Tuesday, January 24, 2006

All Bow to Ned...

A most knowledgeable and friendly fellow, who I met online; check out his takes on 1990s records you’ve never heard of:

www.netcomuk.co.uk/~tewing/ned/nedmain.html

"Someday, when you have a silvery mane, an engorged 401(k), and a 25-year-old mistress on call, you’ll be free to wear French cuffs."

http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_4124

My Details subscription’s been going strong for nigh on two years – give or take a couple months – and I’ve gotta admit, that magazine presently tops the list of my favorite monthlies. It’s up there with perennial worthies The New Yorker and The Wire but way above Rolling Stone, SPIN, and Blender -- old favorites that I’m beginning to feel increasingly too out-of-touch for with each passing issue (RS’s ever-diligent political coverage aside) – even if I’m not so sure that I’m anything like a member (or destined to be, ever) of its future-boardroom-raider, hyper-groomed demographic. Or to be more current, I may not be metrosexual enough to be a legitimate reader (which reminds me of something my friend Bill said when I told him I was into Details: “Isn’t that magazine for gay dudes?”).

Every issue there’s a column in while one staff writer or another puts the smackdown on a fashion trend he or she finds pervasive and obnoxious – hoodies under blazers, ski caps worn in warm weather or indoors, wearing snarky/ironic/obscene/”funny” t-shirts after age 22, the half-tuck, and most recently, cuff links on newbie MBAs. They’re enjoyable for me in the same voyeuristic way that reading National Geographic is: each issue is so far removed from the reality of my own life that it’s pure entertainment. Same goes for the longer mini-features about exhausted ladder-climbers and corporate ass-kissers and how one goes about procuring fine designer smokables.

Just the same, lately I’ve been wondering if, perhaps, I should be worrying about these things at this point – the shirts I wear, the way I talk, the way I greet my superiors, and so on. I mean, I’m fairly happy as is, but sometimes it occurs to me that I don’t take adult life quite as seriously as a lot of other people, and that if I did – if I concerned myself with appearance, and networking, and socializing, and being considerably better at work (both the day-job and the freelancing) that perhaps I would be a fuller, more well-rounded person than I am presently. Parenthood – and moving to central PA – may force a new me to emerge; maybe a better me.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Flashing Back: My 2004 Pazz & Jop Ballot

WARNING: dull-ass listmaking crap ahead.

http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/pazznjop/04/critic.php?criticid=4929

In the next week or so, I'll be posting links to my 2005 P&J ballot (and the overall shebang) and what I'm calling a "shadow ballot" for last year, featuring albums and singles that didn't quite make the cut or simply just came into view a bit too late to rate.

Also, don't buy Eminem's new best-of, and here's why: http://www.staticmultimedia.com/content/music/reviews/cd/review_1137356614

Thursday, January 19, 2006

“311, I Am Ready To Fight.”

Sometimes there’s just nothing to add to a topic or circumstance; all one can do is post a link and leave you to click or skip. But regardless of whether you love, hate, or just don’t care about multi-million unit-shifting Christian-rock band Creed and its fallout, the thread below will have you squirming in your chair with barely-contained laughter, coffee squirting out your nose, teeth crushing bottom lips. You just can’t make this stuff up, seriously.

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php?msgid=6486197

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

What I Got For Christmas, Vol. 2



Aaron Dilloway Bad Dreams (PACrec) Wherein Mssr. Dilloway reminds us of the effectiveness of looping and re-looping scary electronically-generated sounds – overtaxed machinery, sinister chipping noises, squeaky hinges, etc. – whilst layering still more loops atop those loops and sometimes cranking the volume to obliterate the original loops, successfully instilling a mesmerizing sense of ...creeping dread in the listener. It’s almost as though he’s found a tap into the consciousnesses of his homemade sonic contraptions, a way to capture the psychic agony of his machines. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I dig Bad Dreams more than any Wolf Eyes record I’ve encountered, save maybe Slicer (Dilloway is a member of Wolf Eyes).

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Naming Names, Namely

Alecia and I are in the process of cobbling together a list of baby names; we’re leaning towards the Native American (particularly Blackfoot and Cherokee as I’ve got blood from the former and she’s got it from the latter) and away from the usual boring Judeo-Christian/American possibilities (just like everyone else, right?). Obviously we’ve miles to go here, but if you come across anything, please post it as a comment along with a meaning.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Adios, Michael Olesker...

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=11319

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/5835659/detail.html?rss=bal&psp=news

This whole thing saddens me. I’ve never been a huge Baltimore Sun booster -- I find the paper largely lacking in personality -- but on the rare occasions when I actually read it I took time out to read Olesker if he was in that day (or Gregory Kane or Dan Roddicks, who are also great in their own ways). This seems like the sort of thing that could happen to ANYONE filing deadlines on local or national news every day, if the time and expense were taken to look.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

And now, the envelope, please....

The big news is this: Alecia and I are going to become parents this year! We're due in late August, early September. So hopefully most of you are ready to become figurative aunts and uncles!