about it all the time) because you can take a lot of flack for what you listen to. I listen to everything, but as far as what I recommend to the public, I stay on the safe road. This album is safe because even if you don't really like it, you wouldn't be confused as to why someone else would. If Vampire Weekend is pizza, then this is ranch dressing. You may prefer other types of dressing, but you aren't gonna make reaching noises at the guy who puts it on his salad. Best Tracks are "Crashin" "Annie Use your Telescope" "Caves" "Miss California" and "Drop Out/So Unknown" "Hammers and Strings"

I would check back on Saturday for 5-1. The weather in PoVegas is a suckfest, so I may be trapped inside with nothing to do. No guarantees in PoVegas though.

Picture me Rollin'

2008-12-18T12:34:00.004-05:00

I don't have time to do it today, but soon I will make up a blog roll for all of you who somehow found your way to my blog but then the stench of terrible writing caused you to go into a cultural coma and now you can't find your way out. Kind of like going to a Fall Out Boy concert. This blog roll will assist you to greener pastures. Maybe someday, if I pay these bloggers thousands of dollars (or threaten them with being forced to smell my shoes) I will appear on one of their blogrolls. Don't tell them I led you there though, or else they will kick you out. It'd be like Lee jeans at the cool kids party in high school.

Title comes from the greatest movie of all time (or when I am in a immature enough of a mood to call it that) watch to the first 1:00 with the senior quote for seth green aka Special K. So many quotes, my head explodes. You can bail after that.

I have a chance to finish 3rd in two of my three fantasy football leagues and in 1st or 2nd in the other one. This is the first time I have had a chance at 3 medals. But that's just nerd talk....the best part of Fantasy Football Leagues is the team name. They are as follows "Whoa Whoa WEE WHOA!" "PoVegas Punishers" (lame, but its an old league and there is a legacy rule) and "Thundercats, HOOO!!" Pretty sweet names right? .......Pretty lame topic right? Moving on....

ALBUM REVIEWS
So I inadvertently heard on the radio that Rolling Stone gave TV on the Radio's "Dear Science" the "album of the year". I knew that they would get a high placing, but it really frustrates me that I can't get into them and I am rededicating to the cause. Probably shouldn't have mentioned that, and if you choose to ignore the rest of the list as pure poppycock, then I won't blame you.

14- The Airborne Toxic Event (self titled)- Of course I heard the single "Sometime Around Midnight" first. And I smugly thought to myself if I haven't heard of this yet, its because its a one hit wonder. Then I went back to smoking clove cigarettes, drinking imported beer, and cursing the overuse of auto tone/tune in hip hop these days. I forgot when I first got clued in, but around a month later I was listening to this album over and over. They remind me a little of another band I love; Pulp. The vocals are really gritty packed with loose cannon emotion just like rock legend and weirdo Jarvis Cocker used to do. They aren't quite as experimental and artsy as Pulp is, but even I think Pulp would go too far sometimes and I am a big fan.
"Sometime around Midnight" is a sucker song for me. I am better emotionally equipped to handle it these days, but back in the day this song would have slayed me (back in that day it was Motorcycle Drive By-3eB). Its got angry/depressed mix tape written all over it, I almost wish I had some girl to spring it on. (wait, you mean I would have to talk to her more than once? okay forget it then) This whole album is very good, but this song is by far the shining star and keeps it from being a mid 20 album to its current position. The other songs do a fine job of being original and the album features a good variety of hard rockers to poppy songs to power ballads. If you are a casual music fan, pick up this album. It is very fan friendly and easy to enjoy music. You'll like it a lot the first time through and I just hope these guys got enough juice for another album.

13-Girl Talk "Feed the Animals": This is the most unique album on the list and should be all the rage with the kiddies. You won't hear it on the radio though because it's somewhat controversial in that it is a pure "mashup" album. Basically, Greg Gillis (girl talk) takes a ton of samples and then mashes them all up in different ways to create new songs. They are super fun and super cool. From Lil John, The Band, Ace of Base, Jay Z, Kanye, and Rod Stewart. Its all in there! However, as you can see, no link to amazon because they don't carry it now for some reason. They did when I bought it, but perhaps there is some trouble with the licensing and copyrighting of this album.
The only problem with it is that it should be used sparingly. For me anyway, I get a little brain dead from listening to it too much as the undeniable nature of DJ'd material is a very rhythmic and unchanging beat and for some people that can get old quick! It obviously excels in a party atmospheres and driving in groups of immature people, but alone time or work time and it can be distracting. You should definitely check this out (if you can find it) to see if you can "smell what the Girl Talk is cookin'."

12-Foals "Antidotes": Dubbed as Math Rock, whatever that means, this album has a fun european sound. Maybe its because it makes you feel really smart and sophisticated. They have a real upbeat sound with quick strumming guitars and high pitched plucking. There is a quick stomping beat throughout and is a real toe tapper. The vocals are often repetitive with the beat and sung in a exasperated fashion with lots of the lyrics ending in mini gasps. A unique sort of style that I have heard before but can't put my finger on. Foals reminds me of a less electronic and more conventional version of LCD Soundsystem and they also remind a little of Spoon. I could be way off on that, but it's what I think. Plus, they look like cool dudes who know how to have fun being rock n' roll stars. Really like "The French Open", "Olympic Airways" "Two steps, twice"and "Big Big Love". Sweet album artwork too!

11-Blitzen Trapper "Furr": This is a late pickup (3 weeks old), and I might be a little too over-juiced about it to be fair. But whatever, I am not a pro and I don't get paid to critique albums, nor do I get them free ahead of time. So I like what I like when I like it. This album has an old time 70's folk-rock feel, but is surprisingly well modified to modern tastes. They remind me of country rocked Death Cab for Cutie. Awesome wood panelled cover art! Lots of cool harmonica and good percussion. Good harmonizing too! I think these guys should tour with Black Mountain. They would be an awesome show. Their lyrics are impressively vague, fun, and well written. Songs about being a farm animal (Furr) a confused serial killer (black river killer) and a resentful lover (not your lover anymore). The tracks have a good amount of variety and the lead singer has a great way of modifying his style to match the tempo and mood of each one. If you like bands such as The Band, The Allman Brothers, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Okkervil River; you will probably really like these guys.

Albums number 10-5 tomorrow. Stay Tuned!

flirting FAIL

2008-12-17T11:28:00.005-05:00

I'm no good at flirting because I am far too sarcastic and vague and my first impression is pretty distant from the way I actually am . It's not that I am bad at meeting people, I am actually quite good at coming off as professional in business activities, but in a friendship/dating environment, even though I am an ocean of randomness, interesting facts, and creativity; you would probably find me very pod-like and bland during the first 5-8 times you talk to me.

Why? Because I know that my personality is one that takes a little getting used to, at least that's how I see it. You see, I am most comfortable and truest when I feel like me making a joke at your expense such as, "hey nice shirt, where'd you get it, lost and found at the Laundromat?" or saying something disturbing such as "I bet if I ran your dog over with my car you'd take me seriously" won't cause you to punch me or call the cops. These are things you can't say to just anyone, I know this, and I am actually pretty good at figuring out who can take what type of sarcastic comments and who needs a custom set of "S.Vincent".

The problem with my system is that until I figure your personality out, you get a blank "S.Vincent" disk, filled with a bunch of shitty software that comes for free with most male computer systems. This obviously does not work in the post-college world of see you maybe once and twice and game over. S.Vincent is most certainly a PC in a Mac world. There I am on the shelf at Best Buy with my clunky grey body and Windows 2000 demo software with the stupid paper clip man while right next to me is a shiny Macbook with a crystal clear animation of Wall-E playing on the 20 inch screen. S.Vincent = Suitable Partner FAIL.

Not too many people are willing to deeply investigate anymore and that's cool, I get it. I get it a little too well and don't even try to adapt because I don't have the memory space to run the new programs. But right now, I may have a potential buyer, and this clunky little laptop with his outdated software and poor graphics is trying hard to impress. Hopefully my hard-drive doesn't overheat and burn her lap.

I know I said 7 albums for today, but since we are inside the respectable top 20 and I started this too late in the day, we will see how far we go while still keeping quality at a premium. Probably not enough time for 7 though.

17-Air France "No Way Down": I don't know how to classify this music. It's kind of instrumental, kind of electronic, kind of ambient, and kind of dream-pop. But this was no mistake in keeping this album on the top half of the list like I did with Quiet Village. It is more of a music enthusiasts type album, but I really think there is something for everyone here. The music is really textured and lush and it reminds me a lot of a simpler sounding and sunnier M83 also in that it excels as a headphones album, but isn't %100 necessary.
(**brief pause here for explanation. Obviously a headphones album means you should listen to it on headphones, but the reason WHY you listen to it on headphones is because there are a lot of faintly audible details to the songs that get easily missed if you are distracted by outside noise. These faint sounds can make or break the album, so it is crucial that if you are listening you use headphones, preferably ones that do a real good job of cancelling noise or in a quiet room.**)
This album is a well crafted and planned in that each song has a good sense of identity. The album is short, only 10 tracks, each with a different direction and intent in crafting a story. The artists create a sense of a journey or what I think of is a 3 minute montage, as corny as that sounds. I imagine well dressed fashion models doing lots of smiling or 1000 yard staring with the camera man using all sorts of European country side backgrounds but no talking and letting the music lead the emotion. Abercrombie is a little too loud stylistically for this, but BR should be playing this in their stores. Pay me money BR!

16-Ryan Adams and the Cardinals "Cardinology": I'm not sure how well this album is going to fare. Most music critics don't especially like Ryan Adams. There must be a reason, and I think he's got a little Chris Martin in him. I also like to think of Ryan Adams as Diet John Mayer. Very Talented (better singer than John, not even close on guitar) Dates a B-list celebrity (mandy moore) to John's A-List (Jennifer Anniston). Wears weird dirty art clothes compared to Johns designer dirty art clothes. Both preens for the ladies, but John gets the cream of the crop state university girls while Ryan gets the private college moody emo girls. Here's how I see it taking place in Beverly Hills. John is coming out of a Georgio Armani store while Ryan is exiting a Salvation Army (only in BH would they be across the street from each other). They make eye contact, then John looks away in a VERY obvious entitled and dismissive fashion and then Ryan gives him the finger. That sets John off and they dance fight in the street and never a bed-headed hair is displaced.

Oh, you wanna know about the Album? Fiiiiiiineeeee......its actually Ryans best work in a while and I think it has to do with the structure of The Cardinals blue-grassy country that really highlights his over-dramatic voice. It's old world simplicity meets young chaotic talent and its a sure fire thing for Ryan. He went on his own for a while and some of that was really really good and some of it was dud. With the Cardinals, it is consistently good the whole way through like his work in his first band "Whiskytown". Love the tracks "Fix It" "Cobwebs" "Crossed out Name" and "Sink Ships" but the whole album is solid.

15-Beach House "Devotion": This album came a long at a bad time in 2008. The month of March (I think) when I was far too busy with rowing to really absorb it. Sometimes I devalue albums based on their immediate impact, but I think we all know that this is a bad idea. I go back and forth on every album. Even last years list doesn't hold the same water as it does now. The largest turn around in the history of S.Vincent goes back to 2003 with Dashboard Confessional. I used to yell at Grzy for listening to it, I hated it, but he persisted cause hes a piece of shit who abuses small animals and children, but he loves me. Somewhere around the summer time, I got locked in. I couldn't stop listening. I was going through a rough patch that probably catapulted the album, but still from hate to love in 4 months is pretty big.

Anyway, this album has a real soft feel. So you can't listen to it expecting huge ups and down. I like to call albums like this creepers, cause they creep into the forefront when you least expect it. (Yes, its different than a "grower") This and the Deerhunter album went from being off the list at the end of summer to smack dab in the middle. Lots of elegant moans, sighs, and other vocal noises that don't involve words are a major part of the music in this album. Every word is drawn out into a echoey effect. Every song is a male/female duet with great harmony. Most of the time they sing right on top of each other creating an eery howl. If you like bands such as Belle and Sebastian, you will like this album a lot.

And that's our time for today. Sorry gang, but I ran out of working hours. Will return with more tomorrow!

Judge Dredd

2008-12-16T12:57:00.004-05:00

It may be cheating, but I actually hand wrote this post while I am waiting at the dealership for a standard oil change. Male blasphemy you say? True, but its free for a year with my new (used) car and they have tasty hot beverages in the service department lounge. So consider me happily emasculated.
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At the dealership, this takes about 45 minutes for a 15 minute job, but as a card carrying member of the "Fuck me, I work in the service industry" society, I understand why this is, and happily keep my "cool" while I enjoy some coffee and the sideways glances of senior citizens at the the hole in the crotch of my jeans.
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Since we are here, lets go around the room overly-judgemental style, yes?
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-The Receptionist is wearing short black shorts with long thick grey tights underneath, and knee high black leather stiletto boots. She is also wearing a deep v-neck long sleeve shirt, but a scarf to cover her neck. Her teeth are bleached, but the spaces between the teeth say 2 packs a day. I would be willing to bet the price of a transmission fluid flush that her coat is one of those mini jacket numbers that comes down to just under her boobs, but has a gigantic hood with the fake fur trim. She's 38 going on 23 in her mind.
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-There is a husky guy in his mid 50's sitting across from me who has an un-naturally red face and bald head. I wonder what his blood pressure is? He looks like a pot roast dinner and 3 egg omelet breakfast kind of guy.
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-A man who looks like recently retired high school janitor is talking the ear off of the receptionist. I avoided this disaster earlier when I went up for coffee and he was standing there looking very very lost and searching for my eye contact. I grabbed a cup and ran out of there shielding my eyes from his. I can spot a pesterer from a mile away and all it takes is eye contact to ruin the next 15 minutes of your life.
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-This is funny because I was just discussing him yesterday, but there is a man in the corner who looks like a short version of John Malkavich. He is laid back in his chair trying desperately to stay awake, but he is doing the extended blink of death. Each blink keeping his eyes closed longer and longer. He must not have partaken in the array of hot beverages.
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-A girl in her early 20's just came in. She is dressed in new employee corporate attire. She's still trying hard with her pinstriped black pants, pressed and creased. Super shiny low heels with decorative buckle. Probably 200 bucks a piece, matched with a 100 dollar winter coat. I'm on to you Missy, you can't hide the insecurity in your face. She probably set aside 2.5 hours for this 45 min service appointment and has been stressing out about it for a week and still is a little stressed. Her counter language says "please don't ruin my day" and now she is gripping her magazine like hungry badger.......a hungry badger that likes to eat magazines. Extra points for a hounds tooth purse though.
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-Oh goody! Blue tooth guy just burst through the door. Hi Blue tooth guy! Tell me something. Have you ever tried using 2 blue tooths for each ear? That way you can take orders from your wife that doesn't respect you or your personal time at the same time as you berate the company idiot by over-managing and over-organizing to make yourself feel smart and important.
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That's enough people watching for now. I always end up getting carried away with overly mean comments. That one of the nasty side effects from religiously reading sites like The Superfish......
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(6 minutes passes)
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Ugh, Overwhelmed Corporate Girl just ripped open a perfume sample in her magazine and it made me pass out. I think it also may have killed all the bugs in the room and woken up Bizarro Malkavich because now he is gone. Extra hounds tooth points REVOKED!
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Holy Moley! High Blood Pressure guy just let out about 10 seconds worth of hacking coughs which made him turn a scary shade of purple. Where is the AED in this place?

ALBUM REVIEWS
22-Quiet Village "Silent Movie": I wasn't paying close enough attention and this album should probably be just under Flying Lotus in the "Really good, but an instrumentals album" section. A mistake in that I am trying to make this list less personal and more critical towards getting it right for the common person, but when you are reorganizing the list over and over, stuff like this happens. This album is a little more conventional than Flying Lotus and has a really good oldies groove to it. I really dig the way it captures its own title in that the songs almost sound like background tracks to cool movies from the 50's and 60's mixed with some new age techniques. A very interesting head phones album. YOu may really like it, or completely tune it out depending on your ear for musical appreciation. "Circus of Horror" is my favorite.

21-Beck "Modern Guilt": I am of the camp that Beck is a musical genius and he is one of my favorite artists. He can make a song for just about any genre, he is that good. I have never seen him live, but I have heard he loses his edge a little bit. Which is okay, because his effectiveness is in his nuances that don't translate well in a large live show. At first, I thought this album was kind of a dud. But the more I listened to it, the more I began to really like it. There is some really good stuff on here and it is pretty strong the whole way through, albeit a short album with about a 50 min run time. If you really like Beck (such as consider Sea Change a really good album of his) buy this album and eventually you will be glad you did. If you don't like Beck....move on, nothing to see here. The title track "Modern Guilt" is my favorite.

20-Q-Tip "The Renaissance": Hey! A rap Album! I know, I bet you all were thinking I didn't listen to much rap, but I do. This is a great album by a rap legend (formerly of A Tribe Called Quest). The hip hop stars should pay attention because the most important thing about a good rap album is the lyrics. THE LYRICS and Delivery. Therefore, they have to be easily understandable and not many can do this as well as Q-Tip. His voice is as clear as a bell. If you think about most of the long lasting rap artists, they rap clearly. This is a fun car-riding album and you don't have to worry if there are any school children in the car with you. Nothing special or trendy, just good solid simple beats and Q-tip doing his thing. Probably the most can't miss like able album I have given so far.

19-Coldplay "Viva la Vida": I like the music, I hate Chris Martin. So its pretty good music if I am willing to bypass this discrepancy. Maybe it has something to do with the Brian Eno production. It's definitely a little different than their past albums and has a little more extra electronic pizazz to it. It's also a little cheesy, but its good from start to finish and is on par with the other albums from this band. It kicks off well with "Life in Technicolor" and I think that the title track may be my least favorite on this album. I would also like to subtract some points for 2 versions of "Lovers in Japan" and "Lost". Save it for the re-mix guys. But its all enjoyable for pop music and maybe had a shot at being top 15 with out a d-bag lead singer and 1-2 more original tracks. My favorite track is "Yes"

18-Deerhunter "Microcastle": Alright, I don't know how to explain this, but I went from hating Deerhunter to really really liking it. I have a sneaky suspicion that Pitchfork may make this their #1 album of the year. A little history is that I bought "Cryptograms" last year and was pissed. It was noise and at the time I had a lot of other music on my plate, so I was like "fuck this guy" and went back to other stuff. So when this album came out to rave reviews again, I went "okay, I gotta give this guy a real shot" and I listened. And I listened again. And I listened again. And I was pissed. I'M NOT HEARING IT PEOPLE! Then about a month later, I was on a train ride down to NYC and I was feeling lost on what to listen to. "Alright, I said, why not" BAM, I was into it. I dunno why, but right now I am on the Deerhunter bandwagon. So.......all this means is, if you listen to this, you will question the music business and me. I don't know what to tell you, but you need to really want to hear this stuff to hear it. It's shoegaze (which means you're supposed to listen to it under the influence) but there is more here than that if you really really concentrate after about 30 times through. hahahahahaha "Agoraphobia" is my favorite track and I really like the album cover too. Wouldn't you know it, now I really like "Cryptograms" as well and its even more of a stretch than this one. Deerhunter cookies for everyone! Now, if only TV on the Radio would work out for me then I would really be in business.

Going to go for 7 albums tomorrow. Why? cause its wacky Wednesday, that's why.

summoning willpower....

2008-12-15T12:29:00.005-05:00

"Hello willpower, anybody there? It's me, S.Vincent, and I need you to step up the power to 11"

After my 120 album 2008 debacle, I had a small conversation with myself that went a little something like this....

"hey assface, you do that again an I'm gonna sock you in the guts"

But, today is a going to be a serious challenge for me as I clicked on over to pitchfork.com and saw that they are starting their "2008 best of's" lists including "top 100 tracks" and "top 50 albums". A brief analogy: music reviews are to me as acting like a douche is to Pete Wentz and Spencer from the Hills. One, I am going to have to supress the urge to look so as to not spoil my list, and 2) to supress the urge not to buy any albums that I don't already have. (besides the number 1 if I don't have it, that one is justifiable)

It won't be easy, but I figure it could be best to get this big test out of the way first in my "52 albums or less" campaign. Plus, times are tight with the holiday shopping season upon me, so it should be quite a bit easier to hold back.

I don't wanna get punched in the guts.

27-Flying Lotus "Los Angeles": This is a beats type album. I really enjoy it, but its electronic melodies instrumental with very few lyrics basically means that unless you are a music snob, you probably will tune this stuff out. Reminds me a lot of Aphex Twin. You can really get into the flow on this particular album, as Flying Lotus moves in really unique directions with claps, snaps, thumps. There is a really disturbing video for the song "Parisian Goldfish" that I will not assist you in finding anymore than I already have. Trust me, your life will change for the negative in this horrific 3 minutes.

26-The Walkmen "You and Me": I can't really figure out why I like this album. It should be utterly boring to me with its indeciseable sound and direction and what sounds like off-keyish vocals. But the more I hear it, the more I like it. They use an echoey effect kind of like My Morning Jacket, but at a much slower pace. There are some good highs and lows, but this is coffehouse type music as subtleties are the name of the game. They build slowly and deliberately but you never really know when they are going to come and the vocals move awkwardly up with these melodies. I know that I am not explaining anything good right now, but somehow this all works for The Walkmen, trust me. I really like "Four Provinces" and "In the New Year" these guys sound a lot like down-tempoed Peter, Bjorn, and John (if you know who they are). But this album and the next album, Wolf Parade, are pretty much equal to me. I like Wolf Parade a little bit more because it's sound is more conventional.

25-Wolf Parade "At Mount Zoomer": That is, as conventional as an independent strugglings artists can be. To tell you the truth, I don't even know why I bought this album, since I wasn't a huge fan of their 2005 release "Apologies to Queen Mary". But when you download 120 albums in a year, you obviously have a done a lot of things that you don't remember and that don't make sense. However, this one worked out better. I really enjoy this album, especially the vocal stylings of Dan Boekner and Spencer Krug. This album will growa with more listens as you get used to the warbly lyrics and the bounces back and forth between the keyboards and guitars. It's solid all the way through, but I wouldn't say there is one distinct single here. They sound a little bit like Spoon, except less structured. If I did this list over and over again, I could see this album bouncing all over anywhere from 20-30. A real solid release, and next time I download an album of theirs, I will know why I did it.

24- Black Mountain "In the Future": Ahhhh yes, a rock album. So few and far between they are these days, and this is a good one at that. I really enjoy it as a tribute to the Led Zeppelin 70's dream rock style. Wolfmother did a pretty good job at re-juvenating this genre as well. However, they cherry picked the crowd pleasers, not the whole catalogue. Black Mountains approach is the less bombastic side of Led Zep, but its still enjoyable. I especially like that the background vocals are sung by a female/male combo and it makes the whole experience feel like a walk into a country farm house filled with various road drifters telling their tales of the open road. Woe, love, exhaustion, confusion, wonder and lust. Was that artsy enough for you?

23- Brian Eno & David Byrne "Everything that Happens Will Happen Today": I must admit, I am a sucker for both of these guys. David Byrne is the lead singer for the Talking Heads, which is a very underated band, and Eno is a legendary producer and musician, including a short stint with U2 on my second favorite album by them "Achtung Baby". Their partnership goes back a long way and I couldn't even begin to elaborate on Eno's illustrious career, so I won't, but there is some serious no-debateable talent here. This partnership works uniquely in that the two work independently of each other. Eno makes the music, sends it Byrne, then Byrne melts his voice into it. If you listen closely, you can tell thats exactly what happened as the vocals and music could almost work independently of each other. Very cool. I Really Really like "Everything that Happens" "Strange Overtones" and "One Fine Day".

mediocrity..

2008-12-12T13:44:00.006-05:00

Bettie Page died today. I didn't even know she was still alive to tell you the truth. There used to be a category on the old MTV game show "Remote Control", (which was like a pop culture jeopardy type show), that was called "Alive or Dead". They would give the name of a celebrity and then your only task was to answer whether you thought they were alive or dead.

But more specifically, I'll tell you why I never found Bettie Page physically attractive......Bangs. She had ramrod straight bangs in her hair.

S.Vincent hates bangs....."I HATES THE BANGSES' "says the S.Vincent gollum....Take note potential female suitors.......(crickets chirping).....

Why? I don't know. I just think they look stupid on everyone. To me, hair should always have the look of organized chaos. It's crazy strands of fillament protuding from your body and if you cut it too much and style it too much in an overly organized fashion, it loses its spontaniety and its life. I think hair should be like the sail of a ship. There is a control and movement to a sail, but it can never fully harnass the effects of the wild nature.

Yeah....hair should be just like sailboat, I said it.

Back to the reviews:

Three of the next 5 albums all have something in common and thus I put them in a tie at number 30. They are from artist that I love, but whose 2008 albums were under-whelming. Not bad by any sense of the word, just down a little bit from their previous works. Which is more than can be said of some of the artist who will finish above them in 2008, but will most likely only have one big album to their name.

30-The Magnetic Fields-"Distortion": The Magnetic Fields is headed up by frontman Stephen Merritt, but is composed of many seperate strong musicians. Stephen has a great baritone voice which he uses in a character that is his own amusing deeply dark and depressing persona. Reminds me of a real life Eeyore. Anyway, he doesn't do all the singing on The Magnetic Fields albums and the other band members keep him a little bit more bright and sunny some of songs. This release has some good songs on it and a lot of wait for it......distortion sounds.....but is otherwise un-remarkable.

30-My Morning Jacket-"Evil Urges": I may be making a little mistake in putting them here. I enjoy this album a good amount, but its not up to my expectations of MMJ. These songs seem a little less exotic then previous MMJ. I am not a giant fan of the band but these songs seem unexciteable to me. The MMJ I like has a large echoey cavernous sound, like they are playing in a cave or in your dreams. Very other-wordly sounding, like they are in another dimension playing on instruments that you can hear but not locate. They are echoey and dreamy but they also ROCK, and this album doesn't transfer a lot of that. I'm not turning them off, but I'm not rushing to turn this on either.

30-Nine Inch Nails- "The Slip": Another free release from Trent, so who is really going to be upset about listening to this? I like it enough, and this album received the highest rating from Pitchfork that I have ever seen. However, this album is missing the flow for me. A great NIN album has a pulse. An underlying thump that rolls ahead with a real industrial sound. This is the foundation for the unstoppable aggression and gutteral tones that Trent can deliver with his voice. Without a real deep bass line, it all seems a little soul-less. Some of the songs, like the single "discipline" have some part of this (it sounds like its from the with teeth album), but otherwise all the rest of the seems a little half-hearted or underdeveloped. I like it, but its missing some of its edge. Still NIN to me though.

29-Does it Offend You, Yeah?-"You Have No Idea What You are Getting Yourself Into": I hate that I need to type for that long to get the name of this band out, but this album is pretty decent. It's got a new age industrial electronic rock feel to it and I checked them out because they were the opening act for NIN during the summer tour. It's got some cool songs and some dud's but is otherwise a fun miscellaneus type listen. They mix a lot of random electro-rock beats togethor and is kind of mish mash sound. Sometimes they mish togethor into something new and fun, and sometimes its utterly random mash. They remind me of a less focused/mature MGMT and perhaps may release a better album in the future. There are whisps of real talent here, like on the track "Dawn of the Dead" and "Lets Make Out" when they mish togethor something good.

28- Little Joy: (Self-Titled): This is fun little small outdoor party type album. Light island like sounds with soft singing. Lots of long "ooooo's" and "ahhhh's" in the background vocals. It such a simple sounding album that it should be lost into obscurity and probably will be since it is the plight of most independent artists. You won't yearn to hear this album, but when in the background, your day will brighten. When I listen to it, I want to put my feet up, drink lemonade, and smile at a sun-shiney day and ignore my laundry and grocery shopping duties. It loses points for its simplicity because there isn't any groundbreaking anything done here or any highs or lows, but its deserves respect for nailing what it was set out to be by the artists; a side project of happy songs written in a cocktail lounge in LA.

iTunes, we have a problem

2008-12-11T15:09:00.005-05:00

If you didn't read the last post, just go to the part where it says I downloaded 120 albums in 2008. That said..... A) I am sick. Does "A&E's Intervention" show accept music addicts? B) I have a lot of music to analyze and I realized there was no way I could leave out so many albums without talking about them. C)Therefore, you are forced to suffer because I need to feel validated for purchasing so much music. So D) We have to get ourselves started!

As a preface, the bottom of this list from number 35 to 25, will not be given much attention by me. Album name, quick description of the music, a short critique and then moving on. No photos and no samples. However, the titles will be linked to Amazon.com for further research if you choose. Most of these albums I only listened to 5 or 6 times and put the them in the "Pretty Good" pile.

35-Nine Inch Nails-"Ghosts I-IV": This is an instrumentals album that is 4 CD's of NIN style compilations. It's a decent mix of background music, sleep music, or study tunes so long as you like Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor has a very signature sound, so if you liked his old stuff you will like this album in which Trent plays with landscape style soundings. But its not something to get super excited about. On the plus side it was 8 bucks or something from the NIN.com website, so it was easy on the conscience to buy.

34- Portishead - "Third": The Third album is Portishead's 3rd album, so bonus points for a real creative album title.....NOT! The album artwork is "simplicity cool" though. I will probably take the biggest hit here in the respected critics circle as most of them love this release which came after a 10 year or so lay-off from this band. Their style was very popular in the late 90's and they have found a way to transform it into a very respectable modern version. But, it's tough for me to get into. I always liked Massive Attack's approach to this genre better.

33- Fucked Up-"The Chemistry of Common Life": What a great band name right? This band is not as stupid as it sounds, and their album is suprisingly dense and well structured despite the moniker. You need to have a real open ear to be able to listen to this one, and it reminds me of last years A Place to Bury Strangers in that way. Real loud noises here cause this shit is hardcore. I really love the first track.But amidst the chaos there is a real unique sound here. I would rate this album slightly higher on a more personal list, but I know that even most educated music fans will turn away from this album. Too much screaming, too much feedback noise, too much speed and aggression.

32- Spiritualized-"Songs in A&E": The title doesn't stand for the key of the music. It's the name for "Emergency Room" in England. Accidents and Emergencies, I think. Anyway, the main dude Jason Pierce spent a bunch of time in the hospital from an accident and wrote this album. Only the second one since the critically acclaimed "Ladies and Gentleman, we are floating in Space". Thus, you can tell from the title that Spiritualized deals mainly in spacey shoegaze style music. Which I dig here and there, but it isn't my favorite genre. This is another album that will be rated higher elsewhere.

31- TV on the Radio- "Dear Science": I want to like TVOTR more. I really do.....but I don't. They are so cool and their sound is so unique, but I can't quite get into the flow on most of their songs. I love some of their songs but as total albums, I find myself drifting away mentally while I am listening. This is another album that will get higher praise elsewhere. Either way, I tried and will continue to try to get into them more. I promise.

Tune in tomorrow folks!

incoming dark clouds.....that play music

2008-12-09T10:57:00.006-05:00

It's that time of year for all you hangers on to YFYB. The time of year where you take a look at your inner soul and question if you have the mental fortitude to handle another barrage of posts regarding S.Vincents "20 Best Albums of the Year". I was surprised to see that I have listened to over 120 albums this year. Of course all of them were not 2008 releases, probably around 50% are, but there is a ton of music I have listened to in the past year and its going to be tough to narrow it down again.

Last year turned into a pretty big debacle, but in S.Vincents defense, it got YFYB through some rough times when I didn't have much to post about. It was cold, the holidays were over, and I was rowing, working, rowing, lifting, sleeping every weekday. Plus every weekend, I was away in some of the northeast's most boring and desolate locations for rowing races. The strangest thing was; I got the most hits per week during that period then any other period this year. YFYB was averging about 350 hits a week back then, as opposed to around 100 a week now. I think that was due to some of the labeling I used, I dunno, maybe people really like music

But this year there is going to be a change in format. For one, I am going to start it next week. I am really busy this week otherwise I would start it now, but I want to try to get mine out before I am influenced by the opinions of all the other lists and then see how mine compares. There may be some follow up posting on others opinions if I get bored, but lets cross our fingers that something cool happens to me instead. Like....finding a girl who is willing to follow me around and we can laugh about her behind her back before she finds out how much of an internet nerd I am, and dumps me and then goes to therapy or gets an eating disorder.

For two, there will MUCH less description. I am going to try to knock out 5 albums per post with 1/3 of the drivel that I rambled about last year. I think most people just want to see which albums I picked and not hear about why I like the music that they have never heard of. Maybe thats just me though.....NOT. If they want to know more about the album they can just send me a compliment. There will also be less video examples per album. Just one song if I can find it for the album. I wasted too much time on that last year.

So there we go, get yourself ready and turn your RSS feeders on to FULL BLAST or OFF. It's about to get a little noisey in this piece. As a teaser, SVTV is featuring a song from one of the top 5 candidates that I have rocked once a week since it came out in the early summer. I have no idea why it is not gigantic. Every pop-music idiot I know should LOVE this album.

Speaking of noise. I was recently re-connected with the best headphones I have ever owned and since it is christmas and many of you are scouring for gifts for your loved ones, I will tell you a little about them. I got these headphones in a splurge period when some money was burning a hole in my pocket about 2.5 years ago. The Shure E2C's. About a year and a half ago, I lost them at the gym and figured that the I could get something at least close to as good in a smaller price range. Wrong! at $85 bucks these headphones are the best I have tried and worth at least 150 dollars. And they are cheaper now! The quality of sound is a big thing to me, so I wanted a set of headphones that could deliver, without being 300 bucks. The earbuds that come with the iPod are trash I feel. They don't stay in your ears, only deliver moderate sound, and don't block out any. The Shure E2C's are the opposite of that, they are locked in your ears and the wires wrap around the back of your ears out of sight like a Secret Service agent. The sound is crisp and clear with great bass delivery, and the best part is that they block out a TON of outside noise. Perfect for city dwellers and other loud environments.

The cons....they can be a little uncomfortable at first and for longer periods of listening (2 hours+), but they come with a bunch of different silicone attachments that helps. But mostly, I have found that when they are new, the silicone takes a little while to break in and soften up as well as the cord which will be zig-zagged for a little while from being locked in the packaging. But once they do, they are super comfy and don't budge even when your ipod falls out of your pocket. It will be hanging from your ears! Rare for any headphones.

So if you or someone you know really loves music and is someone you are going to spend more than 50 bucks on. Get them these headphones....like NOW.

blessing or a curse?

2008-12-03T11:16:00.006-05:00

I am one of those people that can remember their dreams. I also dream in colors and the dreams are very vivid. This quality has made for some very strange nights and mornings in what I affectionately call "The Dugout". I call it that because my apartment is kind of half buried-half not so there are 4 steps leading down to my front door, much like a baseball dugout. Sometimes I come out of there taking practice swings and imagine the PA announcer calling out "Now batting for the New York Yankees......number 41.......SSSSSS.....VINCENT.....number 41" (bob shepard always says the number of the player twice, before and after the name)

But I digress......

I don't dream often and I forget most of my dreams in about a week or so, but when I wake up in the morning I remember it all for the good portion of the next day. I have a suspicion that the feelings of Deja Vu I get come from the intricate details of these dreams. I remember the main crazy and exciting parts of these dreams, but I know there are finer parts of these dreams that I do not remember that are more logical and sequential, and that they fortell the future. Its kind of like 2 dreams in one. Unbelievable things that cannot happen mixed seamlessly with things that can and most likely will, occur in the future. I truly believe that.

Last nights dream: I was trapped in the upper floors of an abandoned psychiatric center, no guards or locks, just locked in a state of mental patalyzation (movies use this all the time). It was a very sunny and crisp NY summer day. A second "me" was hiding out in the forest and this me could see through the eyes of the trapped me, but could not control the actions of the trapped me. For the first "me" to escape the psychiatric center, the plan was to get a set of really really long headphones from the forest outside to the mentally paralyzed me inside.

My delivery system to get those headphones to the upper floors? My ability to communicate with the small animals of the forest in which I lived. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons, and possums. Between me and my animal friends was a guard dressed in a park ranger uniform and very very large mirrored aviators and a "Dirty Harry" .44 magnum handgun with a particularly disturbing hatrid for said cute furry creatures.

The name of the guard? Winona Ryder......I shit you not.

The dream ended as most of them do, with no solution to the problem at hand. Just Winona turning squirrels and raccoons into clouds of bloody dust one by one with her oversized weaponry with a steely smile on her face as they feebly attempt to drag a set of earbuds across a field.

Try that crazy on for size.........To compliment this crazy post, I am using vintage Smiths for SV-TV. Its kind of like a wine pairing.........only for the poor, insane, un-civilized, and not hungry.

Miley Cyrus is a faker.

2008-11-28T19:36:00.007-05:00

One of the benefits of having a blog read by a handful of peeps is that I can say things like that and not get a comment box full of hateful responses. I don't know how the more popular bloggers go to sleep at night with all those people saying all those mean things. But she lip synched on the "Bolt" Thanksgiving Float in the Macy's Parade. Go ahead Billy Ray, put up your dukes, I'll make you wish you still had a mullet to protect your neck from my fists of artistic justice.

I spent Thanksgiving down in NYC which started with me missing my train by about 3.5 steps after running a good 1/2 mile at a full sprint from my parking spot. Thanks for that city of PoVegas! Missing my train by that close has never happened to me before and its the only time I've ever wished that it was 1894. If it was, I could have just hopped on the caboose! Plus, I could use the word caboose and no one would give me that head tilted stare which conveys "you're a little old for laughing at slang terms for the word 'butt'".

The subways were packed despite a terrorist threat that they would be attacked. Everyone pretty much decided that chemical warfare would be much better to die from than a $2.50 initial fee then $2.00 a mile cab charge. I also happened to be trying to make my way to a gym downtown when the parade let out near by. From a a distance the entrance to the subway looked like meat being fed into a sausage grinder with all the people pressing themselves down the tube. I had a metro card already so I gingerly passed by the tourists. The fun thing about tourists in the subway is how scared they are of it and of "THE YELLOW TILES". This is a 3 foot section of yellow rubberized matting near the end of the platform that ensures proper footing getting on and off the train. However, if you are a tourist it means that you will be decapitated, electrocuted or perhaps sodomized if you step on it. At least, thats the way every tourist acts when they see it. I use it to cut in front of idiots and get a spot on the train.

The gym was empty, dark, and perfect. No douchebags, no girls, no cardio theatre, and no useless machines. There was, however, plenty of loud techno music. Which I can handle in a workout setting because at least its the same over and over. No Jim Croce or Jonas Brothers or Beyonce while I'm trying to focus on not dislocating my hip joints underneath a squat bar. The day rate was 20 dollars, which was very pricey, but at least I had an excellent workout and didn't get any hair gel residue on my...anything.

I have a love/hate relationship with holidays. I like them because they are fun and easy, but I hate them because they throw such a monkey wrench into my daily "lets stay in shape, perform well athletically, and not get fat" pursuit. Over the course of 3 days, I got 3 workouts in where as I usually get 6. Add to the fact that I ate more than I usually do, and now all you have is a stressed out mindset where you feel like you climbed up 50 feet of rope only to slide back down 25. Plus, now I got rope burn on my hands making it more difficult to climb up again. Was the slide down exhilirating and fun even though it burned a little? sure it was, but all I can think about is how much more rope I have to climb. This endless rope that goes into a cloud I can't see through, but know that I need be.

SV-TV: The videos from this "Purple" album are what drew me to STP. I miss the randomness of the grunge rock era. They were so amatuer and original. I think bands should go find the big youtube artists and hire them to come up with their videos. They seem to be the only authentic video artists left.

Adventures in S.Vincent-hood

2008-11-24T14:10:00.007-05:00

Since I have had some trouble coming up with new ideas to talk about, I figure I would steal an idea and tell a story that I remember from childhood. Which you should be thankful for because only 10% of my childhood memories have been retained. Probably due to the bike accident I had in my senior year of high school where my delicate and unblemished coconut smashed the pavement at approximately 20mph in one of the states historical sites, thus leading to the disfigured hamburger that I hide with my hands like an amateur and low budget phantom of the opera. I would tell you more about that accident, but I have none of the details since the story was told to me by 2 nice ladies who happened to drive a pickup truck (YAY LESBIAN SAVIORS!) and dumped me at my house in a bloody concussed heap. That year, my senior yearbook picture was taken from a forgiving distance as to not frighten the young freshman.

I was about 11 I would say and I had off from school for one of those glorious northeast "snow days". This meant sleeping in till 9, eating numerous bowls of cereal and hot cocoa. Being wired, half-assing through whatever "chores" the madre had us do, and then heading out into the powder to see what kind of trouble you could drum up.

You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your neighbors.......

I am the most successful of all the neighborhood kids during my time, and I don't say that arrogantly, I say that in a "I graduated from high school" sort of way. But when you are 11, you have this naive outlook in which everyone is equal. Looking back, I should have stayed in and read more books about white supremacy or "guns and ammo" or witchcraft as they would have been healthier than the influences of the neighborhood kids. However, after many hours spent with these derelicts, I learned how NOT to be a member of an advancing society. Therefore, as long as I do the opposite of them, I would be a great person.

On this particular snow day, after 2 boring games of driveway hockey (played in snow boots on partially shoveled pavement, with a tennis ball) it was decided we needed something that was instantly gratifying. Solution: Snowballs thrown at passing cars.

We lived on a very wooded road so finding adequate cover was no problem. The problem? a car goes by once every hour on this road. We didn't plan for that though. The exhilaration of nailing a moving target with a spherical icy terror was just too scintillating.

Second problem. The anticipation for that moving car resulting in temporary loss of common sense mixed with the lack of common sense of an 11 year old boy. I am surprised I had enough brain power to breathe at this point. Thus we never thought to look at what car was coming down the road, when it meandered along the dangerous bend, we got up and I must say, NEVER was there a finer display of athletic prowess.

A mittened hand, a shoulder packed in 2 sweatshirts and a down jacket, glasses that were under-powered (since my vision got worse by the week in those days) and fogged, a slight crosswind in swirling snow flakes and I nailed the grey Buick skylark dead progressing at 25mph on the driving side windshield and rear window with 2 well packed snowballs at roughly 50 mph.

Joe Montana would have given me a standing ovation.

One problem there Mr. Future Starting Varsity Quarterback.......It was my 60 year old next door neighbor and she was not happy.

And wouldn't you know, she told my mom? Guess whose mailbox got dog turds placed in it for the next seven years.....but that's beside the point.

At that time, I was very impressionable....i.e. gullible. Between her and my mother, I was sure that there was a 50-50 chance that I may have to spend the next week in jail. For real...that's how hard they came down on me with their chastising and warnings. If I knew what a Mormon was in those days, I would have been sure that all the females in the neighborhood had suddenly converted. Instead, I was forced to shovel her driveway for my crimes and asked to be thankful that my right arm had not been removed with each of its fingers sent to all the other neighborhood derelicts.....as a warning.

Somehow, I believe that my bitterness from the outcome of this event led to my leadership role in the great Marist waterballoon scandal of 2001. Over a 2 week period, countless victims perished on their way to dinner in a display of moistened terror the likes of which security and dorm administration had never seen......... But that is another story for another day

SV-TV: I have an un-healthy obsession with Chrissie Hynde----> I would totally take her out for a nice seafood dinner.

side note..

2008-11-20T21:22:00.002-05:00

If you take a closer look at that Brangelina photo I posted, you can see that there is a dude holding a photo of Angelina for her to sign, thus the look on her face which says to me "are you serious dude? Have you not seen any of my movies? It's obvious to everyone around here that I could totally PWN your ass if wanted to, so remove your childish gesture of appreciation before I pistol whip you in front of everyone"

Oh yeah!, this is happening.....

2008-11-19T10:46:00.006-05:00

For years, I always claim myself the inventor of hype. If its being done by mainstream folk, I will usually claim that I did it first, cause I am better and more clairvoyant than you. This is mostly just trash talk and a bit of light fun as most people know that I really could not have been the first one, and that even if I was, no one would care. This usually means people use it as a joke against me for years to come. Another thing I claimed to invent? The phrase "pun IN-tended". I do a LOT of confusing internal gamesmanship with others this way. I am playing a game all the time as part of my competitive nature. The contests I love most? The contests that I'm the only one who knows it is being played. But I digress......
.
I was browsing my usual internet tour which includes the fabulous trash of The Superficial. This is my site for the most trashy and entertaining celebrity gossip. It was just another day on the angelina jolie baby watch till I spotted this little nugget......

I literally got up and did the "I TOLD YOU SO!!!" dance. Which includes the "suck it" arm crossover in front of my goodies + a hip swirl and thrust + a rodeo/cowboy hop.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a VERY good day......

Fare thee well

2008-11-18T10:58:00.005-05:00

It's gone.

It didn't have a name, but I should have named it. A name that was bold and beautiful and comforting, just like it was to me. Something like "Majestico!" would have worked.

We went through some tough times over the past 4 months. The relationship started off as just something to do to past the time. A little bit of un-usualness in a very regular world. It was just supposed to be for the summer, but our time together was extended out further because neither of us knew what our future was, but didn't feel comfortable walking away from the present.

But some ground rules were set. Only because the start of our relationship was started so randomly and unprofessionally that we had to go back to being alone for a while to determine just how much we needed each other.

Towards the end, society began to accept our relationship. We got less stares from family and friends and more congratulations at making our alternative lifestyle work. Less jeers and more cheers, which was nice. Just last Saturday, we won an award for "best looking couple" at a race and then someone randomly came up to us off the street and asked how we made ourselves into such an awesome couple.

I admit, it felt good. But a rule is a rule and if we are going to be together forever then we need to know if we are that sad when we are apart.

I give it credit though. It hung onto the drain like a brave soldier holding onto a Huey in an Asian jungle. It wasn't going off into the darkness without a fight. No No, the breakup would not be that easy.....I had to pick it up and with my bare hands discard it into the grave myself.

Salty tears were my aftershave that day.........

bits and bobs

2008-11-11T10:52:00.005-05:00

That title is stolen from an english (as in Great Britain) website that I use for buying rowing clothes. It's their term for the "this and that" or "miscellaneous" clothing/accessories department that can't fit in other departments and since they are English, they use 0verly-fancy terms to describe more than simple things. Which is why I like to use their "training kit" clothing to row in, rather than the boring U.S. "workout clothes". Because after all, I'm a fancy lad and deserve to look like one.

I'm reading more and more blogs these days and its opened my eyes a little to what the current "scene" is and the "scene" is both bad and good. With "Noblopamo" or whatever going on (a bloggers pact to post once a day for the entire month of November), we have a real dilution of material out there and just general annoying stuff. Which is basically what happens to everything cool once the general public sees how cool it is. I have also determined that my opinion of the "general public" started out low, and everyday it gets lower and lower. About a year ago, I was at a stand still in that I realized how stupid a majority of the people were and that I should expect the un-expected and try to keep my eyes on the prize, i.e. friends and co-workers and not be distracted by the other monkeys in the cage. Maybe I got bored, or maybe its like a car-wreck where there was one brief glance and now I CAN'T look away. I am in free-fall now and I'm scared/excited as to how low the "general public" can go in my mind. I thought they were at rock bottom. Then I began to see this stinky molten lava core seeping between the cracks in the bedrock and I think I have only just begun.

Blogs and their reading was probably a lot like the early days of driving automobiles. There were no rules and no schmucks! The only people who drove cars were the ones that really wanted to and each car was totally different from the next. These were the real "drivers" who drove for the sake of loving how "driving" felt. They probably waved hi to each other and shared tips on how to get out of the mud and how much a pain in the ass it was to move Farmer Jack's Moo Cow out of your way. You could drive as fast as you wanted and park it where you wanted and drive on whatever side of the road was convenient . You could explore new roads and drive to places you had never been before!

Then as more and more of the general public took to the roads, they got cluttered with people who didn't belong out there. People who weren't driving for the enjoyment, but because it was easily available for them to own an automobile. Now we got problems. We got people driving slow, driving drunk, breaking cars and not knowing how to fix them, crashing into other cars, demanding rules and judging other drivers. Which is why we have the current road rage problem.

Some of the things the public brought were good. Paved roads are good, cheaper cars are good, signs are good. But then they brought bad things too......bad drivers and traffic.

I guess its the lifespan of all activities. Really fun at first, then inklings of its potential bad side, then its bad side is completely revealed, struggle with your identity/place in the activity, balance out pros vs. cons, re-assess and adapt to mesh activity with identity or quit.

I can't quit though and I am going to try to be more friendly. And I am going to try to stop harping on blogging every day and come up with some new non-nerd things. But I don't have much going on, so you will have to deal with these naval-staring posts till I get that private island with a fully stocked gym, calm water to row on, and unlimited funding and lots of movie/rock star friends. For now, I can't help but complain about being stuck here reading a blog about what she wore today and why its cool, her boyfriends ex-roomate that has a bad attitude, and the recipe for what she is cooking for dinner and why she likes this way over her mothers recipe I hate it so much I can't look away or a blog about how much he hates other bloggers and stupid music videos (ah shit, that's my blog).

Overheard at the gym from a 40 year old man who considers himself in shape (no one else does) "I've been so hungry lately! For lunch, I had a BIG CAN of soup, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of popcorn and 2 sodas"

Not much going on with this post so enjoy this video which solve the "who should I get to introduce me when I win the nobel prize" conundrum and enjoy the new music video which features indie music, yet again.....or........don't.

The peer pressure cooker

2008-11-06T11:37:00.005-05:00

This will be the last one I swear. I am amazed that I have been coaxed out this far, but the amount of content on the internet that I read that has to do with politics and the past election has consumed my pea brain for at least one more post. (more blogging is good right?) But I am losing patience veryyyyyy quickly.

When I started blogging wayyyy back in the 05 (sarcasim), it was a fun little community. It was new and fresh and full of wild and random content about people. I used to really enjoy reading about people and their lives and thoughts about the things centered around their daily lives, however crazy or stupid it was. This year with blogging at an all time high and the election in full swing, everybody got caught up in picking one or the other and I am a little bit more scared now then I used to be. What happened to everyone? I thought, especially bloggers, were saavy and could see beyond what was right in front of them. I am a little scared because people seem to have this "the good guys won, the bad guys lost" mentallity about the whole thing. Really? "The good guys and the bad guys"? What are we, 10 years old? I am a little scared because I am not sure if a country who thinks there are "good guys" and "bad guys" are mature enough yet to handle improving the country. That McCain wanted to help the country less than Obama. That by putting a man with a different color skin in the white house has anything to do with fixing their lives. I may be young, but I know that any improvements or gains in my life have had NOTHING to do with a president and EVERYTHING to do with the amount of time and effort I put into making myself happy. NOTHING to do with taxes or gas prices and everything to do with how I handle my current situation good or bad. I read some of this stuff in the blog-world and I think some people are over-hyping the power of the president and the significance of our time. He's not God and this isn't the salvation or the apocolypse. He will not save/or ruin your life. Only you can do that. (repitition from yesterday blahblahblahhh) Get a better job, go for a run, call a friend, hug your sibling, talk to a therapist, start a club, go back to school or go to a library.

I am sooooooo sick of the veiled/unveiled propoganda on the internet. Tell me about you, not some dude from chicago/arizona. PLEASE!

I watch "south park" casually, and I think those guys are disarmingly smart. They put a lot of what I am currently thinking into last nights episode. (it'll load, trust me) It was kinda scary in a funny way, even though it was just a joke at some of what the current hype has caused our society. Behind every joke there is a nugget of truth.

I am re-reading this post and man do I hate politics. So un-natural, so grim, so combative. I can't wait till things get back to their normal dysfunctional ways. What would we all have to blog about if everything was good anyway right?

I didn't

2008-11-04T12:07:00.007-05:00

I didn't vote. Not gonna vote. Don't care who the president is. If I did someday, it would be too late for me to change it. Cut bait and re-cast........

To tell you the truth, I am surprised at how the massive "go vote" campaign has picked up this year. I almost feel guilty about not doing something that is completely and utterly voluntary.

Way to go America! Free food in the middle of an economic crisis! Vehemently charged campaigns that has created even more pamphilet shovers, religious freaks, celebrity shouting, and internet material than any past election year! Shitty voting posts and systems are even more overloaded and are now sure to fail and have even longer lines and create even more hours of political coverage on TV.

Please feel free to vote. This isn't a "I have life figured out and you obviously don't" kind of post. This is a post because no one else is posting and putting up a little "go vote" post instead. (told you the go vote campaign is working) I just thought I would report on what I observed about this years voting cycle.

I observed that more joe-blo citizens feel connected to this election for some reason. What that reason is? I don't know because I don't care. Duh! notice the top line of this post. I am a simple man with simple needs and a simple "I do what I want" philosophy. Not surprising to most people who know me. I admire those of you who do what others can influence you to do. I do admire but I can't do it. I have never been built that way. I have a very selfish personality and you can look down on me if you choose. I won't mind even a little bit, because I don't use enough energy to spend on even thinking about it.

Am I dumb? Of course I am. I never pretend to be smart except in that I don't let my stupidity stress me out. If I don't care about something, its not just for show, I really don't care. Is this normal or healthy for a person? Of course not. But I bet if you really tore yourself apart, you'd find something exactly like "politicians" that you should care about, but don't. For some people its their family, their education, their environment, their health, their job, their friends, their finances, their love life, their lawn, their house, their car, their clothes, thier personality.

Tomorrow it will be over, except it won't. I will be here and so will you and you will hopefully be DOING something that you enjoy instead of talking about it. BEING something you wanted to be instead of thinking about it. If you're ticked/upset/disappointed with me. Is it because I hurt you? or is it because I didn't do the same thing as you did?

Plus I would have registered as a republican and no one who uses the internet wanted me to vote anyway ;)

Speaking of presidents.....

the good doctor.....

2008-11-02T17:37:00.005-05:00

I went over the rules of the gym a while ago. But every once and a while, a person finds a way to break them in such a new and interesting way that I have to share. Share I must, because it is disturbing enough that if I don't, then I am afraid that the illogical-ness of it may eat me alive from the inside out. Then, you will find me wandering around the grocery store selling books to tell your kids how to cover their school books with the new re-usable and eco-friendly grocery bags instead of the old paper bags. Personally I used to love doing that, I was so good at it. Plus, you could draw Guns and Roses emblems on them. Textbook covering is a lost art.......

Anyyyyyywhozalll.......Lets agree to not talk on our cellphones naked in the lockeroom, okay?

There is a doctor. He is an orthopediest or an orthopediac surgeon who likes to call his patients naked while he is in the locker room. Let's name him Dr. OBG, which is short for "Dr. Old Balls GROSS!" He's about 60 and I'll start out by saying that none of his calls to date have been dire emergencies, which would be somewhat acceptable. I have seen him make these calls three times now. The first time it happened, I was going to give him some slack because someone called him while he happened to be naked. Some harm, some foul, but it got more wrong because he didn't give the person a "can I call you back". He talked for 5 mins.....naked.....then he hung up and made another call to the hospital....naked. All the while he was pacing around the locker room like it was his office. It was a small emergency in that his patients knee was swelling I guess, which is why I am going to give him some slack. But then about a month ago, I walked in on him talking on the phone naked again. I didn't listen to the circumstances that time, and thus I let him slide.

Then, the other day, he walked in after me. He took all his clothes off, put on a shirt-no pants, checked his phone, put a towel down on the bench (at least) listened to his voice mail, then.....CALLED THAT PERSON BACK. Unacceptable Dr. OBG......UNNN-ACCEPTABLE...I don't care how many years you went to college.

the birds and the bees of blogging

2008-10-29T16:12:00.003-04:00

sit down over here for a minute.....we need to talk about something that may make you uncomfortable. You see ______, you know when you asked me where blogs come from and I told you someday that I would tell you when you are old enough to understand? Well, today is that day. Basically there are female blogs and there are male blogs. Men write male blogs and women write female blogs. The posts in male blogs are usually of some actual substance, usually un-entertainingly so. They include a funny joke or an observation or answer one of lifes many mysteries. This can be well planned or utterly boring all depending on said man's intellegence and his resolve to keep from wandering onto internet porn. Many times, a man will think he is accomplishing this task, when in actuallity, he is unknowingly blabbering like an ignoramous. (stop looking at me)

Most of the time these blogs are short, almost bullet point-ish lists, rather than substantial peices of literature. Female blogs are different then male blogs in that they are almost the exact opposite in which they find a way to write for hours delving into the most lush descriptions of nothing at all. They'll talk about,..... well.......them. And how everything in their 10 foot radius is related, EVERYTHING. They'll describe their feelings, their hopes, their desires, their history, the colors, the lighting, the smells........of their shower curtain. These blogs can be interesting and uniquely stimulating all depending on said woman's ability to not use the same vocabulary terms over and over, and not wander onto zappos.com or perezhilton.com

Whether they are male blogs or female blogs, they are created when one man or woman is a combination of desperate, stupid, crazy, bored, and lustful enough to take their fingers and stick them on the........ you know.........keyboard.

So, basically its just like sex! And you can avoid creating a blog by using protection. Basically that means wrapping your brain with things like girlfriends, boyfriends, regular friends, jobs, sports, social lives, and arts&crafts. If you can keep it busy, it won't wander into itself and then squirt out juice onto the internet. Remember though, to NEVER use a friend that is past it's expiration date on its packaging. That friend could have holes which could let the brain juice seep out into the finger canal and thus create an accidental blog that may have to be aborted in 3-5 months.

But there are lots of good blogs out there of both the male and female variety. Females tend to have more consistent and regular blog posts because their brain has the ability to over analyze the way their black heels used to be their favorites till she saw Angelina Jolie wearing a pair that was similar in Us magazine and, isn't she a bitch for stealing Brad? And isnt Brad a jerk for not having kids with Jen but making his own child army with Angelina and so on into infinity and I'll see you again tomorrow with a report on my kid Benjamin does on his 4th official haircut! Female blogs are always a good way to kill about 30 mins when you have nothing to do. Males blogs tend to be more aggressive hit or miss and short and to the point which can be dull and useless but at least you didn't spend a day reading his strikeout. This trait is why men are the best at leaving appropriate voicemails and women can't leave messages under 120 seconds if you held a gun to their head. They'd be crying about having a gun to their head and then forget to hang up........BANG! hahahahaha

ever changing, ever kind of improving?

2008-10-28T14:47:00.003-04:00

I recently signed onto a bloggers network called "20-something bloggers" (hi there 20sb's if you are reading this) out of boredom/intrigue. I try to keep up with the nerdery of blogging, but I am impatient and have a slight case of attention defecit disorder when it comes to the internet and its recent upgrades/fads. I never seem to be able to keep up or get lazy with learning. But thats why I have the Beamer! I check out his stuff and since he is majoring in Blogging (haha, kind of true) in graduate school, I figure his example is enough to steer me in the right direction.

So now I am doing this thing......I think. It entails being a part of a community of other bloggers who talk about their blogging experiences, ideas and share their blogs. Basically, its a bloggers club. Right now you are thinking, wow.....he's an even bigger loser than I thought....but in my defense, I have no idea what I am doing on it. I am just blindly clicking on stuff and writing my usual jack-assery in random places. People get mad, check out my blog, tell me I'm ugly or homosexual and I get another precious hit on my little blog clicker at the bottom of the page. So its pretty much just like real life for me! Just subsitute clicks for moustache hairs.

(seriously, thats the last time I bring the moustache up, I swear)

It makes me wish I had a camera though. Blogging is so easy when you can post pictures of your adventures and create captions. But I am trying to save some money to get a whole video camera that I can also take pictures with. So by 2020 I should be able to post picture of my neighbors new hover-car and how much I want to dress up in a caveman suit and throw rocks at it. OOOGA BOOGAH!!

My Netflix addiction has been on hold with the busy-ness of the crew season and october baseball. I plan on getting back to conquering the 90+ movies I have in my queue sometime soon, but for right now those little red envelopes are coasters for my peanut butter jar......that I eat with my fingers.....

So there you go. YFYB is still plodding along on the coat-tails of the internet wave. Sure, my best days of blogging are probably behind me. Maybe I've dulled a little and maybe I'll dull some more. I am almost too old for 20sb But for now, I'm hanging on if you're hanging on...... Maybe send me a lot of money in the mail. I guarantee I will find something fun to do with it and I'll write all about how I bought a hang glider or a used pair of Christian Slaters underpants.

A call to arms!

2008-10-22T13:05:00.003-04:00

Some of you may think that I am being a little irrational here. That I am perhaps taking this stance too far. But stand against injustice, I must. Someone must have the courage to give voice to the meek. That person is me. And my stance?

truly equal treatment for people with moustache's.

Go ahead, laugh if you must. Get it all out of your system so we can get down to business. The business of hate and prejuidice. Serious shit right there.

Recently there was a powder keg of tension in the vehicle of a what was thought to be a harmless and humerous television advertisement. This ad can be seen here.....watch closely for the veiled bigotry.

sure! some of you are thinking, "whats the big deal, he's just trying to protect his daughter from pre-marital relations" Yes, I agree that it can be viewed that way OR it can be viewed the way it really is.

Notice in the beginning when he announces his new family plan that his "wife" is drawing a picture, she then states excitement to call Vivian. The name Vivian means "full of life" and in the art world that can only mean one thing.......adult entertainment.

Next, the middle aged son proclaims his excitement to call "skinny pete". Skinny Pete? Why is Pete so skinny and why would it be important to frequently call him? Maybe Pete is so skinny because HE'S A CRACK DEALER.

Then, the youngest son states that his father should be excited to call "the lady at my soccer games you always stare at". An open proclamation of infedility that neither the father nor the mother even flinch at. Great job at keeping the family togethor DAD.

Finally, we get to the sweet young girl who is excited to spend some time talking to Derek. Derek who is older and wiser than her. Derek who has a steady enough income to afford quality and stylish American motor cars and has introduced himself to the father while courting his daughter.

Daddy throws the breaks down on this guy? Why? He allowed an adult entertainer, a crack dealer, and his mistress to be involved in the "family plan" but not newly upstanding suitor Mr. Derek. I'll tell you why, he simply has some hair growing on his upper lip, thats why. And for some reason, this makes Derek a second class citizen. Is this what we want to teach our children? That people who are different from us deserve to be mocked and single for the rest of their lives?

We need to change America. This open-season on moustache hatred has got to GO. It's a real sad sign of our culture that we can not get past this and I can't for-see us breaking out of this economic depression untill we change the way we think and act.

Do you know who the last president was to have a moustache? Theodore "teddy" Roosevelt.....I'm pretty sure that he has his face on a little ol mountain in south dakota next to some other pretty nice guys. My how the mighty have fallen...

(single tear)

it's a slippery slope in the detergent aisle

2008-10-15T11:51:00.003-04:00

"(in the narration voice for Goofy's instructional episodes) Ahhh yes, the modern supermarket. Everything the modern consumer needs under one roof in an easy to use system of aisles and checkout lines. What more could a person need to shop efficiently?"

Did you ever notice how many of those childhood tv show themes stick with you over time? The voice from that cartoon is in my self monologues all the time. I wasn't obsessed with them at the time, nor did I watch them over and over, but I think I found the way that he talked and explained things so humorous, that I often insert it when I am doing something routine. It allows me to come up with new ways to explain and humorize the dol-drums. I find that when you try to simplify things in an easy step by step format vs how it turns out; you are able to realize how complicated, unneccessary, and rediculous that some of the processes are or...can become, that you go through daily.

(I love the part at the 1:20-1:40mark)

Thus, my dilemma in the supermarket last night at 9pm was to select a detergent. WTF happened in this department. Why didn't anyone tell me that it was shrinking to 2x concentrate for everything. Personally, I know this is a scam. They keep the price per load the same and you know you are never going to believe that the detergent amount they specify is going to work, because it looks the same and probably is the same as the stuff they sold you a month ago only now it costs twice as much!

So here I am in a conundrum in aisle 10 trying to pick between my trust in Tide, which has gone full out 2x concentrated and value brand which isn't and the different load per bottle amount in each brand because I need a decent amount of laundry detergent, but I can't allocate 30 dollars on a bottle of soap per year. It exceeds my weekly soap budget by about 25 dollars, and who knows how well that 2x concentrated stuff is going to work? If I buy it and go through it in 2 months, I will have to buy another 30 dollars worth of detergent and now I am REALLY exceeding my soap budget.

So.........20 minutes later I walked out of the store with a package of 20 bars of ivory for 4 bucks and I am just gonna chuck like 3 of them in the washing machine and see what happens ;)

Papa was a Rodeo, mama was a rock and roll band

2008-10-13T15:00:00.005-04:00

I'm a sucker and I can be sold on just about anything. The only benefit to this ability is that I can turn it around and sell others onto just about anything so long as I am A)believe in the product B) like the person C) feeling bored and D) probably on mass amounts of caffiene.

Where have I been getting suckered into recently? My evil iTunes and hipster indie music addiction is well documented on this blog. God help me if I ever get into some form of gambling. I'll be an after school special on network TV saying things like "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING BRETT, TRUST ME!! YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO QUIT........TOO LEGIT! TOO LEGIT 2 QUIT(sobs uncontrollably while doing MC Hammer hand signs)

Just so you know the Brett in that story is Brett Favre. I picture him in a 35 dollar t-shirt with an autographed pig skin tossing it back and forth between his own hands in a bribe to get me to promise to try to kick the habit. It's my after school special, I'll do what I want. Including getting Sarah Michelle Gellar out of retirement to be my vampire killing GF. Cause I love hot women and I hate vampires. 2 birds, one stone kids. Gonna teach you youngins about the dangers of addiction and of single purpose women.

Anyway, I stumbled onto this band called The Magnetic Fields because someone says they are good so I believe them and thus think that they are. Remember? we started off this e-mail by saying I am sucker. I picture them as 70% The National, 20% Talking Heads, and 10% Beach Boys. But because its not a popular band; that means its another amateur video day on YFYB

That's Alex P. Keaton to you buster.

2008-10-07T14:22:00.002-04:00

somehow I was doing some IMDB work on Tom Hanks and I stumbled across the fact that one of his earliest works was on Family Ties. One of the newest things IMDB has is direct video access to these episodes for free and in high quality.
I have heard about this episode before as one of his breakout performances that Tom Hanks had real talent, but had never seen it for myself. Despite the awful and obvious set-ups and awkward transitions of the script that are the signature early sit-com, Tom does a wonderful job. Just when you think the sit com style script is going to ruin the moment at the end, Hanks manages to make it feel like a real life moment.

Sorry it can't be embedded, but here is the link.
http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi2332360729/

The autumn of our content (with pumpkins of course)

2008-09-23T11:26:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the first day of Fall. I don't really consider it fall till there is the delicious scent of pumpkin in the air. Deliciously robust pumpkin. In fairness, I also realized that pumpkin may not be so delicious if it wasn't for cinnamon and sugar. I don't think I have ever tasted pumpkin without those other two involved, so I may not even like pumpkin, I may only like pumpkin+. Maybe thats another reason to like pumpkin even more, because pumpkin is a team player. "Hey sugar; lets have me, you and cinnamon get togethor and take 2 months by storm. We could own this country, but I need you guys to help me." And what do you know, they did it. They did it for us, and they did it for them. Are we all happier for it? You bet your ass we are.

Pumpkin: American Hero. A story by S. Vincent.

Busy busy this time of year. It seems like 16 hour days, 7 days a week aren't enough. I get the major stuff mostly done, but the minors like dishes, laundry, house cleaning, shopping, and personal hygiene is always a rat race. I am barely keeping my head above water and there is always one of theses that is in a disgusting shamble before I can grab hold and get in under control. I won't share with you which is falling behind currently, but every day, one of those maintenance tasks that most humans need to keep up with to be considered human is not happening. Aren't you glad I share?

As an iTunes freakshow, I have recently been toying with the new "Genius" feature. For those not hopelessly en-slaved by the Apple universe, Genius is a feature which takes the song you select and then tells you songs and albums they have that you should buy (Steve Jobs says: "make money money, make money MONEY!!") but then the real kicker is that they can also create a playlist from that song of other songs you have in your library that are similar to the selected song. Interesting and fun new feature.

I think the internet should create a feature like that for blogs. Such as You like YFYB?, you may also like retarded monkey's dancing videos on YouTube, poop jokes, naked pictures of Robert DeNiro, and horror movies involving green fiberous vegetables.

Something that scares me? The fact that Dooce is probably the blogger that I have the most in common with. I'm sure I need to read more blogs and get a wider scope, but her humor, taste in music, fear of religious fanatics, cavalier attitude towards implied responsibility, and sense of fashion is very very very similar to mine. She is a little more politically minded then I am, and she likes animals way more than I do, but other than that and the fact that she is a married woman with 1 child living in Utah. We are twins........ (S.Vincent looks to shoes and shakes head in an acknowledgement that he is one messed up tollhouse cookie)

what a glutton

2008-08-26T11:52:00.004-04:00

I like to think that I never write till I have something complete and pure to write about, but based on most of my posts, it's obviously not the case. Sure, it would be nice if that was true so all 3 of my loyal fans could defend me by saying "well he may not put out that much material, but at least he doesn't pump out trash like your favorite blogger". That would make me feel special. Like one of those mercurial olympic champions that shows up outta no-where and destroys the world and then go back into relative hiding. Or like one of those writers or musicians who shows up every 4 years to drop off some masterpeice leaving fans to ponder the fantastic depth he or she must be in the darkest sections of the mind during all that time away. That's how you become a legend in the artistic field; 1 part talent, 2 parts shrewd image managment.

So what have I been doing the past 3 weeks? Being the opposite of deep and just skimming the cream of the internet crop. Wasting all my time reading others hard work, managing my 3 fantasy baseball teams, reading celebrity trash sites, watching instant movies on netflix, making cool music mixes, 2008 olympic rowing online videos, and writing recruiting letters to high school kids. Obviously, this is very consuming for me mentally, as I have the multi-tasking skills and intellegence of a lowly soldier ant.

I did notice one thing in all my time spent on my own enjoyment and that is how much I stalk blogs, and how my stalking is actually very very weak compared to other bloggers. I read my feed religiously and heres the funny thing. Half of them, I have given up interest on. Weird huh? Its like some kind of compulsion to continue to hope that something good will be there. Why? I guess it's because the internet is so inconsistent between "blah" and "awesome" that "guess and check" is the only reliable way to get a bunch of awesome in. Check as much as your patience can take and soak in as much awesome as you can.

This is why my RSS feed is loaded up with bloggers that I actually realize I don't care about anymore. I can't put my finger on it, but they lost me somewhere. They fail to bring up anything I care about or can relate to. Sometimes this is my fault for failing to recognize the bloggers main interests in life, and sometimes it is their fault for a variety of reason. Usually it entails getting too much into their day to day minutae without bringing up something of importance to the audience. Every story should have a point beyond "that annoys me" or "that makes me happy". They fail to answer the 5 W's and an H (who, what, where, why, when and how for the high school drop out readers of mine) with any skill or skip out on enough of them to make the story confusing or un-interesting to an outside reader.

I guess they win though, cause they fail at writing, and yet here I am still reading. So who is the bigger failure? As usual, it's S to the V.......

P.S: To confirm my suspicion that I am sadder than the bloggers I disapprove of; my main motivation for coming out of this temporary vacation was to post my new favorite song by "Kings of Leon" on SVTV. But seriously, how awesome are these guys live? Read my review of their last album here, but I am stoked for the next one.....

His mom must be so proud

2008-07-29T13:03:00.002-04:00

cigarettes, matches, condoms and a week's worth of work for no pay......But it is awesome

Newer posts to come later in the week.

The Darkest Knight

2008-07-18T14:40:00.006-04:00

I'm excited, you're excited, he's excited, she's excited, and they're excited. It opens today and we all love those summer blockbusters. When it comes to a movie I really want to see no matter what, I tend to avoid reviews, previews and advertisements. It's so much more exciting that wayI like to go into these types of movies completely fresh and untainted by the over-indulgence and crushing weight of media marketing even though this movie would make 100 million with no advertising at all. They should save the money.
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I always identified with the Joker. Jack Nicholson did a fantastic one in the 1989 original Batman. He was always over the top and who doesn't like a super villian that attempts to amuse and repulse at the same time? I am sure Heath Ledger will play a good one and I like the much more realistic look of a man who was disfigured by acid while commiting a burglary. There is also something much more disturbing and calculated about meeting anger with a smile then with a scowl. I have always adopted that priniciple myself.
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Why is it that every town thinks that they are the ones with the craziest weather and that all their citizens are tough as nails for living there? I hate that tacky crap.
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"well you know what they say, if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes"
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I have heard that phrase used in connection with every city in the United States. People need to get out more and realize how lame and unoriginal they are.

specializing in the impossible

2008-07-11T11:32:00.004-04:00

My grandfather wants me stop all the junk faxes that come into the office. Okay, I'll get on that right after I stop those pesky telemarketers and spam.

You know what else ticks me off? People who think that the attitude of those around them matters. Hey, it's MY attitude and I will have whichever kind I want at any time that I want. That's why it's mine and not yours. I don't mean to sound like a tacky bumper sticker or gas-station t-shirt, but seriously, as long as I get the job done it shouldn't matter how I feel about the job right? If I want to put on a sour face while I work, its my right. If you don't like the attitude of people who do your stuff for you, then do it yourself. Otherwise, back up and let me get started on YOUR task. Don't tell me why I should enjoy it or why it matters, I just want to get YOUR task over with so I can get back to MINE. I'm not into delusion or fake-ness, I'm dead set on keepin' it real.

On a side note, my lunch got splattered all over the sidewalk on the way into work. So yeah....have a nice day and all that shit.

S.Vincent; with his clipped moustache, his whiskey-coated growl and steely self-assurance, is an aristocrat of sleaze.

2008-07-01T09:47:00.006-04:00

I know, I know. You hate it. Been there and heard that.

But I am afraid it must continue, it's to be a summer tradition. "The return of the S.Vincent moustache".

A brief history is intimately tied to Jason Giambi. Last summer, not this summer, Jason Giambi grew a terrible mustache to honor current hitting coach Don Mattingly. Loving the Yankees, the work ethic of Don Mattingly, the scoundral that is Jason Giambi, and general summer boredom; I grew one too. A fabulously terrible moustache which disappeared at the start of the fall crew season with a new job title and implied responsibility. Jason removed his after 2 weeks but mine stayed for 3-1/2 months.
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Jason Giambi has again grown a moustache, to much more acclaim this time around, and is having a great season so far. Wish I could say the same for the Yankees, but never the less, both of our moustaches have returned for another summer.
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Why, you ask? I don't know why, but leave me alone. This is all I have during the summer. I live alone in a basement with no friends, no workout partners, no rowers to coach, and nowhere to be. So if I want to have something to do, albeit growing ugly facial hair, then I should be allowed to. SO BACK OFF!

My dad and grandpa both have moustaches, so I would be dishonoring the family if I didn't at least try to make this work. (I can hear you scoffing) Plus, there is something fun about growing a moustache. It's more unique then a beard and requires more upkeep. Yet, must be left alone at times. Much like a nice lawn or an exotic plant, ignore it and it will look terrible. Over-water and over-clip and it dies. But somewhere in the middle of that lies a perfect balance of wildness and regulation.
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Will mine look good? Probably not, but gosh darn it, I gotta try....at least until September.

A few pics of some famous mustaches. Which seem to be back in faux-style. In fact, if you could combine all these people into one, I would like to be that person.

what's an 8 letter word for "kicks ass and takes names"?

2008-06-30T13:59:00.004-04:00

yeah, I do my crossword puzzles in pen, and I don't make mistakes either. Take that tentative sissy puzzle gamers. I laugh at your mind games. I find them unintimidating and thus attack them without regard for anyones welfare. I scoff at your indecisiveness and your amateur-esque approach to all things uncertain.

Anne Hathway is on the free agent list. I am kicking myself for not clearing enough cap space in the 2004-2007 seasons. Now I can't afford her and she'll probably go to a big market franchise like Shia LeBeouf or Ryan Gossling. Looks like I'll have to continue to scour the Triple A farm system.

be honest

2008-06-28T09:37:00.005-04:00

I was doing a bit of working out this morning when wait a second......(looks left, looks right)......I think I just.........yeah.....I just had an idea.

I just had an unintended departure from my cell phone, and although I got new one with the same number, I have none of the numbers that used to be in my contact list. Common problem amoungst 20th century humans. Thus, there are a ton of facebook groups for people who have encountered the "lost cell phone, need your number" debacle. Somehow, people join these in an attempt to regain what was lost, but as we all know, you are doomed no matter what facebook group you join because a) you're lame for joining a group for that purpose and b) your friends are selfish and really do not care or read what facebook groups you join. 5 seconds to call and send you their number is 4 seconds too much.

However, my attempt to remedy this problem is to potentially make it more humerous and create a face book group called "HELP! I got really drunk and I gave my cell phone # to a fat/crazy/ugly person and I had to destroy my phone......now I need your number" I would like to see what kind of people join that group.

That scenario has to happen to a lot of people right? Anway, that's what I do on my saturday mornings; laugh to myself about inane ideas in the middle of a giant river. They are so much funnier out there, I swear......shut up, you're so jealous.

Doing what I can

2008-06-27T12:37:00.008-04:00

It's not often that I mention rowing on the ol blog. I try to keep it seperate because I don't want it to be exclusively any one thing. In this case however, I feel like I have to do what I can for 2 friends of mine that achieved major lifelong accomplishments this past week, and will likely get no recognition outside of their family and friends. Rowing never gets enough press and I can't tell you how many times I have done or been a part of something newsworthy in rowing and no one hears of it. So, given that I have a blog in which 10 people read, I figured I would do what I can to get the news out there, and try to right this wrong as best I can.

Micah Boyd and Rebecca Smith both made the national team. Micah will be going to Beijing for the Olympics in the US Mens 8+ and Rebecca will be going to the World Championships in Austria in the LwtW4x. Each of them has spent over 10 years training 2x a day 6 days a week in order to reach their goal and it finally came for them. They are an inspiration as amateur athletes, rowers, and American citizens. I truly hope they get to hear the national anthem on the medal stand. GO USA!!!

Here's some pics of them in action!

Rebecca in 2 seat

Micah in stroke of the white 2- in the PACRA blue and yellow uni.

Sorry, I wanted better pics from Row2k, but Ed sucks about that. So I had to go to the personal stalker files.

Tuck tail and run

2008-06-26T14:24:00.005-04:00

Listen, if you make a big stinky mess in a bathroom. Don't close the door and run........just run. I understand the need to rid yourself of the responsibility of your EPA violating rear end; but closing and running doesn't make the problem go away. It just nails the next person to go in there, i.e. S.Vincent, since I pee like 50 times a day. You have a much better chance of escaping un-marked if you do so because you better believe the whole time I am trapped in there, I am turning my gears trying to think of who it was that went to the bathroom last. And I am VERY observant!

You'll be just as safe in your anonymity, trust me. Flush, run, and leave the door open as you go.

I've been lazy the past 5 months, I just didn't know it

2008-06-25T10:56:00.004-04:00

I've heard of seasonal depression, but I never really believed in it. The low light of winter sapping the happiness out of people and the lack of the sunlight making them depressed. I'm not admitting depression, and nor should I have to, cause I wasn't. But I do think that the coldness and the earlier arrival of darkness and later arrival of light had something to do with my productivity over the winter. I wasn't sad, I just felt like not doing anything that I didn't have to. This lack of motivation probably does cause some depression in the more affluent and Type A personailties in this country. I am immune to such feelings because I never have a problem with being selfish and lazy. So, Ha Ha to you implied exestential stress. However, I think that trudging through the winter like a brave little Po-Vegas soldier has trained me in an un-intentional way to be more productive in the longer days of summer. The little things friends, the little things. That extra load of laundry, showering, throwing the garbage out when the bag is full, washing the car, an extra cardio session, that trip to the dry-cleaners or the mall, and cleaning that space on the floor between the stove and the counter. In the winter, they would have been put off til the weekend so I could get another much needed hour of sleep or to jam in a missed workout.

So today, I will write a blog post AND make a playlist with some relaxing outdoor summer songs (which will probably be listened to inside, 90% of the times it is played)

Unfourtunatly, with all this productivity, I am missing out on retaining information to blog about here. Too many thoughts, too much focus on singular tasks. With a larger readership then I anticipated, I have to be a little more guarded than I ever planned on being. I can't just flail away at whatever is on my mind when I sit down.

That would be easier, a better-written blog and probably more fun, but inherintly would include more problems. I wish I could be brave and shirk the expectations and the reputations I have worked very hard to fool everyone with. But I am lazy, and this blog is certainly not an eternal masterpeice with which I can show to my grandkids nor did I ever want it to be. It's my entertaining past-time to keep me awake so I don't take another nap or watch the same Family Guy episode for the 10,000th time. I can't be over-worked and lose sleep over my leisure time.

And that's the problem with undertaking any activity in this day and age. Every once and while you can feel pressured to make it perfect or that if you spent more time, it could be better. With so many things to take care of these days, its impossible to give everything the time it requires. But nothing outside your main focus in life has to be perfect. Nor do you have to strive to make something better than what it is. I find that sometimes its much better to let extra curricular activities be what they naturally are and leave it alone. There is a cliche phrase that I like to use which says "too many chefs spoil the soup" and another phrase which says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". So when I feel the pressure coming down on me when I am supposed to be having fun, I have to step back and say "If it ain't broke, don't let 6 chefs come in and make you soup"..... or something like that.

Summertime also means lots of movies. I LOVE movies. But this summer is more than just the theatre and me scowling at people who show up 20 mins late and stand near me assesing the scene for the absolute best seat available for 5 minutes instead of sitting their tardy distracting unseated ass down pronto!(BASTARDS) Like it matters how much they visually enjoy the movie when they have no idea what is going on cause they missed 1/4 of it. That and restraining my temper at people who smack, chomp, and crackle the wrappers of their theatre food like they are at a raucus ball game instead of when a serial killer is stalking ever so quietly and terrorizingly down a dimly lit hallway towards his un-suspecting prey. Last week, I was ever so close to jumping out of my seat at that girl and giving her something to really be scared of.

Anywhosal, like I was saying, this is the summer of Netflix and me catching up on all those movies that I want to see, but miss out on the chance to. I have some serious movie watching to do now. I have already seen a lot of movies, but now I am going to be a regular ol' expert with this new and highly enjoyable service.

And with that, like whoever the celebrity is that is going to promote the will rogers institute this year in all the previews, "we'll see you....AT THE MOVIES"

SV-TV Programming Note: This is one of my new favorite bands, but being hopelessly indie, they have no money and can't afford any cool videos. As much as I hate making a joke of their musical style, the guys in this video make videos like I would make videos if I made videos. Extremely funny with a touch of homo-eroticism and slow motion running. Too funny not to post, hang in there, song is longggggg.

And I told you to be patient, and I told you to be kind

2008-06-09T12:19:00.004-04:00

I know I am beating the old dead horse here with my 30th blog on this subject, but believe it or not I am upset with the current heat wave and its effect on my place of employ. More so, the people who call in and were not properly educated in how to act like human beings in modern society. I guess I should be numb to it by now, and in most cases I am, except on days like this. I believe it's because I pride myself in being a thoughtful, intelligent, and responsible person in how I treat others (cue friends guffawing) that I expect the same treatment back from them. Should I know better? Of course....but on days like a Monday after a heat wave, all I need is one or 2 people who have enough IQ points to understand what will happen when you call an AC repairman during a heat wave. So yeah, now I am all vented out and I can resume normal brain function.

I hated "footy?" pajamas. I don't understand the love affair some people had/have with them. I felt very very restricted and closed off from the world. For a young chap, they are a harbinger of claustrophobia. Hey, I got an idea, lets send our toddler to sleep wrapped up in a bag with only his head exposed and a zipper he can't operate yet. The only thing that could have made them worse is if they were handy and footy pajamas. Honestly, I don't understand the appeal. Socks, pants, and shirts don't work? You had to attach the socks to the pants and the pants to the shirt? Why? It makes no sense, and with every step, something would pull or bunch. Toddlers grow and inch per day, so the third time they use them, their gonads are destroyed due to the shoulders pulling up the crotch area . Plus when you are 4 and wet the bed, guess where all that pee collects? That's right: in your feet. So now you are walking around closed off from the entire world, tweaked out with claustrophobia and 2 liters of urine sloshing around your ankles. Fuck those footy pajamas!

Remember those books, "Scary Stories: To tell in the dark"? I used to love books and most importantly, the hideous illustrations. I wish I had a camp fire and about 10 - 7 year olds to tell those stories to and to make me s'mores. I could start and assembly line and probably get 2 s'mores a minute in my mouth. Plus they would worship me and my powers over their fears.

I hope they cannot see......

2008-05-27T11:00:00.004-04:00

Well, dear friends, today is the day. Just a shade under half a year too! I mentioned previously that I am little tentative to post the last album because all this fun has to come to an end. But, a mission is a mission and you don't get to check it off as completed till you get it all done. As promised, I will post the iMix on iTunes for those of you who may wish to have a copy of the music. I still listen to it all the time, but I recently have made a "New Hotness" mix as well which I have been working on for a month that I will post too. So you have 2 possible lists from me if you are looking for some beach/travel music. If you search iMix for "SVC best of 07" and "Summer Hotness" you should find them in the next couple of days when iTunes posts them. Feel free to holler at your boii if you can't get it to work.
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This album should come as no surprise to those who know me on a more intimate level, but my number 1 album for 2007 is.......
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Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero": What can I say about Nine Inch Nails? Well I guess I can start out with Nine Inch Nails for dummy's which basically means that Nine Inch Nails is not so much a band as it is Trent Reznor's call sign. He uses a band for the live shows and certain recordings, but he does all of the production himself. He is a fantastic producer behind many other albums as well and help put Marilyn Manson on the map. He started as a helper in a studio and was paid partially in studio time. This is where Trent got his start on going solo since he could not find anyone to agree with him on a musical direction. He was influenced by Prince to do it all himself. Thus, the studio time he earned is what gave him the ability to lay down one element at a time, then mix them all. Trent's first album "Pretty Hate Machine" was one of the first independently produced albums to go platinum.
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Why do I love Nine Inch Nails? It's the way Trent mixes such strong ideas and music so perfectly. When musicians get aggressive, the result is usually sloppy. Sometimes that sloppyness is good, because there is nothing nice and easy about anger. Somehow, and I can't really define it, Nine Inch Nails captures the entirety of anger, agression, despair, and paranoia. Your favorite musicians have a way of being the voices you hear in your head, and when the mood is dark, there is no ones voice and music that quite hits me like Trent. He is calm and then not. He is crazy and unabashidly uncensored. Lots of other musicians are these things, but Trent seems to access it on another level. His visuals are also so unique and the videos are generally fantastic. His live shows are out of this world and he is always ALWAYS remixing his songs. The good news is that he is so secure in his ability, that he often lets other musicians, even common fans, remix his songs just so there can always be a new twist on an old favorite.
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Lets face it, to really be a Nine Inch Nails fan, you don't roll like Dick and Jane. Nine Inch Nails fans, (most of them are shithead teenagers who think they know, sucked in by NIN's cool logos and images) are people who have a connection to the macabe. They are closet horror fans and posses a darker soul than regular people. They have usually experienced real pain and despair at some point, or have found themselves attracted to it. I knew the first time I saw the video for "Closer" just before I started high school that I had to know more about this band and where it came from. It wasn't the peep show/gross out shock factor that attracted me, but rather the way Trent seem's so at home in the chaos. Like someone who grew up in a completely different world than everyone else and was honestly de-sensitized to the horror. Selling that genuine-ness is why NIN is so successful despite its very un-popular subject matter. I know I can't sell this kind of sickness as art to someone who can't get past the images. So I won't, but there is something so re-freshing about uncensored images and a beautiful song with ugly lyrics.
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"Closer" is the number 1 played song on my iTunes. I have it on just about every one of my playlists and its the only song I have never gotten sick of. At this point, my iTunes has it as being played 209 times. It's haunting, it's real, it's dirty, it's awful, it's wrong, and it's awesome. As similar as the style is from album to album, NIN is pretty diverse once you start to dissect the songs. But the similar industrial thump to most of the songs is something that once you let it in, It will always be near and dear to your heart or you'll never get it. You either love NIN or you don't.
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So why is "Year Zero" number 1 on the list? It's because its back to basics (somewhat) for Trent. Between 1995-2003 Trent was lost in some sort of "where do I go now?" period. The follow up to the smash album "The Downward Spiral" a 2 disc monstrosity of mix and matches called "The Fragile" was universally dis-credited and although I personally feel it was a great album, I think Trent felt as though he had lost the touch with his audience. He hid after that album, just doing some producing on the side. And although his new creativity was so fresh and easy early in his career, "Year Zero" is not mix and match because as a more mature musician, he needs a universal direction of story to be successful in popular music. "Year Zero" is a story of a future society in violence and despair based on the current government propaganda and egotistical/overconfident attitude of powerful nations. Something that most people can identify with due to the war and universal distaste towards President Bush.
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But, this isn't why I like this album so much. I like this album because Trent seems convicted. And when Trent seems convicted, I am convicted. Because when it comes to crazy, it isn't cool unless you believe it. So, its good to have Trent back, if only for a little while.
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Song Samples: Survivalism, Me, I'm Not, The Great Destoyer (hang in there on this video, it gets awesome) Capital G
Amazon Page
NIN home

22's son!

2008-05-20T13:49:00.004-04:00

I will be completing the 6 month task of the album reviews soon. Sometimes, I think that I am extending this out because I hate when I need to give my blog attention and I have zilch to write about. For quite some time, I have always had something to write about when I wanted to. Soon I will have to come up with fresh and original ideas (GASP!).
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So, for practice I will talk about non-music things and tell you that I got a new monitor at home. You would think that would lead to even more blogging, but alas, I am slightly hooked on my Xbox now. Nothing like M17 violence to end a long day. But soon, I will be on a much more sane video gaming schedule and will hopefully lead to quality internet usage. My computer sat at home, monitor-less, for almost a year. So I am still weirded out by having a connection to the outside world less than 10 feet from the very large indent in my couch.
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The monitor is a 22 inch wide screen and it is sooooooo sweet.
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Speaking of the Xbox, a few months ago I got a delivery and as soon as I opened the door, as in the door is halfway open, the delivery man spotted my Xbox, which is not out in the open at all, and asked me what games I had. I told him the 3 that I do, and he then proceeded to tell me all about each game, the pros and cons, and then made sure I was aware that Grand Theft Auto 4 was coming out soon and that the Xbox version was going to have "play online" capabilities and that it was going to be AWESOME!
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This was a grown man. I fear that one morning I am going to find him in my apartment playing my system and asking my why I have my visual settings at 500x750 pixels when it is sooooo much better at 780x1000.
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What can Brown do for me? Stay the fuck away from my xbox, that's what.

Do video games spontaneously combust in Canada?

2008-05-14T12:34:00.005-04:00

Okay, I am feeling much more inspired today. I think the problem yesterday was that I got too much sleep and not enough coffee. I like to roll on about 5 hours of sleep and 3 cups of coffee. If my body is too awake, I think it stalls out and doesn't know what to do with itself. Just like flooding an engine with too much gasoline.

I guess for now this means I have to continue upon my album quest. There is no way I am letting this thing take 6 months........right? Well, there is no way I want it to take 6 months so I should write 2007's number 2 album review.
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Quick YFYB news is that I officially tweet'd for the first time today. I guess you can check that out over on the right hand side of the page. I don't really know how to use it aptly yet, but every other nerd is doing it, so I gotta do it too or else they might take away my Han Solo rookie card or something.

NUMBER 2: Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" Big upps to the Grzylle for forcing me to like this band way back in 2005. Even if it does seem like only yesterday......

Straight outta da Quebec, yo, Arcade Fire is a collection of like 100 musicians.....or maybe just 7, but with the number of instruments that they all play, it sounds like a full orchestra. They are centered around the husband and wife combo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne who are the creative force of the band. Win started the band with some prep school pretty boys at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy where they probably wore really nice sweaters and talked about Clipper ships or whatever it is the prep school kids do. Eventually he ditched the snobs, who now have their own band, and started this superforce with his ball and chain. Between Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, Canada is the home of 2 of the most acclaimed indie bands in the world.

Arcade Fire picked up steam shortly after releasing the 2004 record "Funeral". Their signature sound attracted the notices of people like Bono who used it as house music before U2 concerts and David Bowie, who was featured in a few of their live shows. Unfortunately, their secretly awesome status is quickly dissolving due to their highly regarded live shows and commercial air wave prominence. Appearances on David Letterman and SNL were highly successful. With music that holds this much quality, Arcade Fire is more like Radiohead than The Fray and everyone on the bandwagon doesn't have to be ashamed of being an AF fan just because you heard them on Grey's Anatomy or some other girly show.

Neon Bible is aptly titled because it was recorded in an old church the band bought in Farnham, Quebec. A bunch of the songs have an evangelical feel about them and instrumentation/lyrics about things like faith, confusion, and being an outcast. The neon in Neon Bible is what reflects this distinction between the TV preacher and the more accepted church clergy. Especially one of my favorites "Antichrist Television Blues". It would seem like a huge deviation from their first album, but lyrically much of their ideas and poetry is the same, just using the evangelical culture of outcast believers as its foundation in which they express it. It's quite a shrewd concept actually that they made work well for them.

The biggest deviation is in the universal use of loudness and bombastic-ness on this album as opposed to Funeral. Funeral is more rich and slow. It has it's loud/fast parts, but they are built up to slowly. Funeral is more elegant and invested. Neon Bible "rocks out" with a little less instrumentation, a lot more vocality, and quick builds. The vocals and style of Win Butler on this album reminds me a lot of Torquil Campbell from Stars in the way he uses his pronunciation and shouts at the opportune moments. They both command attention on the microphone and the songs flow with their vocals much more so than other bands.

Like the other top 5 albums, all the songs on this album are great. They are each quite unique and easily grow on you with each listen. Personally, I like Intervention, Black Mirror, Antichrist Television Blues, and The Well and the Lighthouse best.

Song Samples: neon bible, no cars go, Black Mirror

Amazon Link

MySpace Page

one of those days.....

2008-05-13T14:38:00.005-04:00

Feeling rather uninspired today. My day requires that I do lots of things, and I usually have time to do all of them with plenty of focus and to do them well. But with all that extra time, I also do other fun things like read blogs, gossip columns, hunt for music, e-mail friends, shop for overpriced sunglasses, etc.
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It's a beautiful day outside and I feel like doing nothing but taking a nap. But what do I do when I wake up?
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I blame the internet for failing to entertain me today. I think the internet has off days too. Nothing interesting is happening on any of my regularly attended websites, and I can't summon the excitement to do any of my tasks with my usual S.Vincent vigor. So, in pondering my uninspiredness, I decided I would try to force out a blog post. Sooo....here it is. In all its uninspiring glory
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Why do some days that contain the same requirements as the day before feel less exciting than others? Maybe I need to start taking (more) drugs.......

Just one more night

2008-04-30T14:31:00.007-04:00

It's no mystery that I hate the phone. Consistent readers and friends and family know that I only answer the phone when I am expecting one of my 30 daily chicken wing deliveries. Actually, the reason why I never answer my phone isn't because I ignore specific calls, it's because I try not to keep it within a 1 mile radius of my actual person.

Reason why? I hate being bothered. I am a zen like creature. At peace in the the restings of my super intelligent brain. Pondering the creation of man, the meaning of religion, and why we drive on parkways and park on driveways and shit like that. When that terrorist technological device sounds its death tone, my tranquil state is disturbed, and when my T.S. is all messed up, you better get your heiney in the fetal position, boy.

So basically, I use a cell phone as a very tiny answering machine. Leave your pertinent info and I will get to it once I have separated the relationship between church and state. However......S.Vincent "Office Edition" v2.4 is a different entity all together. A menacing black phone is no less then 10 inches (or a "John Holmes") away from me, and I am a slave to it at all times. This being an inescapable truth, I have adapted with a set of behavioral instincts attached to it. I know a telemarketer from a mile away, I know how to navigate a touch tone menu to get to real person in under 20 seconds, I can end a conversation politely in under a minute and I know when you are reading from a script. But there is one thing that I am a sucker for..........Phil Collins Hold Music.

Go ahead, try to get frustrated, impatient, and angry when Phil is talking to ya. You can't do it, it's impossible. It's like when you are tearing into someone with the most colorful profanities imaginable and then.... a 4 year old boy with ice cream sandwich all over his face walks into the room. Suddenly, rage dissolves, impatience turns into calmness, and profanities transform into baby talk.

I know. You are thinking, "You're full of it" or "you're a pansy" or "how was that Celiene Dion concert you went to last night, you 50 year old woman!". But seriously, just try not to feel soothed by this English leprechaun.

There is evil genius at work here. Damn you Time Warner......

Oh, and the fantastic realization of the day is that if you Google Search "PoVegas", guess what the number one result is? You guessed it, YFYB......I'd like to thank you, the fans, for this incredibly small and irrelevant achievement in Internet history. See? And your mother said you'd never accomplish anything in life by surfing the net all day.

MA!!...... THE MEATLOAF!!!!! (you know you haven't seen it enough)

"I'm going to kill you.......when I find you"

2008-04-27T21:50:00.003-04:00

Don't you hate it when you smell something bad? Don't you hate it when you smell something bad and you know it is coming from you? But......doesn't it really make your blood boil when you smell something bad, you know it is coming from you and you CAN'T FIND OUT WHERE IT IS COMING FROM!!? You spend like 5 hours sniffing every article of clothing you are wearing, sniffing your hands, sniffing your car seat, your bag, your shoes, your breath, your armpits, your crotch.......okay, too much embarassing info now, but you get the drift. Nothing you smell is the culprit, and then you stop sniffing and then THERE IT IS AGAIN.

...... maybe its the inside of my head that smells

It's still April, isn't it?

2008-04-25T12:14:00.003-04:00

Can the weather stay like this the whole year? I could totally deal with 50 degrees in the morning and high 60's in the afternoon. I am just confused as to why we are going on 2 straight weeks of it in the middle of April. Whatever, I'll take it, but this is totally going to screw up my expectation of late May weather.

I am going to start posting music videos of the new hotness over on the right hand side. There may be a funny non-music related clip here and there, but with the explosion of iPods and the death of MTV, I feel like the art of the music video has gone by the wayside. I love music, but I also love moving pictures with my music. I feel like I haven't seen a relevant music video in 10 years. So, maybe I call the feature SVTV? Done and Done, check her out.....I am good about comment reply, so feel free to comment or to ask who and what the artist is.

Before we get started on album number 3, I feel I have to make a statement regarding how difficult it was to sort out number 4,3, and 2. I really feel that maybe I should just put them all in one area entitled 432. These are all stellar albums with at least 10 quality tracks a peice. Kings of Leon got 4 cause I respect pitchfork at least a little, and this next album gets 3 because although its a super high quality album, I feel they didn't take as many chances as the artist to be named in the number 2 spot. So they got the "showed some guts" boost over.....

NUMBER 3- The National "Boxer" Originally from CinSINnati, OH and now working out of the Brooklyn, NY music hotbed, The National is one of the few red hot indie bands. Their music is intoxicating. You start off with just a sip here and there, really just to be polite and the next thing you know you are 3 sheets to the wind, going back over and over and over again. "Boxer" is their 4th album closely following their 3rd album "Alligator" which was a critically acclaimed top 5 album when it came out in 2005.

There isn't much to say about this album that hasn't been said about "Alligator". The National as a musical entity practically define the term "grower". Obviously meaning the music grows on you the more and more you listen to it. It takes a bit of patience however, and you have to have musical culture outside of a pop top 40, but if you got broken in on the Nationals sound from "Alligator", you are ready for "Boxer". Not as easily as you may assume.....or as I assumed. Boxer is a more smoothed out album than Alligator, its not as aggressive and its transitions between songs and melodies are more subdued. The lyrics are a little more mature and not as zaney and sexual, but still quite weird. I know I sound like I am criticizing it, and I am a little, because I do like Alligator more than Boxer, but its because it fits my personality a little bit more, not because Boxer supplies less enjoyable music than Alligator. I sing along to Alligator, I bob my head in a very approving gesture to Boxer.

So what does The National sound like? I honestly don't know how to define their sound. It's like lounge music's evil twin brother. So much the same on its face, and yet nothing like the original. The signature of the band is lead singer Matt Berninger's deep baritone stylings. He's talking and yet he is singing. He moves you through some kind of twisted mix of emotions and imagery of a world where love is the same, but the way you get there and exist in that moment are somehow all messed up in a paranoid but educated schizophrenic blur. Read the liner notes on this album, they are always interesting to see them as a whole rather than letting Berninger feed them to you. The music moves in and out with dueling harmonic guitars and soft percussion. The guitar work is the secret to loving the National. They work togethor and apart secretly. The more you listen, the more you are sucked in to Berningers world of emotional ups and downs without being forced there by volume and tone changes. The music is what moves while berninger stay frighteningly calm, guiding you through the distractions.

So you get the idea. The National is an undefineable sound that takes a few listens to get into and is really really good once you do. In this case, I always suggest the car stereo. The radio sucks (unless you have satellite) and the only real moments of peace are in the car by yourself to and from your meaningless destinations. You don't listen too hard, but you unconsciously listen just enough. Buy either Alligator or Boxer and if you like it, but the other immediately.

Song Samples: Mistaken for Strangers, Slow Show, Apartment Story

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Sucked in by a tractor beam of vulgarity and immaturity

2008-04-24T13:01:00.006-04:00

I am a potty mouth. I swear often and a good portion of it (roughly 30%?) is unneccesary. I like to think I am good at it and usually at censoring myself. Often times I'll find myself acting less than my age in the middle of a rant and then I'll just trail off my sentence and look at my feet. "this is a bunch of faahh.........". But I came to realize that I have not been counting some of my cyber-swears in with my grand total. I also find it interesting that this current generation with our e-mail/text/IM dependency have created very popular acronyms that include swears. This indicates that as a generation, we swear so much that we have built it into our primary development of the newest cyber language. WTF and OMFG are very popular phrases used since the inception of quick-type conversations. You would think we would come up with acronyms describing food, water, love, happyness. But alas, our first utterances are ones of surprised anger and cursing out our maker. The sad thing is, I am almost positive the cavemen created language using the exact same principle.

I am going to try to get better at censoring myself. Especially since I noticed I use the awful word "effin" outloud and wayyyyyy too much. I hate that I would use such an ugly word so often, but its somehow become engrained like the delicious cinnamon flavor in Cinnamon Life cereal. YuMmmmm..........

NUMBER 4: Kings of Leon "Because of the Times" - I bought this album on December 20th, 2007. I listened to it once, and enjoyed it a good deal, and had it penciled in the chart at number 16. As I did the reviews, this album kept getting constant rotation. It grew on me more and MOre, and MORE!

Kings of Leon is a band of 3 brothers and cousin with the last name Followil out of Nashville, TN. The band name comes from their father and grandfather who are both name Leon. They come from an almost mormon-esque upbringing, homeschooled while following their father on his travels as a preacher in the United Pentacostal Church. Denied the education in pop music history, the brothers Followil learned to play country music first and gradually morphed into rock and roll upon signing with mega label RCA.

"Because of the Times" was reviewed as the bands best to date (they have 2 previous albums) by the big money reviewers NME.com and Entertainment Weekly, and they were also praised by superstars Radiohead as one of their favorite modern bands.

My go-to source Pitchfork.com gave the album a bad review. Accused them of crooning too much to the girls, ego-tripping on a fake rock star lifestyle, shallow lyrics, and copying U2's sound from the early 90's. All of which is true, pitchfork is surprisingly adept at picking apart an album and identifying trends, weaknesses, and intentions. Unfourtunatly, they are their own worst enemy in which they spend so much time analyzing the music that they often don't listen to it as well as they should. They over-rate albums that manage to do all the little things right and under-rate albums for failing to be 100% original. You get lots of audiophile high reviews for crazy sounds, and usually medium ratings for really good albums that fail to do something completely unique. So you pick and choose with pitchfork.

This album is great start to finish. I like every single song and every single word that is said and the way it is said. It sounds GREAT in your car, and great for a workout. Thumping bass guitar makes it head-bopabble and the vocals are rock star loud, but never screaming. Except on Charmer where it somehow fits perfectly and is one of my favorites along with Ragoo, My party, and Arizona. Plus, even better, they can play live as good as in the studio. Please give this album more than one listen, it gets better and better each time.

That said, maybe I like this album so much due to my U2 foundation. I love everything pitchfork criticizes it for. The echoey slashing guitars, the womanizing lyrics, and cheesy country-sultry vocals and the percussion work from Nathan Followil is top top top notch. Listen for it. I don't listen to enough rock because outside of Foo Fighters and The White Stripes, not too many bands play great straight rock anymore. This is a throwback album to the days when cars were loud and fast, men weren't afraid to act like their dads, jeans were dirty from actual dirt, and your girl was your girl for better or worse, not till better came along.....

Song Samples: On Call, Charmer, black thumbnail, arizona

Amazon Link

MySpace Link

Thank you DD

2008-04-15T12:48:00.004-04:00

So I picked up my new (to me) car yesterday. Even by S.Vincent standards it was a quick sale. I am known far and wide as Mr. Impulsive Immediate Buyer, but usually you would take more than 20 minutes to purchase a new car, even if you were careless with such things. However, I threw caution, not just to the wind, but to a level 5 southern coast city hurricane. I picked it out in 10 minutes and had the 40 documents signed in 5. I walked outta the dealership with keys in my hand and a "this is my first time in prison and I weigh 140 lbs" face.

The car is more than fine. It's literally a steal by most standards of the word, I was really just amazed how quickly someone can dispatch 7 thousand dollars and walk out with a certified machine. I usually avoid such situations due to the length of time involved in such a decision and paperwork and so on and so forth. But that was so easy, I might just go trade it in next weekend for a different one cause I feel like driving red car.

It's a 2001 Nissan Altima and its the exact same color as the Grzylle's car. With tons of homosexual ambiguity already surrounding our relationship, this may not have been a smart move for me and my never ending quest for multiple ladies. However, I am going to propose that we start a interstate car gang and terrorize the eastern seaboard with our trifecta of male chauvenism, indie music knowledge, and disregard for social faupax's. We'll call ourselves the "Teal Tridents" and drag race down neighberhood streets with our 0-60 in 10 second, mid level, asain 4 door sedans. Watch out world! If you hear the ca-caw of a raven, a squeal of discount tires, and smell a delicious Old Spice underarm spray fragrance mixed with old unisuit funk. You know who it is. Move bitch, get out da way......or maybe get in the back cause I like the way your butt hangs out of the bottom of your airbrushed cotton shorts.

So I roll into Dunkin' Donuts today for a little hot beverage revival after practice and the nice lady at the counter asks me "would you like a free donut?" Now, we all know I am in a never ending quest for multiple ladies, as well as to maintain my girlish figure. Sadly, I am also weak against any fried pastry. So given that this particular donut was free, I had to say yes, Boston Creme PLEASE! Upon receiving, I took out half of that sucker with one ferrocious chomp. As I am happily paying for my coffee, I ask the nice lady "mo waf arf bees monufs wor?" which she in turn translated to be "So what are these donuts for?" and then replied with a ample amount of disgust "It's tax day"........shortly after her declaration, she was removing chewed dough, custard, and slobber from her hair sprayed directly from the mouth of a mr. S.Vincent.

Guess who forgot to do their taxes? No worries though, I banged it out in 30 mins online and had the paltry ~400 dollar return direct deposited into my account. Which explains why I am here online, blabbering on about myself.

I hate me too

2008-04-08T12:32:00.004-04:00

No, I am not dead or seriously injured, but I was almost killed, by salmonella. I have had food poisening one other time and it was the worst experience I have ever been through over 7 days. This time it took just as long, but it didn't feel like my insides were getting roto-rootered by steel coated pipe cleaner. The lesson is....don't eat stadium food for the first time and the second time is to make sure you cook your poultry to 180 degrees in the center, not just till its white. March and April are the busiest months in my schedule, so be prepared for more sparse posting, but I won't let you down for too long. Like an ugly lover, I am only a disappointment to you when you really think about it, not in the heat of sweet ugg-o love.......okay when you think about it, and when we're in public holding hands....
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That said, we are moving on. I am going to finish these album reviews if I have to take till 2009, and then we can all get on with our miserable lives which by that point may or may not include reading my miserable blog. I have no more motivation to write them, and you probably have even less to read them, but gosh darnit I have to finish something sometime? There has to be some kind of order in cyber space and I'm going to do my part.

Alright here we go, onto the TOP 5 now.....hahaha this really is a joke of how long this is taking me compared to how long I thought it would. Didn't this start as a before the end of January mission? Kind of like how iTunes takes 30 minutes to download and update the software and month after month, nothing changes. What's up with that? What alien technology are you installing on my computer 15 times a year? iTunes hasn't changed in 4 years and its on like version 1004.5. It's a fear campaign really. I am so scared of what could happen to my music if I don't update, I diligently upgrade with urgency and without question. Damn you Steve Jobs.
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The good news is, I am firmly on my way to a new set of wheels. It will certainly be murdered out if I can, once I figure out the cost of tastefully doing such a thing and if it is feesable.
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NUMBER 5: Jimmy Eat World "Chase this Light" Jimmy eat World is one of my favorite, non-favorite bands. I have all their albums, love to listen to their songs at anytime, but I can't seem to put them in the top level of my pantheon. I have no idea why, but maybe its because their songs are so simple-minded and so easy to listen to. The same thing happens with me with every album they make. I buy it, listen to the whole thing over and over again about 20 times, then sparsely listen again.

To me, they are like the food equivalent of Pizza. You love pizza, you could eat pizza anytime, and you like lots of different toppings, shapes and sizes (albums) of pizza. You know exactly what pizza entails no matter where you order it from. When someone says, "lets go out for pizza" you are definitly in. But are you thinking about pizza day in and day out? No. When you are looking for a special meal, is pizza involved? No.

But great pizza is great pizza, and there is nothing more clutch after a hard day. Safe, reliable, and easy to make, pizza is your consistent meal no matter what time of day. Even for breakfast!

That said, Jimmy does not disappoint on this album. Its all good from track 1 to track 11. There isn't much exploring in sound done on this album, just a fresh version of the same jimmy sound. It's pizza right? Get the basics down, explore a little bit with the toppings and spices to give a fresh look and taste, and whammy everyone is happy. The weird thing about this particular album, is that I am not super happy with the way that any of the songs start. But somehow about 30-45 seconds in, every single track develops into a fantastic classic Jimmy song.

The lyrics are always good. The most under-rated part about this band that makes them a signature favorite is the way in which lead singer Jim Adkins backgrounds his own voice with the backup vocals of his own band, and manages to pump them out at different volumes to match perfectly with the instrumentation. Aggressive yearning is his specialty and he has many layers of his voice to make it work perfectly with the fast strumming punkish guitar. Combined they create a really pleasing punk light or heavy emo. You take your pick.

Song Samples: Big Casino, Like She'll Always Be, Carry You

Amazon Link

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I can think of one person who committed suicide on Valentines day

2008-02-22T14:03:00.004-05:00

Yes Virginia, a woman will humiliate and emmascualte a man in front of hundreds of thousands of people the night before Valentines Day.

The best part about this clip is the ancient anouncers saying what everyone knows she should do if she doesn't want to marry him before it happens. The stadium PA guy instantly starts playing "Love Stinks" over the loudspeaker. The rejectee gets consoled by a large cartoon mouse. Someone smart got him a beer right away. Even Tracy McGrady can't believe it happened and laughs at the PA guys panaché. And then finally, it ends with the announcer saying the NBA motto "The NBA, where amazing happens!"

Russian Rivers

2008-02-21T13:04:00.007-05:00

Good news to those who love iTunes and may like to purchase some of the songs from the artists on this list. ( I know no one will, but its my blog and I can endulge illusions of grandeour if I want to) I am going to be copying my "SVC best of 2007" playlist to the iMix function. Encapsulating one song that I like from each album. It will probably set you back 20 bones or so, but if you dig the list or are unsure if you will, then it will be worth it. I have also organized it in stellar S.Vincent fashion which means the playlist will flow perfectly from start to finish. I'll give you more details once the list is complete.
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I hate having to park far away when I go to the gym. That seems wrong cause I am going there to exercise and yet I hate having to get exercise before I get in there, but its true. I'm not sure if it's because I'm usually in a rush due to a late arrival, the coldness of the current season, the narrow sidewalk that makes 2 people walking on the same path very difficult, the fact that i have a large gym bag, or I am just lazy. It could be one of those things more so than the others, but I am pretty sure I am aggravated by all of those factors. That and the fact that all the other cars in the parking lot belong to people who are either in there being douchebags, walking on the treadmill at a snail pace, pedophiles eyeing up underage girls, or soccer players (enough said). Can you tell that I go to the gym with a lot of frustration? No? Well I do.......so here is another Gym Rule to live by.

GYM RULE: The handle on the front of the treadmill is for emergencies only, Lurch. You are not supposed to turn the treadmill up to full speed, hang onto the handle, and clomp along like an idiot. If you can't run/walk on a treadmill without holding onto something, you probably shouldn't be on it. Go sit down on the floor and wait for Orderly Williams to scoop you up and take you back to the home.

NUMBER 6: Okkervil River "The Stage Names"- Love the VanGogh schizophrenic style album cover. Okkervil River is another great band from the Austin, Texas area. Although, I am not sure if you can really qualify them as being from Austin given that all the band members are high school friends from Meridan, New Hampshire, seperated by college, then re-united in Austin to form this band. Sure seems like Austin is the happenin' music place to be these days. You can catch a few country guitar sounds in this album so they are a little bit influenced by their surroundings, but this is a indie-rock album through and through.

The band name comes from a short story by Tatyana Tolstaya about the Okkervil River in St. Petersburg Russia. I have no idea what the story is about, but it would probably be pretty hard to read since Lead vocalist/band leader William Sheff is all over the place with his lyrics. I am actually still trying to decipher the storys of his songs and I have had this album for 4 months now. You'd almost need a degree in English to pull out his message, but thats okay, the musicianship on this album is crisp and the songs are all so diverse from track to track that the lyrics are a bonus if you can get them. There is plenty of catchable phrases that give you some kind of hint and you can just roll with that.
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This band reminds me a little of Arcade Fire. which is probably why I like this album so much. But as much as some sounds and songs sound like Arcade Fire, it really doesn't risk plagerisim. They use some similar musical styles, but Arcade Fire is much more elegent, involved and dense while Okkervil is much more loose and pleasantly simple using more of the classic guitar and percussion format. That doesn't mean Okkervil is simplistic, just that their songs are more comfortable in their shell. No extravagence, just simple theatrical indie-folk rock drama.

That's probably the signature feel of this album is its wailing dramatics. William Sheff wails and rolls with his band in a method similar to Arcade Fire with a little less shout and a lot more depression. My favorite is "Our Life is not a Movie, or Maybe" which I think is a song about how life can be like making a movie in which there is all these great ideas and a passion for what the movie should look like, but that it never turns out the way you pictured it in your head. The reality of the camera not always catching the image the way you had it in your head at the start.

I look for more great things from this band, but I am not sure if they can match this album. Their previous album, Black Sheep boy, was quite good as well but there is such a wide range of song diversity between all the tracks, that any song on this album could be a format for an entire album. In that way, this is almost a "Best of" album without intending to do so. But good luck anyway to the boys from Russia/New Hampshire/Texas........

Song Samples: Our Life is Not a Movie, Or Maybe, Unless its Kicks

My Space Page

Amazon Page

Probably not a good idea anyway.....

2008-02-18T14:09:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, the largest beef recall in U.S history was made. Over 143 million pounds of beef from the Westland/Hallmark Beef Co. which supplies beef to a number of public schools, Jack in the Box, and the In-N-Out Burger......

The good news is, hopefully you already ate it..........the recall goes back to February of 2006. So if you have some beef thats been sitting around in your fridge for 2 years, the USDA would highly suggest you don't eat it. But only cause the slaughterhouse was really mean to the cows, not because it might be past its expiration date a little......

It's imported, so its gotta be good

2008-02-18T11:40:00.003-05:00

Still plugging away at these album reviews. I still accidentally fill out a lot of dated material with 2007 in the year category, so I think that means I can still get away with my 2007 reviews. It's kind of like getting a handicap for being handicapped. If I could somehow swing a blue tag for my car due to this problem with my brain, then I'd really be on easy street.

Today is Presidents Day. Do all 43 presidents feel like they are being honored by this holiday? Are we supposed to be honoring all of them? I know that Presidents Day falls between Washington and Lincoln's birthday so the holiday was originallymade with their birthays in mind, but then what about Jefferson and Roosevelt? They are on Mount Rushmore too, don't they get a holiday?

Here's another thing I don't get. Why is February "Black History Month"? Shouldn't it be in January when Martin Luther King's birthday is? Is there a reason why February is the designated month? Was there some peice of historical civil rights legislation signed in this month? I feel like I should know why given that this month is supposed to be dedicated to the study of Black History. And I do know a lot about black history, except for why this month is the month to emphasize it. I know that April was the month that the Confederate Army surrendered to the Union army and was the start to the abolishment of slavery. I also know that April was the month that Martin Luther King was assasinated. Maybe April would be a better month?

NUMBER 7: Jens Lekman "Night Falls over Kortedala" - With a name like Jens Lekman, you are probably not surprised to hear he is not from America. He is actually from the area in which the most overated consumer products originate, Sweden. From massagers and cars, to furniture and hand cream, being from Sweden is probably the number one attraction tag on a luxury product. I think France and Germany are very close behind, but only because "From Sweden" is used more because Americans are not really sure where or what Sweden really is and can't distinguish it from Norway or Finland. Apparently, being "From Sweden" is like being from some magical winter wonderland where people have nothing better to do but come up with products that are better than American products. I would like Geraldo to do an investigation as to how many products that claim to be from Sweden are actually A) from sweden and B) worth the cost of importing/brand costs over similar American products.

Okay, back to Jens, who is not over-rated, but actually more of an undiscovered talent. His music really is a lot of fun and his style makes you believe that he is your friends foreign exchange student messing around with your dads old music. Jens music just feels really accessibile because its foundations are quirky/funny lyrics and simple hooks. His boyish voice and his old crooner sample technique is so easy and yet so creative, you almost think that you could do it. But you can't, there is a real talent to his work, but the amateur style makes you want to give him a pat on the back no matter what he creates. He creates songs about funny jokes, meeting the parents of his lesbian friend, having a crush on his hair stylist, being jealous of your sisters success, first kisses, and being in love. No song has an uncreative look on any topic and his lyrics are a must read cause they are a scream. Mixed with his music, its probably the most fun to listen to album on this list.

His first major release in 2005, "Oh, You're So Silent Jens" was a release of all his music that he created between 2000-2005 and was a great album. I was unsure of what to expect from 2007's "Night Falls over Kortedala" since it took him 5 years to create 15 songs on " Oh, You're SoSilent..", I was wary that maybe he forced himself to lay down tracks to cash in on his past successes, but in retrospect there is no need to be afraid as this album shines with not only great songs, but a slightly different feel than the first album. The samples are a mix of old vintage big band cuts, but he also messes with some newer chorus sounds, electronic mixing and modern guitar melodies. All of these newer items are subtle and un-noticeable unless you listen to the 2 albums back to back, but I can pretty much guarantee that you will like them both very much. "Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig"is probably the most prevelent direction of where Jens should be heading.

His performances live would not impress many. Jens is forced to carry a band for music he created as a one man dynamo. Recreating his samples live is next to impossible, so his live performances are really only a treat to those who know the albums so well. However, Jens' stage personality is as charming as he sounds. Either way, you have to be in a good mood to listen to Jens, because his sillyness only works when you are ready to accept it.

There are no good samples on youtube because Jens is pretty unknown around here, so here is the link to his MySpace page that has numerous samples.

Amazon Page

YFYB is massive ass certified

2008-02-14T13:30:00.006-05:00

Tuesday night is "Rob and Big" night in the S.Vincent Household and last tuesday's episode was especially fantastic. It really came out with a bang, so I will share the first 5 minutes with you, and hopefully you will want to spend many of your future minutes enjoying the antics of a one Mr. Rob and a one Mr. Big. There were hilarious hippopotamuses, absurdly sized donuts, a guide on pitfalls in designing a house for a 400lb man, and jabs made at Tyra Banks for being over-dramatic about life in general.
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Please enjoy this clip. It's going to send you to the episode on mtv.com then after you watch, you come back we will talk about what else I discovered.

Of course, anyone who knows S.Vincent knows that he lusts after 2 things......oakley products and donuts. When I saw BB go to town on that peice of pastry, I knew that I had to have one for my very own self. I began scouring the internet for my one true love. This actually proved quite difficult because the search terms of "giant, big, huge, etc." and "donut" yeilded 2 types of results. Some were of donuts that were just slightly bigger than normal donuts, not the cartoonishly delicious one that BB had. Or, they yeilded places where there are big donuts structures to draw attraction to a donut shop. Famous in the California area I guess.

But, a small peice of success was found at the website http://voodoodoughnut.com/ . Unfourtunatly they do not airmail their donuts, which would have been my solution to getting one. But check out how awesome that donut shop is! They have donuts with bacon on them. Donuts with cap'n crunch on them.It's open 24 hours. You can get married there. I swear to god if it was in the tri-state area, I would move there. Damn you Oregon!!

I also prefer to spell them as donut rather than doughnut. I am quite sure that doughnut is the proper spelling and donut is a trademark way that Dunkin' Donuts spells it. I am not a huge fan of DD's donuts, but I am also very lazy, so donut is how I am going to spell it. Deal with it.

Anyway, the search continues. I think I should have some kind of luck in NYC, so I will keep you updated, hopefully accompanied by an awesome picture, if I am to succeed.

Oh, and Happy Valentines Day.........suckers.

what does LCD stand for anyway?

2008-02-11T12:58:00.002-05:00

I was flipping through the channels last night and managed to catch Kanye West and Daft Punk performing Kanye's "Stronger". ( you can see Daft Punk at the 3 min mark) Now, the grammy's are probably the least reflective of all the awards shows as an indicator of award winners = talent. But.......the live performances are usually quite good, so I watch strictly for that.
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I never had a problem with the fact that Kanye West used Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" as the back beat for his song. I was slightly miffed that he didn't credit somewhere in the main title as being responsible for 50% of the song, but I thought if Daft Punk was miffed they would do something about it. Last night, when Kanye brought out the electronically lit up costume and sunglasses, Daft Punk Signatures, I thought this was the time he was going to give some "big ups!" to the French boys who more or less are the signature sound on this song. But no....he didn't. I know Daft Punk loves the mysterious almost annonymity. But how about a simple "Yo, give it up for Daft Punk" at the end of the song? I don't get it, but its not my song Kanye is taking all the credit for.....so whatever.
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Speaking of Daft Punk. I had a heavy consideration for putting them on the album list for their "Alive 2007" album. However, I felt that a compilation of them remixing their own older songs live was not quite "new material" and therefore had to be disqualified. This is not a statement of the fact that it is not a great album, just that this list was for new material only. Then again, the album of the year was given to Herbie Hancock who re-sang all of Joni Mitchell's songs......So that shows you how much the Grammy's knows about music.

NUMBER 8: LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver"- Speaking of Daft Punk again, coming in at number 8 is an artist that you can tell was heavily influenced by the french duo. The first song on his first self titled album was "Daft Punk is playing at My House", which probably came as no surprise to the listener given producer James Murphy's dance punk sound. The first album was a hit in small circles with its fresh smooth electronic hooks without throwing the electric sound out the door. His voice was unmodified and what I call "punch fun". Sometimes he snaps out his lyrics and sometimes he drags it out. It's his voice jumping in and out and up and down that gives his albums such a fresh feel from normal dance electronic. You can take LCD Soundsystem out of the club.
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Especially true with LCD's 2007 release "Sound of Silver". It's an album immediately reflective of someone moving their sound along to a different level and shows real talent. While still "danceable", the lyrics and less complex tunes. It takes a little more of a concerted effort as the beats come togethor over more time, which is why a majority of the songs are over 6:30 mins. They all build and build, adding more and more layers, then switching places. To really get the feel you almost have to close your eyes and bounce along with chugging train type beats. There are not outward highs to these songs, but they all feel really fun, and not quite so disco dance. Walking down the street music, not dancing music. You can almost feel like you are in a music video, because his lyrics almost feel like your own crazy thoughts. I can imagine almost anything being set to these tunes. I would be very surprised if James Murphy didn't field a ton of calls from advertisers begging to use his stuff.
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The lyrics are the most noticeable shift from the first album to this one. The first was about partying, having fun, doing it again, being tired and doing it again. This album covers more mature topics, while still having some fun. "North American Scum" is an anthem in defense of being from this area of the world. "All My Friends" The albums signature track, and on many critics top 5 songs of the year is a song about partying and what happens to all those friends once the party is over and life moves on. There are songs about lost loves, hints of drug addiction, and meeting corporate standards all with a blast of fun.
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This album definitly grows on you and may not be your cup of tea at first if you don't like Daft Punk, hip music, electronic, or if you have never heard LCD's first album. But give it the standard music rule of 5 listiens before you walk away from LCD, James is sure to grow on you.
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And no, I don't know what it stands for, but if you do, feel free to drop the comment.
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Song Samples: All My Friends, North American Scum, Get Innocous
Amazon Link
LCD Soundsystem Webpage

so there is a clue!

2008-02-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

No album review today cause I spent most of it either yawning, crying, being disrespectful or trying to alleviate the sore muscles in my back.

I was up late watching Vertigo, when it occured to me that women with glasses are often portrayed as either psychotic, nerdy, weird, or shy/un-popular. Think about it, how many high powered female celebrities would be caught dead in spectacles of the prescription type? Name me a famous actress who wears glasses or has worn them in a film as a sex object. I guess I never really noticed this before because its not a rule thatall off-kilter women in movies and films wear glasses, but more so that no one portrayed as sexy, endearing, or powerful would be caught dead in them. So therefore, if you are a woman wearing glasses there must be something wrong with your brain more so then its ability to refract images correctly. This is not so for the male actors.

Weird huh? I guess that explains a lot about my bespectaled mother and sister though......

it is a bitch

2008-02-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

Karma and Revenge, that is. (PS, I made that LOL Cats superbowl edition myself, pretty funny no?) It always seems to give you a few hints before it smacks your emotional teeth out. Like a rotten smell coming from the drain on your sink before it back-flows all over your house. You would think that the citizens of that crap-hole of a city would be experts in the field of "hometown sports jinxes and how to avoid them", but no, they are painfully un-aware of it. Putting out 19-0 books, scheduling the parade, downtalking spygate. Even someone who is as stupid as me avoided it by gracefully hoping the Giants would win and refusing to over hype them or under talk the Pats. Those are the sports fans rules to keep positive karma. I don't know why Boston can't get it, probably cause they don't know how to keep their mouth shut, and they don't have anything else to talk about besides seafood.

This feels so good to those in the Empire state. I don't know how to express in words how good it feels to have the burdon of most epic collapse off of our shoulders. Of course we are talking about the epic collapse by the Yankees in 2004. The knock down drag out affair that took an entire week to kill me a little every day. By game 5, I knew it was over for the Yankees. That they could not win despite 2 more games to play. Easily one of the most painful memories I will ever have. But now, a team from this area was the one to hand it back to Boston; where it belongs. That can NOT be underestimated. A team that used to play in Yankee stadium as a matter of fact.

I argue that the Patriots loss was much MUCH worse than that of the 2004 Yankees. Yes, the Giants were underestimated by everyone, but I don't think that anyone was over-estimating the Patriots by calling them the greatest team in history considering they went 18-0. The 2004 yankees didn't have anyone calling them "the greatest team of all time" and the 2004 redsox were actually considered by many to be the stronger team going in and easily got the wild card berth, with only their choking history holding them as underdogs in the series. So for the Red Sox to win was truly shocking at the time, but that was no David vs Goliath story. The 2004 ALCS was more like Blue Goliath vs Red Goliath when Blue Goliath got a head start and then tragically stumbled and fell.

I feel bad for Tom Brady and Junior Seau, and thats about it. They are good people. I almost feel bad for the Patriots team, their fans and the media screwed them, but with all their past success, not really all that bad. Mostly, I am so so happy that Boston fans and Belicheat got knocked down and not only knocked down, but branded with the #1 symbol of sports failure for a long lonnnnngggg time. I feel another one in their midst coming soon, but we will disclose that after it happens. I am sure they will still harp on their past super bowl victories and the 04 and 07 world series wins, and they have earned that right, just as the Yankees get to bring up the 26 world championships from time to time.

Yes Boston, you got a 4 year break from holding the most epic collapse in professional sports history, but now it is back in your hands. Seems fitting in an area with awful people, road systems, food, and weather. I am going to shut my mouth about it from now on because I don't want to come down on that area forever, otherwise I might be leaving myself open to karma coming back to get me. Next year is a new year, and I learned my lesson back in the day. That was enough for this NY'er.

Feather in his Hat

2008-02-01T12:46:00.000-05:00

Did you ever notice that there are a lot of people who use some form of the statement; "If/when I ever win the lottery, the first thing I would do is ______" that don't actually purchase lottery tickets?
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NUMBER 9: Andrew Bird "Armchair Apocrypha"- Andrews talents include glockenspiel, violin, mandolin, whistling..........and oh yeah, guitar.

We move to the mid-west in our global tour of artists because Mr. Bird was born in and still resides in Chicago. He originally had his start with the band "The Squirell Nut Zippers" and then formed his own band called "Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire", which contained a number of talented Chicago musicians but went their own seperate ways peacefully in 2003.

Bird released 2 solo albums in which he worked out some kinks in refining what sounds he could create without backup musicians. Both were critically a success but it's not till this album that Bird has found himself a wide audience.
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A tossy turn of loopey guitars, mandolins, glockenspiels, piccato violins, and of course a little bit of that signature whistle all seem to make sense in what is now Bird's signature sound. His vocal ability is the finishing touch on a musical delight. Soft, deep and playful, Bird's vocal abilities match his intrumental ability. Without trying too hard Bird matches his instruments perfectly offsetting their melody and coming in with harmony. What comes across is a person who's trying to blend in rather than stand out apart. It gives the music a great understated feel, you can listen to the vocals intently, or they can blend in. The most amazing thing about Bird is that he is a one man band who performs these songs live, jumping from place to place to record and loop his own songs on stage. A true professional at his craft. (Watch him set all the music on the Fiery Crash video recording, then looping, and for the signature whistling!)

The lyrics are perfectly loopey as well. Fiery Crash is a song about fears of terrorism and Imitosis is a song about the differences in aggression in society. Scythian Empire is a bleak view on the confusion in the middle east and Armchairs is a love song simplistically fighting for love through all its twists and turns. They are confusing and actually most of them are about Bird's own confusion on certain topics. I have to read them to put togethor what he is talking about, but even the songs about politics sound romantic.

Heavy strings with an orchestral sound make this album fluid from start to finish and very enjoyable. Its almost a mix of classical-folk-jazz. I like every single song especially Imitosis, Armchair and Cataracts and I can see much more success coming from Mr. Bird. At least, I'll buy it.

Samples: Imitosis, plasticites, fiery crash
Amazon page
Artist Page

Untouchable

2008-01-30T14:05:00.000-05:00

I am finally back to the reviewing game, and hopefully I can finish it off. I think my temporary stall came from the fact that these next few albums are serious business. Not to be taken on a whim or last minute. Anyway, I am back and ready to go on the top 10 albums.

But first I have to repost this video I got from Dooce. I love it too watch it over and over again. I think I am just obsessed with HD slow mo, but watch this whole video, its great the whole way through, and I really like the song. I would totally think this was the most awesome thing in the universe at age 10. In the age of discovery channel and animal planet, it can be easy to forget that the human being is the most graceful animal on the planet, hands down.

NUMBER 10: Radiohead "In Rainbows"- There are few absolutes in my music world. U2 is the best live band ever. Metal will never die. Hip Hop has the most terrible artists in all of the genre's of music. Country is boring unless you are in a truck or working outside. Rock music always sounds better when you are driving. Headphone listiens are mandatory to get a full acoustic experience. Led Zeppelin was better than the Beatles. Finally, Radiohead is the most under and over appreciated band in the last 20 years of music.

If you are a fan of indie music, then Radiohead is your Beatles. They created what is considered by most to be THE album of the 90's in 1998 with "OK Computer" (I liked "The Bends" just as much) and created a following of epic proportions while barely creating a blip on the landscape of pop music. Most people know the name Radiohead, but could not name a single song off the album. This only strengthened their fan base behind the camara shy band, who they themselves appeared to be happy in having the most talented band in the world all to themselves.

They still fly under the radar to this day, even though they created quite a stir in the industry by initially offering a lower quality version of the album for free off of the internet, and once again do not have a song on the top 40 charts even though their album is. And this is why they are over appreciated and under appreciated. They have some songs that are legends in the history of rock and roll and no one knows them. However, because they have a legend that is not widely recognized, they get away with duds that people refuse to criticize unless you also appreciate all the greatness that is Radiohead. They almost hold us all hostage with their talent because they are so good, that when their stuff doesn't sound pleasing to you, you question whether you really know music instead of just saying the song isn't good.

"In Rainbows" is a fine album, albeit a little short at only 10 tracks. The music world seems to be happy that Radiohead settled back down into a more Radiohead style rather than the experimental phases they went through on the past 2 albums. The tracks are all good and its always easy to slip into Thom's world of depression and longing. Clean quick soft electro drum taps, extended guitar strums, and light background howls of voice mark the return to Radiohead of old. Faust Arp and Reckoner are not terribly impressive for me, but then there's Bodysnatchers, All I Need, Jigsaw Falling into Place, and Weird Fishes to make up for those songs.

No one can quite spin a lyrical tale like Thom Yorke with his mix of fantacisim and aggression, he is the face of the band with his very common voice stretched into a beautiful voice of the ignored and misunderstood. "I'm in the middle of your picture, lying in the reeds" "Has the light gone out for you, cause the lights gone out for me, its the 21st century". His presence live and on video is always something that adds more to the great sound of Radiohead's music.

This album isn't The Bends or OK Computer, but its very good and its much more 1st listen enjoyable than the previous albums. Welcome back Radiohead or maybe goodbye.....I don't really know anymore who they are cause they keep changing except for the fact that they are probably the most influential band of the past 15 years. If you don't own OK Computer, you might as well not own any music.

Song Samples: Jigsaw Falling into Place, Bodysnatchers, All I Need
Amazon Page
Radiohead Website

PoVegas in the Movies

2008-01-29T14:15:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of hub-bub about a new movie coming out soon based on a serial killer in the area that I reside over as mayor. I have had to field plenty of questions from non-locals as to the truthfulness of said movie, and I can officially say that the only similarity this movie has with Poughkeepsie is that we did have a serial killer in our midst. He did not tape his murders, he didn't torture his victims, it did not take place in 2001, and it did not take place on the corner of Dutchess Ave and North Water St. There appears to be some outside shots of his house, but thats about it.

But people in this area are scarier than your average psycho's, so back off or else some seriously bad stuff can happen to you. We don't carry sticks of re-bar in our car for decoration. However, it appears that this movie is more a mix of the tendencies of different real serial killers across the country and blended into one and uses Poughkeepsie as the title.

Newest Trailer:

I'm a turd

2008-01-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

I am going to get back to the reviews soon I swear. I know you don't really care cause I have gotten zero feedback on it, but it is a quest and I will finish.....eventually.

Story time!

So I am off to the movies last night with my much heralded "free movie pass" that I got after months of use on my Regal Cinemas Card. Which is free to sign up for, but you need to pay for like 3000 movies before you get a free movie pass. Anyways, I was excited to go see Cloverfield after the good job they did hyping the mysterious monster.

I was told that there would "no monster for you!, NEXT!" because for some reason, you could not use a free movie pass on Cloverfield. Of course, I wanted to get into this issue further with the ticket girl, but with a line of peeps behind me that was 20 deep, I refuse to be the guy that hold up a line for a complaint that won't get changed anyway. So I then quickly picked Juno, because that was the next best movie I would be willing to see. I was on my way to the designated Juno theatre when all of a sudden it dawned on me that I didn't have to see Juno if I didn't want to, I could just walk in to Cloverfield and no one would know! Way to go Einstein!

I was actually upset with myself for being such a consumer drone to let "The Man" stick it to me like that. What happened to my rebellious youth!? I used to I didn't even give anything other than Juno a second thought!

Anyway, I prevailed, and for the entire previews, I was actually nervous an usher was going to come in and ask to see my ticket. It was weird. I had no reason to feel guilty or in the wrong. I paid for the movie (with my hard earned coupon, but non-the-less paid) and I was old enough for the PG-13 rating, so there was no reason for them to deny me seeing this movie.

Unfourtunatly, God must have had some problem with me doing what I did, for he smited me. He smited me with a movie in which the creative team decided it would be a good idea to shoot in entirety from the point of view of a character with a hand-held camcorder. I broke out into a cold sweat and started to feel extremely nauseus at the one hour mark. I had to leave before I tossed my chicken all over the theatre.

Thankfully, I am not the only one God chose to smite because apparently a bunch of people have felt the same effects. I bet they used their coupon on Juno too.

courtesy post

2008-01-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

This is just a courtesy post to inform you that I will not be writing my Number 10 album review today. I am too sore and exhausted to effectively write words or listen to music. This probably also explains my 2.9 GPA in college.

How about that Heath Ledger death huh? That one came outta nowhere. Can we make a trade with God and send him Jake Gylenhall instead and get back Heath? No? okay, just asking.....

Does anyone get upset when the UPS man comes? I think everyone in the world loves when the brown truck pulls into your driveway. I honestly can't think of anything in which you would not be totally psyched to see him. I will also tell you that the name of my UPS man is David Drop. Seriously. The only way that could be more ironic is if his name was Tom Smash.

No stampede's allowed

2008-01-22T13:20:00.000-05:00

Before we get going on the number 11 artist, we need to discuss what I did over new years. I went down to philly to hang out with a questionable member of civilized society, mr. Andrew Grzybowski. We did sushi (more or less yuck for my texture loving palate), and then pretty much hung around philly for a very tame evening. In the morning there was fun to be had with a hearty breakfast of the biggest french toast andrew has ever seen, and off to the Mummers Day parade. Composed of "comedians" "fancies" and "string bands", the Mummers Day parade is essentially a mix of drunkenness and art. So it's very appropriate for the statue laden philly working class scene. There, we were accosted by a lawyer who was quite proud of his photography skills, and even invited our group up to see his pictures while we got warm. I think he may have been hoping to get andrew alone in a dark corner of the building to "read him his rights", but that's beside the point. He took good pictures of our group and of the parade and vowed to send them to us if we wanted. Stating he was going to stay till the end of the parade to catch the fancies and strings. Of course considering the blogging implications of such a technological opportunity, I grabbed his card. That way, andrew wouldn't have to show how giddy he was to phone call the lawyer, to discuss photo's over candlelight and fondue.
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Anyway, he wasn't overbearing, but I felt like we had accommodated him by listening to his stories of grandeur involving his photographic prowess and his stories of parades gone by. So I emailed him, anxious to get a mixture of pics of our group and hopefully of the latter half of the parade (the best part), since we couldn't stay any longer, and I would have quite a nice New Years Eve blog to hang my hat on.
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True to his word, and after 2 weeks of anticipation, the lawyer sent the photos..........The are (A)none of us, (B)none of the latter half of the parade, and (C)the ones he did take.....sucked.
So thanks for nothing you rat fink son of biscuit eating bulldog!
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NUMBER 11: Band of Horses "Cease to Begin"- I am not sure where I picked up Band of Horses. During their initial release of the "Everything All the Time" I heard good things from iTunes and the indie music web scene. Intrigued, I iquired with my right hand music man, A.Grzylle who told me he liked them so far, but hadn't gotten super high on them yet. I twisted his arm to send it to me, which he did.
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I liked the "Everything All the Time" album a lot. It definitly grew on me during a time when I wasn't downloading too many things and work was crazy. Comfortable indie music. So I picked up "Cease to Begin" right when it came out and it didn't dissappoint. A strong album from start to finish, it still has the signature Band of Horses sound, but mostly without the enormous swells that occured on their first album. "Is there a Ghost" and "Islands on the Coast"is the only one that has that BIG sound to it.
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The fact is, these guys don't blow you away. Their albums are more of a jam session variety. They are fashioned after the slow down in the Seattle music scene and split up to create this album between the Pacific Northwest and South Carolina. You can almost sense a little more country on this album then the previous. Country guitars drawls and slight background banjo. This album is more introspective album than the first, focusing on elements like loss of sleep, yearning for small town security, nervousness about small town gossip, and questions about the innerworkings of fate.
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The biggest thing holding Band of Horses back is that their sounds sound like a mix of other bands. Unfourtunatly, they kind of blend in with the less talented crowd even though they are the real deal. They use the echo microphone and it sounds like My Morning Jacket. Some of their melodies sound like the Flaming Lips. And for some reason, I think the way they compose sounds a lot like Rogue Wave, but I am usually wrong in this department. Somehow, I get the feeling that this often duplicated coastal echoey indie sound is like 80's hair metal in that they all kind of sound the same, but great in their own way. Anyway, you are sure to like this album if you like any of those bands I just mentioned. There is something both unimpressive and impressive about Band of Horses. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I like this album a great deal because they make it work and stay consistently creative within their medium. Plus, now they all have sick lumberjack beards!
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Song Samples: Is there a Ghost?, No Ones Gonna Love You
Amazon Page
Myspace Page

Yes Virginia, Eli is in the Super Bowl

2008-01-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

I still can't believe that the Giants are going to the super bowl. I was confident that they were going to beat Tampa Bay, I was textbook hopeful about their chances against Dallas (you look on paper, see that if everything works out right, they could win) but thought that they were 50-50 at best. When it came to "A Disney Story: Brett Favre and the Packers" however, I was almost sure that they could not overcome all that was stacked against them. So I planned on cheering the good plays, getting somewhat upset over the mistakes, shaking my head in respect once Green Bay made the right plays to win. Then saying, "well that was a good season" and moving onto to baseball season. But then Brett Favre started throwing interceptions, which only come in bunches for him, and I got my hopes up till I saw Tynes, 2/4 on the day lining up for his longest field goal of the night. I had zero hope in him making that kick. So when he did bang it home, I was shocked. I didn't even cheer, I just sat saying "huh, how about that?" over and over. I still can't believe they are going, but the NY Post says they are, so Lets go Big Blue! To keep from jinxing them, I will say that the Pats are going to kill the Giants in the super bowl.

It's Martin Luther King day today. The bank is closed, the post office is closed, town and city hall are closed, the colleges are closed, and the public schools are closed. My office is open and apparently, so is every telemarketer in the United States. In the spirit of Martin Luther King I have been staging a protest in a passive non-violent way and gently placing the handset down in the cradle without criticizing, belittling, or chastising the person on the other end of the phone.

We are getting down to the nitty gritty here on our albums list. From this point on, it's increasingly hard to decide which album goes where because I like them all so much. They can probably all switch up or down one place and I would be okay with it, except for the much anticipated #1. That said, I stand strongly behind all of these albums as being enjoyable to anyone reading this blog with a modern and cultured brain in their head (i.e. people who don't listien to the hip hop station on the radio or watch MTV except for the Rob and Big show which is awesome)

NUMBER 12: Spoon "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" - Another band that is based out of Austin, Texas. Spoon has actually been around since 1993 working on their signature sound. It was only recently that they've found themselves a large following. I got on the Spoon train with the album "Gimme Fiction" which was the album they released in 2005 after those satin worshipers at Apple who eat all my money with their damn "Just for You!" feature, recommended it based on my past purchases. They aren't always right, but Spoon was right up my alley.
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Now heard nationwide in a variety of commercials, movie soundtracks, and coffee houses; Spoon's signature sound is a modern theme for todays Gap shopper. All part of corperate America distancing itself from high cost pop stars in their advertising. However, much like Feist, there is more to Spoon than simple hooks. In fact, most times you wouldn't know you are even listening to a Spoon song if you haden't listened to thier music before, because Spoon's song aren't snappy in short 30 second spurts. They grow and grow due to their excellent studio work. Spoon, like many indie artists, are a band that grows on you more and more.

I read that Spoon's sound is best decribed as Gentlemen's rock, and I think that is a very accurate description. Nothing is over-stressed, nothing too loud, just good music that flows with precision. Each strum is perfect and their is a bounce beat with the short stokes on both the drums, guitar, and piano that extend longer then back to short again. There's a lot of rythem to their work that makes your head bounce a little when you listen to it. The foundation of the songs repeat the sound then they break that rythem into a longer more extensive version of the same sound. It's so simple, but its the little tiny details that are added that make the songs so good. There are not many, but they are perfect when mixed with the vocal stylings of Britt Daniel. Echoy background voices are one of the signature extras that Spoon adds, which work sometimes concurrently and sometimes opposite of his sharp precise singing methods.

Although the sound is very modern upper middle class. The lyrics are usually vague indie ideas about women, being an underdog, and social struggles. "Thugs and sticks and bats and balls for nuclear dicks with dialect drawls. They come from a parking lot town where nothing lives in the sun"

If you like this album, then you will also love the "Gimme Fiction" album. They sound similar and yet different, but both are strong spoon albums. Spoon is unmistakeable and truly an original sound. Once a Spoon fan, always a Spoon fan. My personal favorite songs on this album are "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb", "The Underdog", and "Finer Feelings" which has a Beastie Boys sounding segment in the beginning.

Song Samples: The Underdog, the Ghost of You Lingers, you got yr cherry bomb

Amazon Page

MySpace Page

I'm not gay, I swear, you can ask all the girls I've dated that hate me.....

2008-01-20T11:36:00.000-05:00

........but it's strange even to me that I want a Sven in 2008, not a smart phone. Stupid of AT&T to show me both options, knowing that Sven is way cooler than a stupid phone.

Album reviews continue tomorrow.

It's gonna get weird in here......

2008-01-18T12:16:00.000-05:00

I am feeling a little sick today. Stuffy head and nose annoy me. Short sentences occur in this condition. Due to the rythem of my breathing. I will stop doing that, however.
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I wonder if the hour of 10pm is ever going to pass without me wanting to have junk food? I rarely act on it, usually only once every 2 months or so, but 10pm is when my dinner wears off and I am still awake, watching TV and definitly hungry. Ice cream, cookies, candy, you name it, but its gotta be sweet. This happens every....single.....night. Did I say every night? Cause I mean, every night
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NUMBER 13: Of Montreal "Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?" - I am not sure if starting a band name with a preposition is allowed by my 5th grade teacher, but "Of Montreal" has never been a band that follows rules. Like when you name your band after a city, that usually means you are from it, but Of Montreal is actually based out of Athens, Georgia.
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Kevin Barnes is the lead creator of what can only be described by me as psychadelic electronic indie cartoon rock band. Their style is jarring, and all over the map of styles mixed in a sharp blend that bounces from sound to sound. In person, he looks like he sounds, delicate face tatoos made with makeup, a mix of mens and womens clothes, and funky hair create some sort of extra-terrestrial cartoon man.

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When I orginally read the review to this album, it said that Kevin Barnes had gone through a breakup with his current girlfriend before writing this album. I immediately begin to think of my pleasant memories of Beck's Sea Change album. I was startled out of that impression immediately by a mix of crazy sounds. Upset at first, this album sat on my shelf for about 2 months till I read that Pitchfork had put it in its top 20 albums of the year. I felt rededicated to give it another try. I quickly quietly respected the album as an elegant mix of sounds that I wouldn't understand, and stuck it at number 20. But the more times I listened to it, the more it grew on me, as these complex albums usually do. Every day that passed, it moved up. There is another album that I picked up just before making the list that I didn't even plan on putting on the list, but has stormed it's way to the top 10. I dislike the middle song "The Past is a Grotesque Animal", which is long and repetitive electonica that usually irks me, but there are all good songs stacked around it, with crazy crazy titles....of course.
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Thanks to Pans Labrynth, I knew that a Fauna was in no relation to a baby dear, but to a mythical creature that is responsible for all forest spirits. I would not want to meet a hissing one, thats for sure. So I love the name of this album for one thing. The word "destroyer" is also one of my top 10 favorite words. Not sure what the other 9 would be, but destroyer would definitly be in there.
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The lyrics laid down on this album are fantastic crazy stammerings. Things like "physics makes us all it's bitches" and "Chemicals, don't strangle my pen. Chemicals don't make me sick again. I'm always so dubious of your intent" along with many other gems that reveal themselves the more you listen. It's the lyrics which convey the dark thoughts of the depressed state that Kevin Barnes is in, not the music. However, this is a statement album in the life of Of Montreal. Definitly the best album of their career, and probably their life. Using all kinds of crazy samples and moving all over the vocal range like a slightly more unraveled David Bowie. This album eventually charms you into a smile. The songs get stuck in my head for hours at a time. They are almost the perfect mix of silly and sad and interesting. And I want nothing to do with knowing what kind of bill a psychiatrist would charge to fix whatever wires are wrong in Barnes' head, but I don't think he wants them fixed and neither does anyone else.

Samples: heimdalsgate like a promethian curse, gronlandic edit
Amazon Page
MySpace Page

Her moon, Her man.

2008-01-17T14:07:00.000-05:00

NUMBER 14: Feist "The Reminder" Usually a full blown advertising campaign is bad for an artists whose songs are featured in conjunction with a product. Especially when you are dealing with a mega-company who has the money and desire to put their name everywhere like Apple Computers. Bad for everyone but an artist as talented as Feist.
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Achieving notoriety as one of the founding members of the juggernaut Broken Social Scene and with a mildy succesfull previous album of half covers/half original songs called "Let it Die", Feist commanded at least a sample listen on her latest 2007 album. Fully written by her this time around, Feist opened up a Joni Mitchell-esque heart felt powerhouse album. It also doesn't hurt that her voice is as good as anyone's out there too. Norah Jones and Alicia Keys wish they had her musical chops.
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The best I can describe it is a jazzy-folk album that heavily features her voice and what I think must be a marraca or brush stick on a cymbal on nearly every track. Why this hiss-shake noise works so well in conjunction with her voice, I don't know. There is also plenty of simplistic acuoustic guitar melodies and piano that provide a solid path for Feist to flit and fly her voice over, along with a hearty dose of soft clapping rythems. The marraca and clapping makes this perfect travelling music as these noises sound kind of like a train that happily chugs through country side. There is also surprising brass jazz thrown in that gives a happy sense of life. I always picture a smiling louis armstrong on the hit "1-2-3-4"
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Unlike the Voxtrot album that sits at number 15 that I wish I had put at number 19, I think I wish I had put this album a little closer to number 1 and definitly ahead of the next album I am going to talk about. With its mix of happy songs, sad songs, and break the mold songs, this album is good the whole way through and is diverse in its sound. I could probably be easily talked into a top 5 for it as a matter of fact . But then again, if I put this years Joni Mitchell up too high on my personal list, people will start to ask what I do with my spare time when no one is looking. So....my manliness puts it at number 14. But for all the girls out there with an appreciation for real music, this album could be one of the best albums you have ever bought.
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Unfourtunatly, you always feel a sense of betrayel when an album gets discovered by the public when you are in on the ground floor. Those Apple and Verizon bastards. But in fairness to Feist, her music is not the type to be exposed for its sugar-pop that soon goes sour after a lot of listens. This is a hearty album full of great songs that are diverse and feel fresh with each listien. Lyrics that are insightful into Feist's journey's as a travelling artist and the love and issues involved with always being on the move and the lessons she has learned. "My Moon, My Man" is a song about how the man in the moon is the only man she can seem to keep. A very depressing song that seems so personal to you when you hear it.
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"Take it slow. Take it easy on me. And shed some light, shed some light on me. please. Take it slow, and shed some light. Shed some light on me, please"

Samples: My Moon, My Man, I feel it all, 1-2-3-4,
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