That Silly Ghost in the Floor

Advances for the final wave of this year's releases have been sent out, and so the past week has yielded copies of:

• The Exploding Hearts - Shattered
• My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
  
• Pas/Cal - Dear Sir EP
• Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
  
• The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
  
• Voxtrot - Your Biggest Fan EP
  
• Tom Waits - Orphans

A very productive week to be sure. I've got opinions on all of them, so I thought I'd spend some time talking about each, one by one. So here goes.





The Exploding Hearts - Shattered
This is a compilation of B-sides and unreleased tracks from the all-too-short career of the Exploding Hearts. It's a testament to the band's talent that this doesn't sound like the typical B-sides compilation at all, this sounds more like a fresh album filled with quality material. In particular, the previously-unreleased 'Busy Signals' and the early single '(Making) Teenage Faces' are among the Hearts' best material, filled with massive hooks, crunchy guitars, that lo-fi punk production, and just sheer quality through and through. The second half of the compilation is made up of some alternate mixes of tracks found on Guitar Romantic, the Hearts' lone album, and these alternate mixes aren't really all that revelatory. But again, this compilation stands as a testament to the talent of this band; Shattered would be a work that most bands would be thrilled to present as their own, which only serves to highlight the brilliance of Guitar Romantic and the Exploding Hearts in general. I haven't heard that Nice Boys album yet, it's the new album by the lone surviving member of the group, but I've heard generally positive reviews of it, so that should be up in my queue soon.


My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Uh, lol. Breihan's got some good stuff to say about the video for their lead single. I'm really tempted to actually listen to this once, I think the unintentional humor levels would be absolutely off the charts if the video is representative of the album's direction. The best part of the video is our first shot of the band, and the drummer looking really intense in slow motion. Kills me.




Pas/Cal - Dear Sir EP
So here we are. I can't think of a release this year that I've anticipated more, not even I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass can match up with this. Last week, I got to hear 'C.A.U. (Sans Muscle)', and as discussed in a post last week, I was impressed. And then, the full EP leaked. I was torn as to whether or not I should take the plunge and listen to it. My expectations for it were through the roof, so chances are it would be a disappointment, and my appreciation for Pas/Cal would decline forevermore, which would be a shame. On the other hand, there was nothing in the band's track record to suggest that such a disappointment could even be possible. Then I thought, I'm going to have to listen to it eventually right? No, I thought for a moment, no I don't. I can leave it on the shelf forever, and just stare at the album cover longingly a few times each day. Right? Ridiculous. Besides, I'd already paid money to preorder my own copy, so hearing the advance won't really hurt the band any, I've already given them my money. So I gave in to my atavistic urges and started up the record.

First track, 'Little Red Radio'. Awesome. Really upbeat, fun, catchy, amazing. Second track, 'C.A.U. (Sans Muscle)'. Still hasn't gotten old, still amazing. Third track, 'Dear Sir'. What. In. The. Hell. Pas/Cal have suddenly taken a side road into Animal Collective territory, like they went out into the forest and communed with Gaia while tripping on shrooms, then came back into the studio and just jammed for a while, man. Somehow, surprisingly, it works. Fourth track, 'The Lot We Came Home With'. If you told me this was a Belle & Sebastian b-side, I'd believe you for days. Too bad it's also b-side quality. Probably the weakest Pas/Cal I've heard thus far, but I'll forgive them. Last track, 'Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up', is a pretty derivative closer, but it's not bad, just not great either.

I hope that this EP is just leftovers that were cut from the final album, because it's probably the weakest of their three EPs so far. Fortunately, that still makes it an above-average release by typical indie rock standards, with at least two tracks that will be getting heavy play for me. I'm still thirsting for Citizen's Army Uniform, due out in January 2007, so I look forward to hearing that. In the meantime, Pas/Cal are still great.




Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
Actually I haven't listened to this yet. This is one of those rare cases where I'll wait for my pre-ordered copy to arrive in the mail, rather than jumping on the advance. I'll just say that Wowee Zowee is by far my favorite Pavement album, it's not even close. That's not to say that Crooked Rain Crooked Rain or Slanted and Enchanted are bad albums, because they're not, they're actually the best albums ever. Other than Wowee Zowee. In addition to the album proper's quality, the b-sides from this era are completely classic, stuff like 'Easily Fooled' and 'Painted Soldiers' are so aces. But of course, the real exciting material is all the unreleased songs and live performances that Matador has generously included. These Pavement reissues have been the picture of exactly what a reissue should be; the archives have been completely cleaned out, without going completely overboard and offering massive box sets of aborted takes and alternate mixes. To be honest, I thought the unreleased material on the Crooked Rain reissue was pretty weak, but I'm extremely glad that they were included, just for completist's sake. I'm crossing my fingers for another reissue on the level of Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe, and judging from the b-sides, that should be exactly what we get, and I can't wait.


The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Someone summed up The Shins really well by drawing an analogy to candy: it's really really incredible at first, and you just can't get enough of it, but then it quickly dissolves and you completely forget about it. When Chutes Too Narrow arrived, I don't think I listened to anything else for the next three or four weeks. Then, I abruptly stopped, and I never listened to the album ever again. I finally popped it in again earlier this week, after a three year hiatus. I was surprised at how well the album stood up, but I doubt I'll revisit it again.

Wincing the Night Away, however, is no Chutes Too Narrow. I've listened to this about three times now, and only 'Red Rabbits' remains a good song. I don't like this album. It's derivative, poorly-written, and plain boring, that's all. There's some folks who genuinely enjoy it, but I'm not one of them. There's also one person on rateyourmusic.com who's already given it a 5-star rating, which made me lol. I wonder if The Shins sent a promo copy to Zach Braff.




Voxtrot - Your Biggest Fan EP
Come on, three songs, that's all you've got? Talk about milking your fans for their money. And that's why I'm not giving them my money. Also, because I don't particularly like their music. But a lot of others have gotten really frighteningly cultish about the group, mirroring my relationship with Pas/Cal, so I'm in a continuous state of trying to discover Voxtrot's appeal. I may have found it, because the second song 'Trouble' is one of the best songs I've heard all year. It's got a very catchy chorus, and the buildup to the final chorus is just immaculately done, pretty much perfectly written and executed. Unfortunately, the other two songs are completely flat to my ears, so I guess I'm still searching for that elusive Voxtrot attractiveness. But at least they're hitting .333 with an impressive slugging percentage of 1.333 in this series, so it may be time to call them up to the big leagues. But they'll have to improve their plate discipline in order to unseat Pas/Cal at shortstop.




Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards
A massive 3-disc set, filled with both rare unreleased material and some new material as well. Actually, I haven't listened to this either, but come on, it's Tom Waits. Must be good. Actually, more than good: instant classic. That's why I'm saving this for the proper release as well. What an amazing year for music so far.



Almost...too amazing...



I love that photo.




Links that are better than that Shins album, and may or may not change your life:

• You remember that Sony Bravia commercial with all the bouncing balls in the streets of San Francisco? Sony's now got a new Bravia commercial featuring explosions of paint, and you can download it here.
• Anyone who's seen me using a computer knows that I x3 keyboard shortcuts, so I'm gleeful to learn that you can press Ctrl+Backspace (or Option+Delete on a Mac) to delete the entire word to the left of your cursor in one fell swoop. Thanks Lifehacker.
  
• The Economist thinks that the Nobel Peace Prize should take a break.
• According to this investigative report, the nation's No Fly List is an absolute joke. Though I still believe that it's better to be safe than sorry, this is pretty sobering.
• A short interview concerning pickpockets.
• This lightbulb looks amazing.
• There's now an easier way to move a lot of files between computers. Maybe I just missed it, but why wasn't this thought of earlier?
• Here's some really bling bottled water. Apparently Paris Hilton lets her dog drink it. That's an endorsement if I've ever heard one.
• You know those Motion Capture tests, where sensors are attached to the body to create a more accurate computer representation? EA Sports makes fun of it with these great commercials for Fifa 07 featuring Wayne Rooney going berserk and Juninho playing with otters, while David Villa's is just plain absurd and incredible. Unfortunately, the Ronaldinho one isn't as good, but if you're going to see the other three, why not be a completist about it.
• Srsly, how hard would it be to make the US Olympic Handball Team? Apparently, pretty freaking hard, nice article.
  
• Find out how much of your favorite caffeinated drink could kill you. I'd have to drink 825 bottles of Snapple Sweet Iced Tea to kick the bucket. Let's get started! Evelyn also points out that the site features coffee-flavored yogurt and coffee-flavored jello, which we've decided that we must try immediately. Or at least, I will.
  
• Get rid of those stacked measuring cups, here's an adjustable measuring cup. Again, brilliant, why didn't anyone come up with this sooner.
• For you musicians, here's a nice-looking online metronome, also gives an A440 pitch.
• Ten coins can give you perfect change for any occasion. Of course, that's useless after only one go-around, but I always find it so satisfying to have perfect change, and so for some reason I feel like this is a worthwhile cause to pursue.
• Make some really beautiful flame fractals.
• A hands-on review of the Zune, Microsoft's soon-to-be-released mp3 player that some are calling an iPod killer. I'm actually very very tempted to get a Zune, as I'm not a fan of iPods at all, and this looks like a quality product from Microsoft, for once.
• Another very addicting game. Supposedly US Air Force pilots can average more than 60 seconds in this game, but I've never topped 10 seconds, haha. I'm just not cut out for the NBA, it seems.
  
• Wallpapr is a nice way to automatically generate wallpapers from flickr.
• The Japanese Giant Salamander, which can reach lengths of almost five feet, is already an endangered species, but a recently discovered small colony of albino individuals near Hiroshima is even rarer, so the question is whether or not the nuclear explosion had any influence on this aberration. By the way, these salamanders also grew to a length of thirty feet and are currently destroying Tokyo.
  
• Use ring finger length as a way to determine athletic ability.
• Incredibly hysterical movie reviews from a Christian watchdog. WFMU's blog has a good description of the site:

  But it's the lengthy reviews, strange plot summaries and excrutiatingly detailed category offense listings that nearly steal the show every time. For instance, Fight Club gets one demerit point each in the Impudence/Hate category for "encouraging sadness" and "nihilism and glorification of it," as well as "impudence toward boss = 'enlightened'," "praying for car wreck," "belittlements," "punk music in startup background" and Helena Bonham Carter's "punk dress." Speaking of, Hollywood seems to mean nothing to CAP, as actors and directors aren't even mentioned on many of the site's reviews - just the title and year of release.

  I've got nothing against Christianity, I think most of my friends are actually Christian, but these reviews are among the best I've ever read. Not even Air Bud, Narnia, or Peter Pan can escape this dude's wrath.

Monsters of the Midway, with Intermission Between Acts

Finally, I got to kick back tonight to watch Monday Night Football, for the first time all season. Combinations of orchestra rehearsal and literal piles of homework have taken me away from such a luxury during the schoolweeks, but today I got to stretch out on the couch, bring out the chips and salsa, plus a tall glass of orange juice (Bojangles sweet tea supply already exhausted), and just watch the game.

First off, I'd totally forgotten that the Hank Williams MNF Theme Song even existed. What a terrible song. Seriously, does anybody like the song at all? Obviously we all know the MNF instrumental theme, ESPN even played off that with a series of commercials featuring everyday workers humming it on the way to work, but the Hank Williams song? I don't know anybody who likes it, yet every week they need to feature footage of him "performing" it live, all intense-like. I get much more excited and pumped up by the instrumental theme, no need to feature an ancient country washup in the pregame. I've already forgotten how the song actually goes now, I just have this massive image of Hank Williams' face filling the camera shot, branded into my skull. What a nightmare, and I mean that quite literally.

As for the game itself, the Cardinals come out and just take care of business, Leinart mechanically guiding the team down the field for two touchdowns and a couple of field goals in the first half. The kid looks incredibly calm and collected, he's going to be a great quarterback some day for sure. I will note that he didn't make any long throws, most of the long gains came after the catch, but at least Leinart made the proper reads and delivered the ball accurately.



That's a huge contrast from Rex Grossman. Two interceptions and two fumbles in the first half would seem to explain the large enclosed circle associated with your team's name on the scoreboard. Meanwhile on defense, the Bears didn't do anything particularly poorly, but Leinart just did a good job of picking them apart. Meanwhile, Edgerrin James remains useless. If you drafted him for your fantasy team, you are a fool. Please see my team if you would like to see a model of success. At least, this week.

And so we reach halftime. I was looking for something to do during halftime, and I felt like I'd been doing something fairly interesting before the game started, but I'd forgotten what that actually was. Then I realized: it was the new Jay-Z video.

There are times such as these when I'm really, really tempted to plagiarize. Tom Breihan's writeup on both the song and video are pretty spot-on, but clearly for ethical/legal reasons I can't just claim his work as my own, as much as I'd love the fame and glory that comes along with such brilliant blogwork. Anyways, you can find the full post over here, and I'll attach the Jay-Z segment below (Also please note that the My Chemical Romance section brought incredible lols, but is unfortunately unrelated to the issues at hand):

Jay-Z: "Show Me What You Got." The song leaked last week, and the internet's been hating it since then, mostly because Jay's lyrics are undeniably lazy, the sort of stuff he probably comes up with on the toilet. But it totally works with the video. Just Blaze's beat sounds lush and expensive, with that "Rump Shaker" horn riff languidly snaking over all those hectic drum-fills and organ-blurts. The video doesn't have much of a plot: Jay rides around in cars with famous racecar drivers and drives a boat in circles and raps at a casino on the beach where people are dancing with torches or whatever. But F. Gary Gray edits everything really quickly and uses all kinds of split-screen pyrotechnics. The whole thing reminds me of the opening credits to Hawaii Five-O, and that's my favorite shit ever. Jay Smooth calls it "yet another episode of 'Hooray! I'm rich! Watch me do rich people things!'," and that's true enough, but it's all done with such breathless verve that I'm really looking forward to seeing it on an actual TV instead of a smudgy-ass YouTube scan.

True enough, I'd been watching the video before the game started. And I totally agree with Breihan, Just Blaze's production is amazing as usual, but Jay-Z's rapping is a little uninspired here. The video is, however, really really well done, I agree. I too was looking forward to seeing it on a real tv, outside of the YouTube vid which I now see has been taken down, sadly. I'm sure it'll pop up elsewhere, do some searching around. Edit: Yeah, do a youtube search, there's a few copies up again.

But just as I was about to head back to my computer to watch the video again, Stuart Scott came on for the Halftime Report, and things took a turn for the incredible. He's got a fairly normal sportscaster vocabulary most of the time, but now suddenly Scott was dishing out phrases like, "Jigga's got a new record droppin in Novembeh, homies," while making exaggerated hand motions, and I just started loling, and totally missed everything else he said, which I greatly regret. But yeah, turns out ESPN was about to unveil the exact video I was hoping to see, its first airing on national television. Funny how things work like that.



Well, not exactly, as it was an edited version with a bunch of NFL highlights spliced in to make it marginally relevant to ESPN. The screen-splitting now showed the Jigga and Dale Earnhardt Jr. cruisin', Danica Patrick checking her mirrors, the two cars aerial-view, and Michael Vick diving for the endzone. You'd also get Jay spittin' at the camera, then a quick cut to Tiki Barber juking out some poor Falcons linebacker. And as the video went on, the editing got heavier, until they cut out the entire second verse with respective boat scene (my favorite scene! those bastards), cutting straight to the casino, which was actually shown less than the football footage. Prominently featured was Jeff Fisher awkwardly celebrating his first victory of the year as if it were the Super Bowl, and the juxtaposition of ecstatic white boy Fisher with coolness personified in Jay-Z was fantastic. The whole thing was short too, probably only two minutes, before we went back to the Time Warner Cable and Verizon commercials. Oh well, a nice enough break, and we continue into the second half.

Edit: I totally forgot, the video came up again during the third quarter, this time in a Budweiser Select commercial. It was a lot of alternate shots taken from the video sessions, except now they're suddenly drinking Bud instead of expensive wines at the casino party. Closing shot: Jay-Z sitting in this plush chair, cigar smoke snaking through the air, spits out, "The King is back!" They're really pushing this comeback, aren't they.

Third quarter, the Bears still can't get anything going on offense, and the Cardinals are content to sit on their substantial lead. Since the game isn't going anywhere, we get more and more shots of the ecstatic Cardinals fans, and I became amused at the dedication of some of these fans. One Cardinals fan was wearing this t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan PROTECT THE NEST in a massive font, and he was incredibly intense, pumping his fists and screaming at the camera, and I couldn't help but laugh. PROTECT THE NEST, what an absurd slogan, is that supposed to pump me up? PROTECT THE NEST. So awesome, I suppose that's what you get for having a small songbird as your mascot. Somehow, this was topped by a Bears fan who was shown at least three or four times, who wore a normal black t-shirt, except that he'd made a neon Chicago Bears logo sign, somehow attached to the shirt, which he could light up at the press of a button. What. I can't imagine how you could possibly look like a bigger fool. Despite all this, American football still doesn't seem to compare to European football in terms of the fans' fanaticism; do you remember all that World Cup footage of lighted flares being thrown around, the town squares literally packed with fans watching on a projector screen? Not even mentioning hooligan riots, or that Colombian footballer who got shot by angry fans after scoring an own goal against the US. I feel like sports are just simply absurd in general, but so what, they're still awesome.



So last play of the third quarter, Kornheiser and Theismann are talking about clock management, when suddenly Leinart gets sacked from behind and the football flies out of his hand, a fumble! Mike Brown recovers for a touchdown, and now the Bears are only down 23-10. So what, everyone thought, the Bears have looked completely incompetent on offense, and the Cardinals should be able to sustain drives and run out the clock. Some minutes later, what do you know, Grossman throws another pick. After some mild amusement at the sight of a defensive end rumbling down the field with a convoy of Cardinals celebrating around him, the return is brought back because his knee was down, and Leinart and the offense promptly go nowhere. So Grossman gets the ball back, and throws another interception. I can't imagine a quarterback having a worse game. Four interceptions, two fumbles, zero touchdowns. Probably hurt your fantasy team somewhat.

Now, the Cardinals try and run the clock down with the run, but then, Urlacher makes a brilliant play and strips the ball away from Edge, and Charles Tillman returns that for a touchdown. And suddenly, the Bears are only down by six. Theismann is starting to panic. Kornheiser is just flipping out. Everyone outside of Chicago wants the Cardinals to win this game, but everyone can smell it: the Bears are somehow on the verge of reeling this game back in, against all odds.

There's only five minutes left in the game, so if Leinart can just sustain a drive, they'll be safe. But no luck, a couple of passes batted at the line, and Edge gets stuffed a few more times by Urlacher, and its time to punt.

Devin Hester returns the punt for a touchdown.

The entire state of Arizona melts down, and the apocalypse ensues.

The score was 23-3 with five seconds left in the third quarter, but now the Bears are up 24-23, without even scoring an offensive touchdown, and actually having one of the most offensively incompetent games in recent memory. But there is still some hope, sez Theismann, as Leinart has looked quite good thus far, and this is the sort of environment he thrived in at USC. Remember last year's unforgettable Notre Dame game? And sure enough, short completions to Boldin, Ayanbadejo, and a few other faceless Cardinals brings them into field goal range for the automatic Neil Rackers, who now has a chance to save face and win the game.

He misses to the left.

That Bears fan gleefully lights up his neon shirt-sign, and the entire world melts down, and the apocalypse ensues.



Good game, good game. But Kornheiser and Theismann stated it pretty well: everyone wanted to see Leinart bring the Cardinals back. And he pretty much did, Rackers just forgot that he gets paid millions of dollars to kick footballs well, and they lost the game. Again, they were up 23-3, and lost to a team who had 6 turnovers and touchdowns coming from defense and special teams. If I were a member of the Arizona Cardinals, or if I was a rabid fan, this is about the time that I would get that ceremonial samurai sword out from storage, and commit ritual seppuku. I'm so glad that all of my teams are competent, except for the Bobcats but at least they have a good excuse.

After the Phillies lost out on the NL Wild Card race on the final day, we asked the fanatical Phillies fan who works in Tarble for his thoughts, he was completely emotionless, he simply looked at us and said, "I've been a Phillies fan for over fifty years, I'm not surprised that this happened at all, so I'm not even upset." I sincerely hope that my Panthers, Tar Heels, Hurricanes, and Bobcats never sink to such a low level, as it would truly destroy my soul. Let's just conveniently ignore the fact that the Tar Heels just lost to Central Florida in football. I always forget that they have a football team. But for now, I'm very sorry Cardinals fans, the nation mourns with you. Your quarterback has a bright future ahead, just don't count on anyone else to be decent.

Edit: I really like this stat. In the final 22 minutes of the game, the Bears offense managed...39 yards, two interceptions, no touchdowns. Yet they overcame a 20 point deficit to win. Unbelievable.





Show me what links you got:

• Certainly, as illustrated tonight, sports can be incredibly agonizing, and even a little absurd. But there are times when sports can become absolutely transcendant. The Wharton girls asked me before the break: When was the last time I cried? I said it was a few weeks earlier, watching a replay of the Music City Miracle. I wasn't lying. I almost choked up again today, watching Magglio Ordonez's walkoff homer to send the Detroit Tigers into the World Series today. Or David Ortiz's walkoff single in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS. In all three videos, just listen to the call, and look at the fans. Look at the fans. I'm tearing up just typing this. How sad is that, that the only thing that makes me cry is sports, and it's not even my home teams that we're considering. Long live sports, and congratulations, Tigers fans.
• A pretty good compilation of bone-crushing NFL tackles throughout the years.
• Some great time-lapse footage from the cities, reminds me a lot of Koyaanisqatsi and such.
• This website has a really fantastic design, lots of fun.
• The portrait photographer Philippe Halsman asked his subjects to jump, to loosen them up, and here's a sample of his work, and a nice article too.
• Kids these days are so spoiled. Now they can get night vision goggles that shoot darts. Srsly guys, you could've invented this 15 years ago, get with the program.
• Instructions for making your own beanbag chair.
• Useful website where you can print up pdf calendars, graph paper, sudoku puzzles, and all that jazz.
  
• Someone compiled a map of the town of Springfield from The Simpsons, with frightening detail.
• A very mysterious boat has been sighted in the waters off Washington state.
• And finally, Radar Magazine has listed the 10 dumbest politicians on Capitol Hill, with some pretty great anecdotes for each one.

  McKinney fought back by proudly producing a survey that ranked her as the 277th most effective legislator in the House. In fact the survey, by congress.org, placed her at 408.

• That's it and that's all, have a nice week.
  

So Wrong, And You Know It

Awhile back, I took up a Hipinion challenge to list my five favorite songs by my five favorite artists. Now, a new challenge has arisen, asking for an update on my ten favorite records of the 00's. I will not link to the thread proper, as it's pretty much a disaster, I'm disappointed in and surprised at everyone's poor taste. Not that my tastes are any better:


Favorite albums, 2000-2006:
01. Joanna Newsom - Ys
02. The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic
03. The Books - Thought for Food
04. The Mountain Goats - The Coroner's Gambit
05. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
06. Weezer - Weezer [The Green Album]
07. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
08. Destroyer - Streethawk: A Seduction
09. Shugo Tokumaru - Night Piece
10. Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned

Breakdown by year:
2000 - 2 albums (#4, 7)
01 - 2 (6, 8)
02 - 1 (3)
03 - 2 (2, 10)
04 - 1 (9)
05 - 0
06 - 2 (1, 5)

Feel free to post your own lists for comparison/ceaseless-mocking.

I know I'm going to catch a ton of flak for The Green Album. Not even most Weezer fans really like it. But I will defend it until the day I die; it's one of the best pop albums in my collection. The singles are my least favorite songs on the album, strangely enough.

Looks like 2006 has been an amazing year. Yo La Tengo's new album just missed this cut as well. By that breakdown, it looks like 2005 was really terrible, but I think the albums last year were pretty consistently good, there just weren't any unbelievable standouts in my mind. For the record, Andrew Bird was my top album of 2005.

It's a pretty embarrasingly lightweight list in general, I haven't taken any huge risks here, you'll find all of these albums on many other people's lists as well. Yeah, what a silly list. Just looking at it, I hate it. What am I thinking. My indie elitist attitude wants me to find some obscure records to casually toss onto the list, but I can't summon up anything else that I could honestly say tops these. I've excluded EPs by the way, so no The Tain, no Pas/Cal, etc.



Speaking of Pas/Cal, it has recently come to my attention that the first track of their upcoming Dear Sir EP is now making the rounds on the world wide web. A quick "Google" search revealed a link to the song entitled 'C.A.U. (Sans Muscle)' at the blog You Ain't No Picasso. I have a really unhealthy obsession with this band; they've become one of my favorite bands ever despite the fact that they've only released two EPs to date. The Dear Sir EP, due in November, will be the third, with the full-length Citizen's Army Uniform due out in 2007, I believe. I have already preordered my copy of Dear Sir, and I fully expect Citizen's Army Uniform to eventually become an inclusion on the above top ten list. This song, by the way, is not bad at all. A lot less structured than the typical Pas/Cal tune, reminds me somewhat of a condensed version of 'What do the American Girls Have on Jennifer Jo Jo'. Man, I really love Pas/Cal, and I just don't know why. And that's how love works, innit. Edit: Last.fm will likely be needed to confirm this, but I think that over the past day, I've listened to this track over forty times, which would immediately catapult it into my top 30 overall chart, even though I may not exhaust this track for another few days, not even considering the amount of play I'll give the full EP once it actually arrives. This track has breakout potential, and I'm loving it more and more.

Oh, I've listed it, but I don't think I've discussed The Crane Wife here. I was in the process of elaborating on my views in a lengthy, epic blog post, but deleted the draft after only a single paragraph. For now, my capsule review on WSRN's spiffy new webpage should suffice. Mr. Baker has posted a harsh criticism in The Phoenix, which I may or may not decide to respond to. I'm not sure it's really worth it, in the long run, so I doubt I will. He's got good tastes, and it's not like we'll ever change each other's minds, so we'll let things lay as they are.

I've probably got a lot of other topics that I'm forgetting to cover, but that's just about it for now. We're done with the first quarter of my junior year, and I'm about to head home for the fall break. It's really unbelievable to realize that the semester is already half-over, meaning that after another quarter I'll probably be off to the Australian rainforest, with just six weeks remaining to see this year's graduating seniors. And after that, I only have one year left at Swarthmore. And then it's off into the real world. Unbelievable.




Sundry links:

• Related to my list, what's the best novel of the past 25 years?
• Why is 8.5 x 11 the standard size for paper in the United States?
• This guy looks like the best teacher ever.
• Terrell Owens has a series of children's books coming out. I laugh everytime I think about this. Too bad he's sinking my fantasy team and his real team as well. What a circus.
• Some little kids playing streetball. I really was this good in elementary school, I promise, until I altered my shot mechanics and stopped working on my dribbling.
  
• Those silly jack-o-lanterns are for wussies, this is how real pumpkins should be carved.
• Watch street artists work on a constantly mutating painting for a week.
• Some sadly rejected games for the upcoming Nintendo Wii.
• The final tracklist for Guitar Hero II has been unveiled. I will be all over this game, the list looks even better than the last.
• The new game Bully, by the makers of Grand Theft Auto, is not what people expected at all. Turns out it's actually a moral lesson for the kids. Props to the developers.
  
• Find out how to send an elevator straight to your floor, skipping all floors in-between even if a fellow passenger has selected them. Sadly this didn't work on the Parrish elevators, but I'm keeping my hopes up.
• The X Prize Foundation, which previously rewarded the race to produce a privately-constructed space rocket, has now focused its attention on the human genome. I really respect this use of resources.
• How commitment helped out in this great poker story. This is from the author of that Freakonomics book.
• Finding animals in the London Underground.
• Various tourmates tell their worst stories about Yo La Tengo. Often brought the lols.
• Related to my top record of the decade, here's an interview with Joanna Newsom, conducted over email by Carl Wilson, mostly concerning the album. David Byrne also has some things to say about Newsom, along with some interesting notes on music in general.
• Some seriously nice workplaces. Once again, Google tops the list, but I'm glad to see that the VW Phaeton plant makes the cut as well. I actually kind of want a Phaeton now.
  
• By now you've probably seen the USB air darts, but now we have a USB Circus Cannon. Yes.
• For the cinephile in your life, the DVD Rewinder. Yeah, lol.
• Using the same concept as those hybrid vehicles on the road, take a step towards getting off the grid by switching to hybrid lighting, with tax credit available as a bonus.
• Spectacular panoramic shot of Rio de Janeiro, taken from just below Christ the Redeemer.
• A quirky addition to your writing tools, a pocket brush pen.
• Michelin is developing airless tires.
• Find out when fall colors will peak in your area. Also, here's some instructions for crafting roses out of maple leaves. This reminds me that I seriously need to get back into the Ecology lab to finish up my litterfall work.
• Last week, I posted composite photos of the typical Sydney resident, and now we have a composite photo of the typical attractive woman. Very nice, I agree.
• After North Korea's recent nuclear weapons test, the Hiroshima Peace Clock has been reset. Meanwhile, here's North Korea's official announcement on the test, which is really disturbingly funny, the very definition of black humor it seems. For me, the scariest part isn't what NK will do with the bomb (though that's obviously pretty scary in and of itself), but who they'll be willing to give the technology to.
• I don't wish to imply anything here, but here's an article on Koran recitation competetions. This actually seems like a really interesting spectacle to witness, and I admire the determination and dedication of these kids.
• Jackson Pynchon, who is Thomas Pynchon's son, is on facebook. I'm beginning to wonder: have his friends ever seen his dad? Does he have family photos on his computer or anything? Has Thomas Pynchon ever gone to a parent-teacher conference or anything? Or a performance that Jackson was involved in? Still the best author.
  
• I might be visiting the State Fair over the break, and as a reminder of what to expect, here's some Deep Fried Coca-Cola. Once they nail down sweet tea, I'm there.
• A new finch species has been discovered from a remote region of Colombia.
  

And finally, my condolences go out to the friends and family of Cory Lidle. Rest in peace.

Reflections on the Sabbath, 1

Ostensibly, class discussion in my Religion & Ecology class today was to center upon our readings on Judaic attitudes towards nature, and any substantial differences in environmental viewpoints between Judaism and Christianity. I'll readily admit that I didn't do any of the week's readings, as I've had papers due in the past three consecutive days, including today's Religion & Ecology paper which I successfully completed in 1.5 hours the morning of class. Prof. Wallace acknowledged that many other students would likely sit in the same boat, so instead conversation steered towards concepts grounded in more practical questions raised by the reading.

I won't go into the details of how this conversation arose, or the myriad responses, but one question regarded whether a 'Sabbath of the mind' could be possible at Swarthmore, or anywhere else. That is, whether one could get a day off just to rest the mind.

Though it doesn't take a full day, I know what I like to do for a sabbath of the mind. When I go birdwatching, I'm not only having fun in a hobby of mine, but the long walks provide a time for thought and reflection, on how things are going, where things are going, and where things have been. Sometimes, these thoughts can get pretty inconsequential and silly, like trying to optimize my fantasy football squad's starting roster. Which clearly requires more thought, looking at my disappointing 1-3 start despite relative statistical success. But at least for a few hours, I can take my mind off classes and focus on the peaceful, reflective strolls through the woods.



What do others do for a sabbath of the mind? A couple of people brought up partying, and that struck me as completely wrong. Not because I have anything against parties, but I don't feel like that constitutes as a sabbath of the mind. When I think of what a Sabbath is, I imagine a restful, reflective mental engagement on life and current issues. Partying is more of an escape rather than a reflection, and it strikes me as being more fun rather than peaceful, and I don't feel like that fits within the spirit of the Sabbath. I think of it more as a day of rest, not a day of fun. Obviously that's just my personal view on the term, others could have completely different opinions on what a Sabbath is and how to treat it.

Do these differing views have to do with our feelings about the work we do? The need for fun on the weekends seems to imply that the work on the weekdays is justifiably un-fun, and so a treat and a pick-me-up are needed. I don't know why that's not the position I've adopted, it's certainly not because I view work as being fun, haha. But I don't really mind it either, truth be told. In fact, I don't really tend to think about work a lot, I just sit down and get it done when necessary, then completely forget that it existed. I do have plenty of fun on the weekdays, not in the partying sense, but just in a social sense, or sometimes in a 'spiritual' sense though I'm not a spiritual person. I can't think of another term to describe personal, internal joy that comes from reading a nice article, hearing good music, or anything else individually related. In general though, I don't need to have special fun on the weekends, as I have plenty of fun during the week, and I don't view work as being particularly un-fun. Those who want to have fun on the weekends are likely those who view work as a desperately exhausting chore, which certainly isn't an unusual or despicable approach, but it's just not the way I personally approach things.

The one thing I really don't feel like I have a lot of time for during the week is reflection. There's a lot of work to be done, both schoolwork and social work, and I don't often get the chance to sit back and think about things. When I do get the urge to relax, take a break, and reflect on things, that's when I head for the long trails, with my binoculars hanging from my left shoulder and a field guide in my pocket, after all, why not, if I'm heading outside.



I suppose I'm a solitary person by nature in that way; my most relaxing moments occur when I'm by myself completely, and I always look forward to returning to my room, as it acts as a recharger for my spirit. I don't really feel like I relax when I'm with other people, I can certainly have fun, but for me fun is completely removed from relaxation. I've read that such a belief is a key difference between introverts and extroverts: introverts recharge by returning to their homes and doing things by themselves, while extroverts recharge by being with their friends. That certainly isn't a black-and-white divide, it's undoubtedly more of a continuum. But I definitely find myself acting as more of an introvert. I really like how that study used the concept of 'recharging', as I feel like that's a really accurate description of what it's like for me to return home.

When I first opened up this blog to non-bird-related posts, I was afraid of turning into one of those sensitive emo-bloggers who turn to their blogs as a diary where they could cry about their life's dramas. That's really the complete opposite of my persona, but this post is really dangerously toeing the line. I'm glad I stopped myself here. Then again, if I'm not an overly emotional person to begin with, I probably wouldn't even have that sort of post in me.




Links, then:

• Time-lapse video of a drive from Olympia to Seattle.
• The capital of Iceland turned off all the lights one night so that people could see the stars. Find out when you can see the stars from your town.
• Photo slideshow of ridiculous treehouses you can buy if you're too lazy to build your own.
• Go inside the Sultan of Brunei's private jet.
• Continuing on the extravagant theme, watch a video explaining the processes behind the most expensive carwash in the world.
• And onto elegantly artistic but fully functional wooden computers to pass on to your kids and your grandkids.
• Also wooden, but far less elegant or functional are these wooden cellphones. Wut.
• This came up in our Sociology of Law course: a very good breakdown of the 2004 Presidential Election, concerning what specific demographic groups voted for whom. I would likely classify myself with the Upbeats.
  
• The pride of Taiwan started Game 1 for the Yankees last night, go Chien-Ming Wang!
  
• One guy has decided to drink a cup of coffee from every single Starbucks in the world.
• If you get your caffeine from soda instead, here's a nice online store of gourmet sodas.
• A uniquely designed Periodic Table of Elements, taking into account the unusual properties of hydrogen.
• More games to test your mouse skills.
• I've recently become re-addicted to Sudoku because of Sudoku Slam, which has some really cool features, and overtakes Web Sudoku as the best Sudoku site on the web in my opinion. Try out Sumo Mode. I'm a huge fan of the Highlight Candidates feature. When I get a Smart Hint on the harder puzzles though, I don't really understand what the colored squares are supposed to be mean. If somebody gets it, please explain to me, I would really appreciate it, thanks. Edit: I just noticed that they posted an explanation. Pretty powerful method, I'll admit.
  
• If you need to write an abstract for your report, or just need to make a paper a little shorter, let Microsoft Word highlight the important points for you. Actually works pretty well, it's almost like Microsoft is competent!
• Wallet 2.0 looks like a fairly nifty and organized wallet for all you hipsters. Be sure to check out the completely absurd companion comic. I don't understand what's going on here at all.
• "...A human head remains in a state of consciousness for one and a half minutes after decapitation, and people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute in a 'heightened state of emotion'. Simple math means that the heads in each of Butler's 62 stories get exactly 240 words for their narratives — first-person, stream-of-consciousness glimpses of the lives they led." This book looks unbelievably interesting. The beheaded folk, by the way, include many historical figures such as Marie Antoinette, John the Baptist, and even Medusa.
• "Using specialist techniques, thousands of portraits of individual people have been compacted to provide a representative male and female "look" for the 160,000 residents of Sydney."
• An elevator without a floor?! Amazing.
• Very good card trick, very well done.
• Interesting article on why football teams should not punt on fourth down. A more qualitative approach can also be found here.
• And I just had to save the best for last. For those of you who don't know, Ryan Adams is a critically acclaimed alt-country singer-songwriter. I really like a few of his songs, in particular the opening two songs on his debut 'Heartbreaker'. But he's gone kind of insane recently, sending long rambling messages on critics' voice mail machines, among other things. But nothing can top this. Ryan Adams just updated his official website, replete with the most unbelievably terrible/hilarious rap song I have ever heard. You have to listen to it all the way through, it's quite amazing at the beginning, but takes a turn for the incredible close to the end. Lyrics can also be found here. This is simply comedy gold. I have not loled this hard in months.
  

I'm liking the random baby in there.