Catch Up

As I stated so eloquently yesterday, I've got a mess of stuff to talk about, so here it is:

James Jean. If you read my recent post about Fables, you might recognize James' work from the covers of the collections. But he's also done some great work for Spin lately (pictured here), as well as some excellent stuff for other magazines and comics. I'm especially digging his cover for Green Arrow 50. But my favorite part of James' site is his blog, which gives the reader insight into how he works. Very cool stuff. I'd love to hire him, although I'm not exactly sure "Top Doctors" or "12 Hot Neighborhoods" is really his thing.

The Weathered Look. I'm always looking for new ways to make my layouts interesting, and lately I've been playing with different ways to antique or weather objects artificially. I've tried a lot of different things, both hand-crafted and digital, but recently I came across a handy little set of Photoshop filters that might make life a little easier. MisterRetro has created some very cool effects with his Machine Wash Filters which seem like they could be a massive step down the road towards getting that weather-beaten look. And for only $32 per disc, what a bargain!

...and the #1 song in the nation is... Here's a fun thing. You can select any day of the year (ideally your birthday) and find out what the #1 song was on that date every year since Billboard has been keeping its charts. The day I was born, the top song was "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & the Pips. But my favorite birthday #1 is definitely 1990: "Ice Ice Baby". Word to your mother.

And finally, Füssball. The Nats take on Poland tomorrow in Kaiserslautern, Germany (TV coverage on ESPN2 at 2 pm eastern). This will be a good chance for the US to see one of the stadiums where they'll play this summer (they face Italy in the same stadium on June 17), but more importantly, it's a chance to work European players into the squad. Barring injuries or big surprises over the next two months, tomorrow's lineup should be very similar to the starting 11 who line up for the first match of the World Cup. The Yanks traditionally don't play well in Europe, so it will be interesting to see how they do tomorrow. Surprisingly, there should be a strong American presence in the crowd due to nearby Ramstein Air Force Base. After playing in front of so many hostile crowds in the US, it might be nice to play in front of a friendly crowd across the pond.

Like it or not, soccer is working its way into the American conciousness. Here's two articles from This Is American Soccer and The Sports Network that take two different angles but both suggest the same thing: soccer is already here, and it's just around the corner from huge popularity. Thanks to Todd and my dad for the links.

Touch string. Make noise.

Me planning on posting bunch of stuff tonight about new illustrator me like and cool Photoshop techniques me trying out and how to figure out #1 song on birthday every year you alive, but then me get distracted by shiny gold guitar (ooooh, pretty) and play along to Back in Black and Led Zeppelin II and Appetite for Destruction for 3 hours, so now me get my dinosaur rock on and feel like caveman. Guitar good. Make loud music, make everything else go away (including neighbors). Me also discover interesting similarity between Angus Young, Jimmy Page and Slash: they all better guitarists than me. Me try to play like them. Now fingers hurt.

The most expensive guitar lesson ever

I had my first guitar lesson tonight. I'm going to a local family-owned place called Arthur's Music. We're doing a story on the store for the magazine, and I had to go over there last week for a photo shoot. I got to talking with Linda and Amy who own the place, and before I left I had signed up for lessons. I've started lessons twice before and quit both times. I've been playing for 12 years and sort of know what I'm doing, so having somebody say, "Buy this book to learn an A chord so you can play 'Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore' and 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' " is not really what I'm looking for. But tonight was great. We actually got into some theory pretty quickly, covering some very basic scales and triads, and my teacher seems to understand what I'm looking for out of this experience. Teach me songs, and then we can talk about how the song is structured. So far, so good. Of course, it may have been the most expensive lesson ever, since I left with a new guitar, amp, case, strap, and cables, but Oh. My. God. This baby is worth every penny.

The Epiphone Les Paul '56 Goldtop Reissue. Two Alnico-V P-90 "soapbar" style pickups. Mahogany/alder body and top. Mahogany neck with 22-fret rosewood fingerboard and trapezoidal mother-of-pearl inlays. Chrome accents. Metallic gold finish. Ever since I played my very first note, this is the guitar I've wanted. The guys who made me want to pick up a guitar are so identified with Les Pauls that they have their own signature models. Jimmy Page plays a Les Paul. Slash plays a Les Paul. And now, so do I.

Since I couldn't afford the $2,500 for the Gibson version, I got the Epiphone reissue. Epiphone is Gibson's "cheaper" brand, but the quality is still much higher than either of the electrics I've owned in the past, and according to Amy, this model is not far off what Gibson is currently cranking out. If I were a professional musician, I'd probably be able to tell the difference, but since I'm not, this guitar is more than enough for me. This is the sweetest instrument I've ever played, and I've only owned it for 5 hours. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I had forgotten how much fun it is to play electric, and the fact that I finally own my dream guitar makes it that much better. It's all mine now. My own. My precious. I'll probably emerge from my apartment sometime towards the end of March.

Crunching numbers

I was playing around on the Last.fm website earlier, and I came across an interesting post. It's always intriguing to me to see how people choose to break things down, so I decided I would play Johannes' game, and here's what I came up with:

Total number of tracks: 11,344

by song title
First song: "¡Americano!" - Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers
Last song: "Zooropa" - U2

by time
Shortest song: "One Last 'Whoo-hoo!' for the Pullman" - Sufjan Stevens (0.06)
Longest song: "Peter and the Wolf" - Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (27.18), which sorta doesn't count. Next in line was: " 'Round Midnight" - Thelonious Monk (22.00)

by album
First song: "Blackened" - Metallica, ...And Justice For All
Last song: "Through Your Eyes" - Matthew Sweet, キミがスキ・ライフ (Kimi Ga Suki)

first five songs that come up on shuffle
1. "Aimum" - Béla Fleck & the Flecktones
2. "Release Part 1, 2, 3" - Blackalicious
3. "Slipping" - Geddy Lee
4. "The Luckiest" - Ben Folds
5. "Gentle Hum" - The Finn Brothers

top ten most played songs
1. "Perfect Situation" - Weezer (34)
2. "Don't Panic" - Coldplay (28)
3. "Like Eating Glass" - Bloc Party (22)
3. "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" - Boris Karloff (22)
5. "I've Been Waiting" - Matthew Sweet (21)
5. "Part of the Queue" - Oasis (21)
7. "Plans" - Bloc Party (20)
8. "Positive Tension" - Bloc Party (19)
8. "The Scientist" - Coldplay (19)
8. "Fix You" - Coldplay (19)
not surprisingly, these are all songs I've taught myself to play (except the Grinch)

search...
"sex", number of songs that turn up: 13
"love": 329
"you": 788
"death": 30
"hate": 12
"wish": 19
and I added a couple of my own...
"black": 66
"white": 35
"boy": 69
"girl": 92

Easy like Sunday, uh, afternoon

Chalk up another W for the Yanks. A very weak US squad (at least on paper) rolled over Guatemala this afternoon in Dallas to the tune of 4-0, getting goals from my boy Ben Olsen, Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, and Chris Klein. Lately, it doesn't seem like it matters who Bruce Arena puts on the field. The engine is humming along, no matter which parts get switched out. Missing all of their European players (except longshot left back Heath Pearce), and even some of the bigger MLS stars (Landon Donovan, Taylor Twellman, and Clint Dempsey were among the players allowed to return to their MLS squads in preparation for their upcoming CONCACAF Champions Cup matches), the US had a rough start, struggling to hold possession and looking very much like a bunch of guys who hadn't really played together. Luckily for them, Guatemala was struggling just as much in the 30-degree temperatures and freezing rain. But much like the Japan match, once the US had a chance to settle down and feel out their opponent, they began to exploit the weaknesses. Guatemala was very susceptible to long cross-field passes, and the US made them pay twice in the first half. First, Klein sent a long ball from the right to Olsen who was streaking up the left side. Olsen touched the ball down, then quickly fired a volley over the Guatemalan keeper, catching him completely by surprise. The US kept up the pressure, and just before halftime, Josh Wolff and Klein played a quick one-two off a restart, and Klein sent another high cross into the box. Brian Ching brought the ball down, created a small amount of space by touching it around his defender, and buried a shot to give the US a 2-0 lead at the break. But the Nats didn't stop there. Arena introduced Eddie Johnson for Wolff in the second half, and Johnson quickly made his presence felt, bulling his way through two defenders and flicking a shot past the keeper less than 2 minutes after the kickoff. And the final blow came off a corner kick. The ball deflected around Guatemala's box and fell to an onrushing Klein, who capped off his stellar day by sending home a bullet from 18 yards. After a shaky 20 minutes to start the match, the US once again dominated play, and Guatemala, already suffering in the wintry conditions, never had much of a sniff at goal, instead forced to endure wave after wave of US attacks. In the four games the Nats have played in 2006, they're 3-0-1, outscoring their opponents 12-1. Not bad at all, but the real test will come in March, when they play two friendlies in Germany against Poland and the Germans.

Good showings from several US players today will make Arena's life even more difficult. Klein was undoubtedly the player who helped himself the most with a goal and two assists, but Ben Olsen also showed well. Brian Ching helped himself by scoring, but still didn't do enough to make me think he'll make the WC roster. Kerry Zavagnin had a better game than usual, and on defense, Jimmy Conrad played an outstanding match, always appearing in the right spot to shut down the few forays Guatemala had into the US end. I also thought Heath Pearce got forward well, although I don't think he has much of a chance of making the World Cup squad. But he's helping himself for the future, that's for sure. That's also the case with Chris Rolfe, who buzzed around the offensive end creating several chances, and was unlucky to have a goal called back early in the match. He's a big long shot as well, but he should see plenty of action after the World Cup is over.

Also, the US debuted their new jerseys today, although strangely, they wore their road kits. I'm not so big on the blue jerseys (I'd prefer that they go back to red shirts for their away matches), but I do really like the retro feel of the white jerseys. Hopefully, we'll see the players wear those in March.

Behold the Right Hand of Doom

If you pay any attention to the "What's Keeping Me busy" lists on the right side of my blog, you may have noticed I've been reading a lot of graphic novels and paperback collections of comic books lately. This is largely due to the happy discovery I made a few months back that the Indianapolis Public Library has a rather extensive collection (check out 741.5 for you Dewey Decimal nerds out there) of classic comics (lately I've read some older Justice League of America, Thor, and Superman) as well as plenty of more current stuff (100 Bullets, Y: The Last Man, Fables, Alan Moore's ABC stories). Like any library, there's a few annoying gaps in some of the more popular series, but they've still got enough to have kept me devouring 8-10 books at a time for the past few months. Yesterday, while looking for something else, I discovered that there are also some comic collections to be found in the Young Adult section, including, strangely enough, Mike Mignola's Hellboy. You may recognize the name from the recent movie starring Selma Blair and Ron Perlman as the titular red demon. Having ripped through a couple of collections yesterday afternoon, I picked up the DVD later in the day to see how the movie compared.

The comic itself is pretty great stuff. The drawings are dark, angular and heavy on the black ink, setting the perfect tone for a book that deals with the occult and folk legends. Mignola is obviously influenced by Jack Kirby in his art and H.P. Lovecraft in his writing, but as he explains in some of his collections, he often begins a Hellboy story by drawing on one of Europe's many folk or fairy tales, such as Eastern Europe's vampires, Ireland's Fair Folk, Russia's Baba Yaga, and stories of various Catholic saints. Having an interest in folklore myself, I found myself enjoying these stories. So I absorbed as much of the comic as possible and then watched the movie. I had already seen it once in the theater and enjoyed it, but had no knowledge of the source material at that point. In terms of Hellboy's origin, the movie stays pretty faithful. Hellboy (The Beast of Revelations fame) was summoned to our dimension in 1946 by a reincarnated Rasputin (working with the Nazis) to unlock a dimensional door with his magical stone right hand and usher in seven ancient demons who will begin the Apocalypse. But instead, Hellboy is saved from the Nazis and raised by a kindly professor who founded the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. HB eventually chooses to fight evil, becoming the BPRD's top agent and protecting the very world he was intended to end. The bulk of the movie takes place 58 years after Hellboy first appears, when Rasputin and several of his immortal Nazi henchmen once again try to use Hellboy to unleash the Apocalypse. The plot is loosely based on Mignola's first HB miniseries, Seeds of Destruction, but goes a bit more into Indiana Jones/X-Files territory than the comic ever does. This is mostly in order to sustain a two hour movie and never feels unnecessary or forced. I did have a few gripes: Hellboy himself spews a few too many cheesy lines for my taste, and the introduction of a human "liason" to ease the audience into Hellboy's character seems a little unnecessary, but by and large it's an entertaining movie, and fairly well-done as far as comic book adaptations go. Not a bad day's entertainment for $13 and a trip to the library.

Local flavor

One of the perks of working for a media company is that every once in a while, something really exciting passes across your desk. Friday was one of those times for me, when I was given an advance copy of the first major release by a local band, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's. Their name has been popping up around town for the past year or so (they played several nights of the Midwest Music Summit and a lot of dates at the now-defunct Patio), but I was never really that interested in seeing them. I kept envisioning a female-fronted ska band. Well, I'll happily admit my mistake on this one. The Dust of Retreat is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. The music is bittersweet and gorgeous, and the first comparison that came to my mind was Bright Eyes without Conor Oberst's lisp. Aside from the usual guitar-bass-drums setup, the band also incorporates cello, keyboards, and trumpet, giving the songs a rich, layered texture that creates a surprisingly mature sound for a band that's only been together for less than two years. Dust has actually been released already on a small local label, but it's been remixed and remastered by Artemis and is slated to get a national release in March. MNSS is already touring the East Coast in support.

You can hear the album streaming at Margot's MySpace page, and read more about them in their official bio (not much help), AllMusic's bio (better), and NUVO, the local alternative weekly paper here in Indy (the most interesting read of the bunch). Me, I'm just excited. I had pretty much given up hope on the local music scene, but if stuff as good as this is coming out of here, maybe it deserves a second chance. I have a feeling big things are ahead for MNSS, but even if that's not the case, I'll keep listening. I mean, they named their band after a character from a Wes Anderson movie. Obviously, genius at work.

Other news from the weekend: Fox ran two hours worth of Arrested Development on Friday night as the "season finale". But as Kristin at E! Online reports, it might as well have been a series finale. Sucks that Fox had such little respect for this show that they put it up against the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and probably ran a total of two commercials over the month leading up to it. At least AD went out on a high note. I still hurt from laughing.

Later that night, the US men beat up on Japan in San Francisco. The final score (3-2, good guys), was in no way reflective of the game. Japan got two late goals after the US had started subbing out half of their starters. Granted, I'd like to have seen the Nats close out the game in a better fashion, but they had played 60 minutes of full-throttle soccer with their foot on Japan's throat, and it's hard to maintain that pace for an entire match. Great games again from Taylor Twellman, with a goal and two assists, Clint Dempsey, who was beaten down almost every time he touched the ball and still managed to score a classy goal, and Eddie Pope, who seems to be rounding into form after a long recovery from injury. For a game that was supposed to be a much tougher test after walking over Norway, the US still looked mighty impressive. And that's always a good sign in a World Cup year.

And finally, I guess the Olympics started. Yawn.

Don't tread... on a widescreen iPod

Soccer in the United States has gone through a number of phases over the last 10 years. First, it was MLS, the new kid on the block, building on the success and featuring the heroes of World Cup '94. Then it was an inexpensive family-friendly alternative to the overblown egos of most pro sports, with easily accessible players who presented a squeaky clean face to the world. Sort of the "we may not make much money, but we sure love our fans" approach. But after the Nats' successful run at World Cup '02, the sport began to take itself a little more seriously. The media profile began to rise. Freddy Adu and Landon Donovan are household names who show up regularly on MTV. Advertisers are beginning to take notice of soccer's appeal and show their love with, well maybe not wads of cash, but at least some decent money. Slowly but surely, US Soccer is creeping its way into the public conciousness. With that in mind, last year Nike began its Don't Tread On This campaign, announcing to the world that the US was no longer a soccer doormat, that we were ready to play on the big boys' level and win. All fine and good, but you need a fan base and an advertising audience that believe that message. Well, here's a big step down that road. US National and New England Revolution midfielder Clint Dempsey (aka Deuce, as the hip-hoppers say) has teamed up with Houston rappers Big Hawk and XO to create "Don't Tread", a rap video that is slated to become the centerpiece for Nike's campaign. This campaign is getting notice from news sources like ESPN.com and Soccer365, among others, and it seems like an interesting new direction for the National Team heading into this year's World Cup. While the overly-blinged hip-hop set isn't really my style, I've got to respect Nike for going for the street cred, since in most parts of the world, it's soccer fields and not basketball courts that fill the poor places. Suckas better recognize. And God, anything's got to be better than that horrendous "Goals, Goals, Goals" song they play at Nats matches now. That shit sounds like the Wiggles on meth. The Nats take on Japan tomorrow night in San Francisco (on ESPN2 at 11:00 ET), which should be a much tougher test than Norway. Japan is also World Cup-bound, so their players are fighting for roster spots just like the US players. I expect this to be a pretty tight game played at a high level. And during the breaks, I would assume we'll see the commercial version of the "Don't Tread" video several times.

In other interesting news, it looks like Apple is already planning to turn their video iPod on its side, preparing a touch-sensitive widescreen iPod for release sometime later this year. Gizmodo and Engadget have the details, and Engadget also has some back story on Apple's patent work for a tablet-style Mac that allowed them to have the touchscreen technology available for the new iPod.

And in other Apple news, the iTunes Music Store is headed for its one billionth download. Cool prizes await, so get in there and buy tracks, people! I need to win me that grand prize! The very thought of a $10,000 iTunes gift card gives me dollar sign eyes...

Freddy's going to England. Oh wait, no he's not.

Just over two weeks after becoming the youngest player ever to appear for the US National Team, Freddy Adu was back in the news today. First, The Times of London reported that a deal is basically done for English superclub Chelsea to purchase Adu's rights from MLS to the tune of $8.7 million. The Times went ahead with the story despite some very large obstacles standing in the way of this deal happening: one, a FIFA regulation prohibiting players from signing a contract with a team outside of their home country until they are 18 (this applies to the senior squad, not a youth system contract), and two, the fact that to get an English work permit, Freddy would have to have appeared in 75% of the National Team's matches over the past two years. 10 minutes last week probably won't cut it. But in a rare move, MLS and DC United issued a statement denying that there were negotiations happening with any team for Freddy's services. What was rare was not the press release, but the fact that it was issued so quickly, the nutcases over at BigSoccer barely had time to analyze the original Times story and start throwing out wild conspiracy theories and questioning whether there are loopholes that would allow Freddy to make this move. (I can speak with authority on this subject because I am one of those nutcases.) The statement from United also led to a story from the Associated Press that basically just rewrites the press release. All very mysterious, and if nothing else, it's some good publicity for MLS during the offseason. If this deal can be done, $8.7 million is a pretty hefty chunk of change for a small league with a tight budget, but you'd have to wonder about the business sense of selling your most recognizable star just as he seems poised for a breakthrough year. And if by some tiny chance, he does make the World Cup roster this summer, his price would undoubtedly go up. On top of that, English papers tend to get a little hyper when it comes to football transfer rumors. Now usually it's the tabloids and not a more respectable paper like The Times who would go with a story like this, but still, I'll be shocked if this deal actually comes to pass.

Entertain me

Got the Super Bowl on in the background as I write this. The commericals seem pretty lame this year. And am I the only one who thought the Stones looked like a bunch of old men pretending to be rock stars? I mean, Mick can still move, but Keith and Ronnie shaking their hips just makes me feel sad. Charlie Watts still appears to be the coolest man alive, though. I don't think I've ever seen that dude break a sweat. Anyway, in between Big Ben's turnovers, I'll catch y'all up on a few things that I've been enjoying lately.

Fables
OK, this may be a little tough to explain, but I'll give it a shot. Fables is an absolutely genius comic book created by a guy named Bill Willingham. The basic idea is that all the fairy tales that we know and love exist. Any fairy tale kingdom from the Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose, or any story that's ever been made into a Disney movie is out there somewhere (sort of like Shrek in a way, but much darker and sexier). But some as-yet-unknown-to-me evil force called The Adversary gathered armies of all the fairy tale monsters and started conquering all these kingdoms. So the characters became refugees, and fled to the real world, where they established a hidden community called Fabletown in New York City for the human "Fables", and a farm in upstate New York for the non-humans. The series mainly follows the exploits of Bigby Wolf (of Red Riding Hood fame—get it? Big B[ad] Wolf?), now Sheriff of Fabletown, and Snow White, the deputy mayor, as they try to keep the communities together under the constant threat of invasion by The Adversary. It's such a fresh idea, and with an almost unlimited supply of characters and backstory to mine, it's easy for Willingham to continually provide an interesting twist on well-known folklore. There are currently 6 paperback collections of the ongoing series, and I just finished #4 this afternoon. I can't wait to read #'s 5 and 6.

Brokeback Mountain
Strip away all the hype and controversy around this movie, and you have a very familiar story: two people in love who have a lot of obstacles keeping them apart. The only reason it's any different this time is that the two people in love are both guys. But this film proves itself worthy of the hype, and what makes it worthwhile is two things. One, it's superbly acted, all the more so considering there were probably 1,000 total words of dialogue in the movie. Incredible performances from a lot of actors, but Heath Ledger was undoubtedly the standout. And two, as with all Ang Lee movies, Brokeback is visually stunning. Montana has probably never looked so beautiful, but Lee is even able to find the beauty in a dingy apartment kitchen. Regardless of the gender of the romantic leads, it's totally deserving of its Oscar noms.

Andrew Bird, Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs.
Gorgeous, catchy alt rock from a classically trained violinist who's into jazz and European folk, and has also performed with alt-swing outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers. How's that for a resumé? My brother Jeff gave me this album around Thanksgiving, but I'm just coming to appreciate it now. It's been on heavy rotation this past week. There's a definite Radiohead influence here, and some songs owe a debt to Cake as well, but Bird makes it a distinct sound of his own, and he certainly can turn a lyrical phrase. Perfect music for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Well, as a fellow Miami alum, it's nice to see Ben get a ring. But, man, what a yawner of a game.

Eric Wynalda, egocentric jackass

So I'm Eric Wynalda, former US National team striker, US Soccer Hall of Famer, and current ESPN color commentator. I'm the all-time leading scorer for the Men's National Team with 34 international goals. I'm also known for being highly opinionated about things that affect me directly, and have a reputation for being completely full of myself (and thinking my hair is very pretty, too). A few months before the World Cup, I do an interview with ESPN.com's Andrea Canales saying that Brian McBride, our current first choice striker, is only the first choice because the MNT coach, Bruce Arena, has a (figurative) love affair with him, that his lack of speed holds the Nats back in their favored style of play, and that it's time to replace him with young Taylor Twellman (see my last post). Not such a bad position to take on the surface, considering McBride is 33, which is close to being "old" for a professional athlete, and with the international game being played at such a high speed, maybe he's losing a step or two?

But let's look a little closer. McBride is in great shape, and is having one of the best years of his career as one of the top ten scorers in the English Premiership, arguably the best league in the world. So why would Wynalda possibly suggest Arena should bench McBride? Could it have anything to do with the fact that McBride has 29 international goals and is only 6 goals away from passing Wynalda as the all-time leading scorer for the MNT? You'd hope not, but given Wynalda's history of publicly crying about anything and everything that doesn't benefit him (he didn't earn the nickname "Whine-alda" for no reason), the wheels in US soccer fans' heads start spinning. So when he comes out in favor of Taylor Twellman, a player with tremendous potential but nowhere near the international experience of McBride (and oh, by the way, in no danger of passing Wynalda anytime soon with only 4 international goals), it just seems awfully suspicious. Even when he addresses the very subject for which I'm excoriating him, it makes Wynalda look like an even bigger jackass.

"I'm just being honest here. There's no way I can escape people saying that I have an ulterior motive for saying the things that I've been saying about Taylor. The whole McBride thing is ultimately Bruce's decision. My guess is that McBride will be on the field—regardless of whether he plays poorly or plays well."

Now maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling this "whole McBride thing" doesn't exist anywhere except in Wynalda's overinflated head.