The Random Factor

My life is finally back in the neighborhood of normal, so I've had some time this weekend to relax and reclaim my apartment from the dust and mold and piles of laundry. But despite my insanely busy week, I've been like a squirrel preparing for winter, gathering little nuts of randomness to share.

One of the sites I make a point to look at everyday is The Daily Monkey, a quirky collection of monkey-related photos and writings run by Brian Biggs, an illustrator I've worked with in the past. The monkeys haven't exactly been "daily" lately (Brian seems to be in the same boat as me), but the last post turned me on to this amazing set of photographs by a New Jersey photographer named Jason King. If there's one thing the internet has proved, it's that there's an incredible amount of undiscovered creative talent out there in the world, and it's nice that the internet has provided a place to see the work these people are creating. Of course, the internet has also proved that there's no end to what people will collect and fetishize, but that's a discussion for another time.

So, you may have heard that Dan Brown, author of a little book called The Da Vinci Code, is getting sued by anyone and everyone who's ever written a single word relating to Jesus. It's gotten so bad, last week, King James filed suit against him. Hey-o! (Ba-dum-bum.) Anyway, one of those suits, filed in London by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, was recently dismissed by the presiding magistrate, Justice Peter Smith. The interesting twist to this story, however, is that Smith included his very own code in his printed decision. Between this and the judge who handed down her decision in rap form in an Eminem defamation case in 2003, I can't help but think that judges who get cute with their decisions are really just publicity hounds with WAY too much time on their hands, and should really be spending more time earning their money the way they're supposed to.

Despite looking rather disinterested for most of the match, DC United tied with FC Dallas last night to extend their unbeaten streak to 5 matches. United's only goal came from midfielder Ben Olsen, who has continued to play well while anxiously awaiting the announcement of the US World Cup roster (which will be shown live on Tuesday's Sportscenter at 6pm Eastern). Best of luck to Ben, one of my favorite players (so much so that I own his jersey). He's definitely a bubble player for the US, but hopefully his strong recent play will be enough to earn him a trip to Germany. As for United, having seen all of their games this year, I have to say I don't think DC has played particularly well in any of them. There have been nice stretches and good individual performances, but barring last week's dismantling of the hapless New York Red Bulls, United haven't dominated anyone, but they still have yet to lose this season. That worries me a little bit. Something needs to happen to light a fire under their collective butts so that they don't think they can just coast through the season. At this point, they're looking a lot like the Chelsea of MLS: not pretty to watch and not looking like they're all that interested in the games, but still so good that no one can beat them. As an aside, I just wanted to mention that the Washington Post does a fabulous job with their United coverage (and soccer coverage in general). I'm continually impressed by their top-notch soccer writer, Steven Goff. Check out the profile of United's hybrid defender/midfielder, Josh Gros, that Goff wrote as a preview to this week's match. A lot of papers would just run a tiny preview box (if they bothered to cover MLS at all), so it's nice to see this type of effort and quality. As for Gros, he's an interesting character. If you can continually get under the skin of a classy World Cup winner like Youri Djorkaeff, you're doing something right. And check out that photo: Josh seems to be a tongue-chewer, just like me and MJ.

My friend CJ asked me to make her a mix of Rush songs, which turned out to be a very fun experience. It had been a long time since I had really dug deeply into my Rush collection, and it gave me a chance to renew my long love affair with the kings of geek-rock. It also exposed a few glaring gaps in my collection, which I quickly filled thanks to the iTunes store. As any good Rush fan knows, the band has gone through three pretty distinct phases. They are: 1974's Rush — 1978's Hemispheres; (1980's Permanent Waves acts as a bridge to the next phase) 1980's Moving Pictures — 1987's Hold Your Fire; and 1989's Presto — the present. The first phase introduces the band as a heavy rock trio who share a lot in common with Led Zeppelin: a high-voiced lead singer, a killer guitarist who favors Gibson guitars, a monster drummer, long songs exhibiting a love of Tolkien, and some very questionable fashion choices. 2112 is the high point of this phase. The second phase finds the band tightening up their sound (and song length) and introducing the synthesizer rather strongly into the mix, as well as Neil Peart swinging his lyrics away from swords and sorcery towards more futuristic science fiction. Moving Pictures is the peak album here, and is arguably the ultimate Rush album. And finally, in the third phase, the band largely ditches the synths, gets back to a more groove-oriented rock sound, and Peart's lyrics become more personal. This phase sees the band struggle (as all aging acts do) to stay relevant with their new music while trying to meet the fans' demands for their greatest hits in concert. For me, Counterparts is the album to own from this stretch, as it rocks harder than anything the band had done since Permanent Waves. Through their career, Rush have also put out six live albums. My personal favorite is Different Stages, but they're all fairly interchangeable. I prefer Different Stages because the mix is little more raw, which is something most Rush live albums are not. So what does this all mean? Well, to my and CJ's delight (and her husband's dismay) she got three discs, one for each era. And I discovered that digging through Rush's music to make a mix allowed me to rediscover my love for them, so I've decided maybe I should do the same for other bands I used to love but haven't listened to much of lately. Next on my list: Led Zeppelin.

I think I had some other stuff to talk about, but I can't remember. I'm in food coma now after a delicious omelet and cinnamon toast at Cafe Patachou. If you're ever in Indy and looking for a breakfast spot, don't miss this place. Yum.

IMAGES
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

SOUNDS
Permanent Waves, Rush
Signals, Rush
Power Windows, Rush
A Blessing and a Curse, Drive-By Truckers
Skeleton Jar, Youth Group
Mr. Beast, Mogwai
Nashville, Josh Rouse

9 to 5

...must be a nice way to live. Busy, busy, busy lately. I went to Chicago this past weekend and took a bunch of pictures. Someday I might even get a chance to post them, but today is not that day. Back to the grind.

The Sound Of Music

Dear sweet God in Heaven. Why do sports teams do this? The New York Mets, purveyors of one of the sillier mascots in major sports, have created a team song called "Our Team. Our Time.", alternately referred to it by its more appropriate title, "Weak-Ass Piece Of Shit Marketing Idea That Will Attract A Total Of Zero New Fans To Mets Games And Instead Probably Offend And Drive Away The Very Hip-Hop Fans It Was Misguidedly Created To Attract". And honestly, how can anyone think it's a good idea to create a team song that lists the names of the players on the team? With the way players jump around these days, the Mets will be updating this thing every month. But hey, maybe spliced-in lines will give them a chance to improve this blight on the ears of humanity.

On the other side of the coin, I just downloaded Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs' Under the Covers, Vol. 1, and it is every bit as good as I expected it to be. There's a couple of tracks I that could take or leave, but at least 90% of the album is quality. Run out and buy it, kids.

IMAGES
Battlestar Galactica: Season One, Disc 3

SOUNDS
Under the Covers, Vol. 1, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs

No Place Like Home

Flew to Maryland for a visit with the fam this weekend. Frederick is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. We walked around downtown after brunch on Sunday, and appropriately enough for Easter weekend, all the trees and flowers were in full bloom. For a town that I couldn't wait to leave when I was growing up, good old Fredneck has its moments. There's some youth and money pouring into downtown, and a lot of houses and buildings that I remember as looking pretty rough have been restored, with plenty of new plants and fresh paint to go with some interesting stores and cafes. Last night I had a beer on the patio of the local brewpub with my brother and his girlfriend, and realized there's a bit of a European feel now, which is kind of cool. Of course, there were also still pickup trucks driving by with ten rednecks crammed into the bed, so things haven't changed that much.

On Saturday, my dad and brothers and I went down to RFK Stadium to see United take on the Houston Dynamo. Despite some rather, um, unpretty play, DC managed to score twice and earn a victory. And with better finishing, young Freddy Adu could have easily had a hat trick. Instead, he hit the bar and went just wide twice. As my high school coach would have said, "Unlucky!" I did manage to get a few decent photos (see one above), although I'm figuring out that the autofocus on my camera is really touchy. See more slightly blurry shots from the match here.

IMAGES
Elizabethtown
WORDS
Tyrannosaur Canyon, Douglas Preston

Make Mine Music

Lots of exciting music news today, as there's some stuff I'm really looking forward to coming up this summer.

First, Sufjan Stevens is releasing a companion piece to last year's amazing Illinois on July 25. Entitled The Avalanche, the set compiles outtakes, alternate versions, and music "rooted in" songs from Illinois. Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, and Billboard have more info.

Next, one of my favorite power poppers, Matthew Sweet, has teamed up with Susanna Hoffs (formerly of the Bangles) to record a covers album of 60's pop, Under the Covers Vol 1. You can hear samples of the album streaming on their website, and I have to say, it sounds pretty good, if perhaps rather faithful to the original versions. Aside from that minor gripe, their voices sound great together and they covered a couple of my favorite songs (The Beatles "And Your Bird Can Sing" and Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"), so I'll definitely be picking this up when it drops on April 18. Rolling Stone talked to the duo for the scoop.

And finally, some small amount of news continues to trickle out about the new Radiohead album, which as far as I can find still doesn't have a release date, although they are touring this summer. Canada's Chart Attack cribs notes from NME, calling the new stuff "terrifying". What's more terrifying to me, though, is Thom Yorke's bloggish ramblings on the official Radiohead site. Whew. Abbatoir noises, indeed.

In non-music news, I've always thought Sportscenter's commercials were pretty genius, but this new one takes the cake (course, I'm a big Crocodile Hunter fan from way back, so maybe I'm biased). Unfortunately, this clip cuts off about a second early, but that doesn't stop me from laughing every time I watch it.

WORDS
The Know-It-All, A.J. Jacobs

Insomnia

Dear idio... uh, Gov. Mitch Daniels,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you so much for fucking up my sleep cycle. You had a chance to do things right. Pushing to move Indiana into the 20th century by putting the state on Daylight Saving Time was the right idea. Unfortunately, you blew it, pissing away any points you had earned when you picked the wrong time zone. Thanks to your genius (and I'm sure the considerable influence of your businessmen friends), Indiana just had to be on the same time as New York City... 700 miles to the east. Central time just wasn't good enough, even though Chicago, located right on the Indiana border, doesn't have any problems doing business with New York. "But wait," you said, "think of the extra hour of sunlight that golf courses can stay open! Kids' baseball games can be played later! Businesses will make more money because people will stay out in the light." Well, I have some bad news for you. I (and just about everyone else in this state) wake up in the dark every morning. I'm already in the hole, because I start the day tired, and that sure as hell doesn't make me want to stay out later at night. As if it wasn't already hard enough getting out of bed since businesses here are still living on farm time and want their employees get to work at the crack of dawn. Not to mention, DST has barely started, and it's already staying light until almost 9 pm, right around the time most businesses are closing. What's it going to be like in July when it stays light until 11:00? Remember that movie with Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Alaska, where Pacino can't get any sleep because it's light all the time? Now imagine an entire state of people like that. Meet your constituents. Going to bed when it's light is not a prescription for a good night's sleep. People are hardwired to go to bed in the dark and get up when it's light, not the other way around. An exhausted workforce is not a productive workforce. So all that extra money you're planning on making? Good luck with that. Putting the state on DST was the right decision; there's nothing wrong with an extra hour of sun each day. But you managed to put that hour at the wrong end of the day, and when the government can't even get something as simple as DST right, I don't have a whole lot of faith in their ability to do the rest of their job. Unfortunately, this is Indiana, and it's doubtful that the Democrats are going to take over anytime soon. So Mitch, don't be surprised when all that's left in Indiana are a bunch of farmers and old people who get up in the dark anyway. The rest of us will be moving to states that recognize the value of waking up with the sun.

(Hey, if Katie Couric can make career decisions based on the fact that she doesn't want to get up in the dark anymore, then so can I. Because I like to take all my life cues from celebrities, especially ones I can't stand.) Now that my grumpy old man rant is taken care of, on to the good stuff:

DC United got its first win of the season yesterday over Chivas. DC struggled to find a rhythm in this game and looked pretty lost, but they still managed to win (thanks in part to a non-call on a Chivas free kick that bounced on the goal line and probably should have been a goal).

Watched The Brothers Grimm last night. No wonder it bombed in theaters. It took about an hour to get going, and as soon as it looked like it was going to go somewhere, it ran out of steam. That, coupled with the fact that the gorgeous Monica Bellucci was criminally underused, made it a very disappointing experience.

I stopped by Luna Music while out enjoying the weather yesterday. See below for a list of the CDs I bought. Stupid listening stations.

SOUNDS
The Back Room, Editors
TUM, The Impossible Shapes
Putumayo Presents Turkish Groove, Various Artists

IMAGES
The Brothers Grimm

A New Beginning

As you may have noticed by now, the blog's gone through a bit of a redesign. (The new name comes courtesy of the last Oasis album.) It's an ongoing process, but here's some of the changes I've got planned.

1. No more "What's Keeping Me Busy" sidebar. Instead, I'll be including an item at the end of each post with the movies, music, books and shows that I've experienced since the last post. See below for an example.

2. Less soccer. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be talking about the US National Team and DC United, just in less depth. There are plenty of people out there who do it better, and frankly, I just don't have the time for long writeups anymore.

3. More of my own photography. I haven't been using my new camera enough, or sharing the photos I have been taking. That's going to change.

I'm sure other things will happen as I go along, but for now, I'm going out to enjoy the sun. Apparently, it pops out every once in a while between the tornados.

SOUNDS
The Believer, Rhett Miller
Take Action! Vol. 5, Various Artists
PASTE Magazine Sampler 21

IMAGES
Battlestar Galactica: Season One, Disc 2

WORDS
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Growing Up Young

The Peter Pan syndrome is now a generational movement. Meet the folks that New York magazine refers to as "Grups", but I like to call "half the people I used to work with in New York". It's a great article, because I always love seeing some writer try to pigeonhole an entire generation in 1,200 words.

However, I will admit there was quite a bit of self-recognition happening as I read this piece. The idea of adults refusing to grow up, embracing the dress-down movement as cultural rebellion and obliterating any sort of generation gap between them and their younger siblings and children is not news to anyone who's been within 50 miles of a major urban area in the past 5 years. It's just that the media is finally getting around to giving a name to the 40-something moms who still want to be Natalie Portman in Garden State and the (ahem) men in their early 30s who are wearing larger sizes of the same sneakers they wore in 5th grade to work every day. There's no doubt I fall into this category, and I'm not really ashamed to admit it. (Except that I think pre-ripped jeans is one of the stupider ideas the fashion world has come up with, and I'd never buy a pair. Besides, I've never spent more than $68 for a pair of jeans and don't plan on ever breaking that record if I can help it. Also, I don't have any kids yet, so I haven't tried to mold them into little versions of me. Yet.)

To me, it comes down to this: the media can try to create whatever labels they like, although hopefully it's something better than "Grups", which came from an old Star Trek episode. Lame. Whatever the term, there's only one way that I see this whole issue becoming a problem. I've had a job where I had a wear a jacket and tie, and you know what? It sucked. I sit in front of a computer all day. What the hell do I need to be wearing a tie for? So that I can spend the whole day hating my job while feeling like I'm slowly suffocating? No thanks. As long as someone will keep paying me even if I show up in head-to-toe Adidas, I'll keep dressing in clothes that make me feel comfortable, and young, and yeah, I'll say it, hip. My parents played their Beatles albums just as often as they played my Sesame Street records, and 30 years later we still enjoy each other's music. So there's no reason why my kids can't listen to Sufjan Stevens and Bloc Party. I have friends whose daughter loves to dance around the house to The Apples in Stereo, and she's one of the smartest children I know. So what? I don't see anything wrong with wanting to stay current on the latest music, or wear trendy clothes, or aspiring to a job that you actually enjoy instead of just doing it for the money. We can still be "adults" without becoming our parents and grandparents. But the lesson we should take from their generations is, they knew when it was time to put aside their lives and act like a parent. When attempting to stay young and hip becomes more important than raising your child and being a parent, that's when it becomes a problem. If it ever comes to that for me, I'll be happy to trade in my Gazelles and Ben Sherman bag for a sensible pair of Rockports and some pleated Dockers. But I don't plan on letting that happen, so don't hold your breath.

Chromewaves also posted about this article, as well as gathering a few links of responses, some embracing the label fully, and some wishing those darn overgrown kids would just grow up!

The Hours

My weekend pretty much went down like this: Drink way too many Newcastle, Killian's and black-and-tans on Friday night, spend Saturday and Sunday letting my body recover. But I had a choice in how to rehab. Take in the fresh air? And deal with 80,000 drunk Hoosiers and overhyped pop stars mixed with severe weather damage that could have killed me? No thanks. Lay on the couch? Why, it was only the best seat in the house for fifteen-and-a-half hours of soccer over two days. Guess which choice I made?

Saturday
Noon—2 pm: DVR recording of Wednesday's Champions League match between Inter Milan and Villareal, ESPN. Milan 2-1. Great game. Almost every time an Italian side and a Spanish side get together, it's a joy to watch. Maybe they should combine the two leagues.
2 pm—4 pm: Newcastle-Tottenham, FSC. Newcastle 3-1. A scrap in the rain. Typical English spring weather. And what is going on with Tottenham these days? Can you say nosedive?
4 pm—6 pm: Dallas-Chicago, ABC. Dallas 3-2. Great first half by Chicago, but a terrific fight back by Dallas. Game winner to hometown Dallas boy Kenny Cooper on his debut. The quality of this match is pretty high. Looks more like midseason than the first game of the year, at least until Dallas makes some subs in the 2nd half and the wind goes out of Chicago's sails. Chad Barrett's opener for Chicago makes the third game in a row that a goal was created by an attacker shooting at an angle across the face of the goal and the keeper was unable to hold on, allowing an opposing forward to tap in. Barrett's goal is almost a mirror image of Diego Forlan's tally for Villareal.

Break for dinner and a nap. Sweet, sweet sleep.

8 pm—10 pm: Bonanza! Flip back and forth between the Final Four and Birmingham-Chelsea, FSC. 0-0. Also have streaming video of Kansas City-Columbus running on my computer. KC 3-1. Only drawback is that this year, MLS has docked their viewer in a pop-up window, so I can't blow it up to full screen and watch from across the room like I did last year. Compensate by cranking the sound up so that I'll know when something exciting happens. Basketball gets boring pretty quickly, so I focus my attention on the soccer games. Kansas City looks good. Chelsea looks bad. Well, bad for Chelsea, anyway. They could still destroy most of the other teams I'm watching.
10 pm—11pm: Fox Sports World Report, FSC. Canadian highlight show. I get 30 great minutes of English, Spanish, German, and French highlights from throughout the day, and then they inexplicably start the same highlights over again at 10:30. Weird. Barcelona-Real Madrid looked like a decent game. (Sarcasm, people. Sarcasm.)
11 pm—1 am: Los Angeles-New England, ESPN2. New England 1-0. A rematch of MLS Cup 2005 ends up the other way around, with the visitors coming out on top. Clint Dempsey scores a nice goal and comes up with a rather disappointing celebration. LA looks drained. Not surprising, considering the emotions of the night: prior to kickoff, they received their championship rings and honored their late GM, Doug Hamilton, who died recently. But excuses aside, this game is sloppy, and looks a lot like the first game of the season.

Sunday
11:30 am—Noon: Schalke-Hamburg, FSC. Had this on in the background while I ate and got dressed. Not much to see.

Venture out into the world for groceries. Bright light, bright light!

4 pm—5 pm: Paris St. Germain-Bordeaux, FSC. PSG 3-1. I only see the second half, so I miss all the goals. Boo. PSG is either really good, or Bordeaux is really bad. Lots of Brazilians play in France.
5 pm—7 pm: Back to double duty. Arsenal-Aston Villa, FSC. Arsenal 5-0. DC United-New York Red Bulls, mlsnet.com. 2-2. As Arsenal demolishes Villa in the background, I'm mostly focused on DC-NY. NY goes up 2-0 early on a Youri Djorkaeff free kick and a horrid display by United's defense that gifts Edson Buddle a goal, but United hit back in the second half. Alecko Eskandarian and his fancy new headgear (see above) come back from a long concussion-induced injury layoff to score his first goal since MLS Cup 2004, a superb volley from 7 yards, and a few minutes later Facundo Erpen fires a wormburner that gets a fortunate deflection. I wish United could have kept the mo' going and gotten the winner, but I'm happy to see them claw their way back.
7 pm—7:15 pm: Tried to watch Houston-Colorado on my computer, but my eyes had had enough, so I decided to give them a rest. At least until next weekend.

Tony Quinn/Wireimage.com