"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." - Carl Schurz

"The saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time." - George Sutherland
"Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe." - Edmund Burke

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Pale underweight podcast to return 4/1

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for me. Since March 20th, I have listened to more than 600 tracks - a little over a day and a half worth of music. I have to pick out about fifteen tracks to include in the podcast. Then I have to record the interstitials and integrate the entire thing into a single, (hopefully) seamless audio file. I intend to keep the length the same - just long enough to take up an entire CD-R.

I also have work and temple tomorrow, so the remainder of my free time should be consumed by the podcast. It will be worth it, though, once I unveil the first podcast to feature my voice. Stay tuned.

100th post

This morning I perfected the synergetic use of the snooze button and the whore's bath.

Then I discussed Phil Spector's impending murder trial with a tech guy at work.


"Did you know he pointed a gun at Leonard Cohen while recording Death of a Ladies' Man?" I said.

"He actually fired at Lennon," Kirk replied.

"What could Leonard Cohen have possibly done to piss him off that much? He's a Zen Buddhist!"

Kirk grunted in agreement. I thought about David's hobby of quoting Smiths lyrics. "...and the pain was enough to make a shy, bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder..."

The logical next step was to enjoy the best baklava of my life, courtesy of Andre, and listen to Slowdive's Souvlaki at the same time. So I did. Now I am blogging about whatever pops into my head until my next class. I don't feel like going, but I will because I have to write a short paper on the video that will be shown in class.

Today's aural delights:

  1. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
  2. Deerfoof: The Runners Four
  3. The Arcade Fire: Funeral
  4. Slowdive: Souvlaki
  5. Meat Beat Manifesto: 99%
  6. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult: 13 Above the Night

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

New links

Now that I am done mucking about in Teotihuacan and Wadi al Wasse, I can relax and get back to what really matters: World of Warcraft, CSI, and porn.

I have just added new links to several organizations whose work I admire greatly. Doctors Without Borders and War Child International help provide services to those affected by war, famine, and disease. The latter sells great music downloads found nowhere else to raise money to help children in war-torn regions. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Interfaith Alliance counter religious extremism with religious tolerance. And finally, HALO is an organization that is very close to my heart. I talk about them a lot, but it's necessary. Too many relatively healthy animals are euthanized in the valley before they have a chance to be found by a loving family. Give money, give time, adopt an animal - please do anything you can to help, even just a little.

How have I stimulated my temporal lobes today?

  1. Mugison: Mugimama! Is This Monkey Music?
  2. T. Rex: Electric Warrior
  3. Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West
  4. Tim Buckley: Starsailor
  5. Kelley Polar: Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
  6. The Russian Futurists: Our Thickness
  7. Dizzee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner

Mutant grape tomato in my salad

With my boss, Roberta, in the background.

Life's tiny inconveniences

I have a pimple inside my nose. Right in the nostril. I hate it so much! Gah!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

"...just silly slang, between me and the boys in my gang..."

God bless the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Polari is the cryptolect in which gay men communicated with one another in 19th century England. The Sisters have translated the King James Bible into Polari, with a complete glossary.

P.S. I've been told that I'm quite bona to varda, with my lovely eke and my lovely riah.

Feel the love!

I would like to take a moment to thank David, creator of Three Dog Heads, for his recent praise of this blog. It comes as a true compliment, and once you read his blog, you'll see why. In two days, I have become a fan of his work, his wit, his unabashedly truthful perspective, and his commitment to promoting literacy. You can certainly expect to see frequent references to his posts in the future.

The following albums have burrowed into my frontal lobe today, displacing all knowledge of Teotihuacan "thin orange" style pottery:

  1. Espers: Espers
  2. Chihei Hatakeyama: Minima Moralia
  3. The Caretaker: Additional Amnesiac Memories
  4. The Cramps: Look Mom No Head!
  5. Xiu Xiu: Fabulous Muscles
  6. Björk: Homogenic

Monday, March 27, 2006

I will stop procrastinating... tomorrow.

The next two days are going to be very busy. I have an exam in Prehispanic Civ of Mesoamerica and a paper due in Human Impacts on Ancient Environments on Wednesday. I haven't started writing or reading. I guess there won't be any TV or World of Warcraft for me for a couple days. Ugh.

Here is what I have heard so far today:

  1. Ghislain Poirier: Breakupdown
  2. Howe Gelb: 'Sno Angel Like You
  3. Sparks: Hello Young Lovers
  4. Laura Cantrell: Humming by the Flowered Vine
  5. Film School: Film School
  6. Anna Oxygen: This Is an Exercise

Saturday, March 25, 2006

No podcast this week

For the folllowing reasons, in order of ascending importance, I am postponing posting of today's regularly scheduled podcast until next weekend:

  1. I stayed up until four o'clock this morning playing World of Warcraft and slept until almost noon.
  2. I am supposed to be at Petsmart in less than an hour to check on the kitties and Michael and I have been invited to my best friend's birthday party, scheduled immediately afterward.
  3. I just don't feel like it right now.
  4. I will probably revamp the format.

Many have complained that I don't talk in the podcast whatsoever. I made that choice because I hate the sound of my voice recorded and played back. To me it sounds like a cross between Fran Drescher and Paul Lynde. However, I am willing to give it a shot. After all, I have no problem talking on the phone so any resemblance to any celebrity, living or dead, is probably all in my head.

Lazy Saturday

My listening for Thursday and Friday

  1. Feist: Let It Die
  2. Goldfrapp: Supernature
  3. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
  4. Jason Forrest: Shamelessly Exciting
  5. The Mountain Goats: The Coroner's Gambit
  6. Liz Phair: Exile in Guyville
  7. Bonnie "Prince" Billy: I See a Darkness

Loss

The time will come, perhaps in my lifetime, when children will only be able to read about glaciers in books or hear stories about them from great-grandparents. Our loss will be so vast that humankind has neither the breadth of mind to comprehend it nor the depth of heart to mourn it.

But beyond sentimentality, what value does a glacier have? I am not an expert in climatology or ecology, so I can't tell you anything about its role in the cycle of evapotranspiration or the habitat it provides for plants and animals. All I know is that glaciers contain a portion of Earth's memories. If they are lost, then so is part of our identity as the human race.

As glaciers grow, they trap air. The exact composition of the air at any particular time is recorded inside the glacier. In this way, glaciers are vast record books that tell us what the Earth's atmosphere was like in the past. When glaciers melt, however, these records are destroyed forever.

More importantly, glaciers are a part of human heritage and have helped define our sense of beauty. Though they were known only to the peoples nearest them for most of human history, increasing cross-cultural contact has made glaciers part of the consciousness of our species in general, just as it has with deserts, oceans, and forests. Something of their essence will be preserved in books and films, but these cannot do justice to glaciers like someone who has had direct experience with them - who has walked on and seen and touched them.

Unlike plant and animal species, glaciers can be counted directly. We have counted them and we know that they are disappearing much faster than anyone had anticipated. As tragic as their disappearance will be, it would be all the more tragic if we never got to experience them before they were gone.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

All the neat science, with the numbers and the research and the GLAAAVEN!

A couple of interesting science stories today:

Evidence that humback whales use grammar. Next, these researchers will try to observe humpback whales participating in a grammar rodeo.

Researchers find a part of the brain that assists in computation. Also, thousands of mathematicians start calling in sick to work with dyscalculia.

I have activated the aforementioned part of my brain to present you with today's playlist:

  1. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Ballad of the Broken Seas
  2. Mazarin: We're Already There
  3. Ride: Nowhere
  4. Vashti Bunyan: Lookaftering
  5. Yaz: You and Me Both
  6. Stephen Malkmus: Face the Truth
  7. The Cranberries: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Facing one's own mortality in World of Warcraft

Over the past few days, I have wasted hours trying to complete a quest in World of Warcraft. The quest involved exploring Frostmane Hold, a glacier cave inhabited by Frostmane Trolls of at least two varieties, and killing five Frostmane Headhunters in the process. The trolls in the cave seem to be limited to levels 7 and 8. Pretty easy for a level-9 gnome warrior with over 500 armor, right? Apparently not. My gnome, Jomdevert, would get only a few feet into the cave before he was swarmed by trolls and killed. Some of them can cast a spell that reduces armor significantly. Each time he was killed, he would report to an armorer to repair the damage. Repairs usually cost almost two silver. After about a dozen attempts, the requisite number of trolls had been killed, but I wondered if this quest could be completed alone at this level. I briefly considered a different strategy: killing local wildlife until level 10, reporting to the local warrior trainer to learn new tactics, and then trying again.

Last night, I had another idea. I decided to run as far as possible into the cave, then let Jomdevert get killed. Then I would have his ghost return to the cave and resurrect as far in as possible. Then he could just run like hell until the cave was sufficiently penetrated. It worked. Jomdevert survived just long enough to complete the final quest objective. Then he was killed again. Luckily, the non-player character he would need to find to receive the reward was standing only a few feet from the graveyard. At last the quest was complete.

Just as in life, death in WoW is generally something to be avoided. Unlike death in this world, however, death in WoW is reversible. Even the equipment durability penalties and resurrection sickness can be reversed with sufficient time and effort. Not dying has teleological value in WoW; longevity does not. In other words, dying once is better than dying twice. Successful solo play in WoW requires the foresight to know when a well-planned suicide will promote post-resurrection well-being. Moreover, it requires the ability to measure values of in-game phenomena in radically different ways than we use to evaluate real phenomena.

Here is what I have been listening to today:

  1. Bell Orchestre: Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light
  2. ABBA: ABBA
  3. Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary
  4. M83: Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
  5. Leonard Cohen: New Skin for the Old Ceremony

Monday, March 20, 2006

Waiting

I am waiting to get into the server to play my gnome warrior character in WoW. There are still more than 100 in queue. In meantime, here's what I have been listening to today:

  1. The Clientele: Strange Geometry
  2. The Caretaker: A Stairway to the Stars
  3. Love: Forever Changes
  4. Morrissey: You Are the Quarry
  5. Nico: The Marble Index

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Podcast news

I have revamped and simplified the webpage I set up solely to host my podcast. Now the comments form and the track listing for the most recent podcast are on the front page. Additionally, I have created the RSS feed. To subscribe, copy the following address and paste it into the appropriate field in iTunes or another service:

http://www.paleunderweight.com/files/rss_feed.xml

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Meeting a friend for lunch

paleunderweight podcast 7

The new podcast is online:

  1. Pinetop Seven: "Born Among the Born Again"
  2. Patrick Wolf: "Don't Say No"
  3. Lou Reed & John Cale: "Style It Takes"
  4. Prince: "All the Critics Love U in New York"
  5. Annie: "Me Plus One"
  6. Nick Drake: "Fruit Tree"
  7. My Morning Jacket: "Off the Record"
  8. Kate Bush: "This Woman's Work"
  9. Silver Jews: "Random Rules"
  10. The Gossip: "Coal to Diamonds"
  11. The KLF: "Last Train to Trancentral"
  12. TV on the Radio: "Young Liars"
  13. Mi and L'au: "Boxer"
  14. Tapes 'n Tapes: "In Houston"
  15. Antony & The Johnsons: "The Lake"
  16. Andrew Bird: "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left"
  17. Max Tundra: "Lysine"
  18. Cocteau Twins: "Carolyn's Fingers"
  19. Saturday Looks Good to Me: "Ambulance"

Not much to report

Yesterday was the last official day of spring break and I got little accomplished. I am way behind on my reading for three out of four classes. I have two papers due in the next two weeks. I have an oral midterm in French on Tuesday. But I probably won't do anything school-related until Sunday night.

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone else find this news story a little disturbing?

Here is what I listened to on Friday:

  1. Mi and L'au: Mi and L'au
  2. Depeche Mode: Playing the Angel
  3. Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid: The Exchange Session, Vol. 1
  4. Frank Black: Teenager of the Year
  5. The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses
  6. Elliott Smith: Either/Or
  7. Róisín Murphy: Ruby Blue
  8. The Gossip: Standing in the Way of Control
  9. Gary Numan: Replicas

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Speechless

That describes my reaction to this photo of a double helix nebula taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope:




Here is what I have been listening to today:

  1. Guillemots: From the Cliffs
  2. Antony & The Johnsons: The Lake
  3. The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
  4. Annie: Anniemal
  5. My Morning Jacket: Z

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Hearing loss?

I have been reading a lot of stories lately about the risk of hearing loss associated with earbud-style headphones. As a rabid audiophile, I feel that the issue deserves immediate attention from consumer advocacy groups.

Imagine a product that often causes permanent injury to consumers. Imagine that the longer one uses it, the harder it becomes to use it safely. Imagine that most users start before the age of 18.

The example of cigarettes comes to mind. We now know the health risks. We know that nicotine is addicitive - some say more so than heroin. Studies have also shown that most people will never start smoking if they don't already by the age of 18.

Likewise, listening to headphones too loud for too long is harmful. Even at levels that feel comfortable, there may be damage occurring. I read recently (I forget where) that listening to an iPod at 60% volume is only safe for about half an hour! Additionally, the more impaired your hearing, the louder you will turn it up - and it is still doing damage. And a recent poll demonstrates that teenagers are the most susceptible.

Unlike tobacco, earbud headphones can be made much, much safer. Apple sells a different version of its standard earbuds that molds to the contours of the ear canal, blocking much of the outside noise that interferes with listening. Since purchasing a pair, I can listen to most music at about 40% volume on the bus and about 10% at home. It's a little more expensive than the standard pair, but well worth the additional cost if it will help preserve what remains of my hearing.

I propose a two-tiered solution: that a) Apple and other manufacturers of portable music players include noise-blocking headphones with their products, and b) these manufacturers reduce the volume scale by at least 30% (the iPod already allows you to manually reduce the playback volume on selected songs). If advocacy groups go after Apple, Creative, etc., with half the furvor that they have with the tobacco companies, I'm sure that these simple goals could be accomplished.

Consumer issues aside, we still have a personal responsibility to protect our own hearing as much as we can. If you love music, invest in noise-blocking headphones and reduce the volume. I wish I had - before I started to experience tinnitus and hearing loss.

On that note, here's what's on my iPod today:

  1. Saturday Looks Good to Me: All Your Summer Songs
  2. Spoon: Girls Can Tell
  3. Boards of Canada: The Campfire Headphase
  4. TV on the Radio: Young Liars
  5. Sinéad O'Connor: The Lion and the Cobra
  6. Iggy Pop: The Idiot
  7. Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman
  8. Lou Reed: Transformer

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Diary of Jomdevert the Surly

"Dear diary,

"My warrior trainer Thran Khorman is a jerk. A real knee-biter.

"Immediately upon reaching level 4, I reported to him for warrior training. I was only a few copper short, but do you think he could look the other way or take an IOU? No! I had to go back out in the cold and kill Burly Rockjaw Troggs until I had enough money to learn how to charge. Talk about shrinkage! Thran didn't feel even a little guilty about leaving me with nothing either. I'm surprised that our little lesson didn't leave me with enough rage to do a heroic strike on his ass!

"I can't wait to get out of Coldridge Valley and start working with better trainers."

Sugarfoot gets ready for her close-up

Recent WoW-related activity

Someone asked me what I have been doing in WoW lately. To tell the truth, not much. Until last night, I hadn't played in almost a month because I had been very busy. I played my undead warlock for a while, but when I tried to get on the server this afternoon I was getting crazy error messages. So I created a gnome warrior on another server. Here is Jomdevert (can you guess where his name comes from?):

Today's listening:

  1. Franz Ferdinand: You Could Have It So Much Better... With Franz Ferdinand
  2. M.I.A.: Arular
  3. The Sundays: Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
  4. Peter Gabriel: Passion
  5. Max Tundra: Mastered by the Guy at the Exchange
  6. Silver Jews: American Water
  7. Pinetop Seven: The Night's Bloom
  8. Andrew Bird: Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
  9. Junior Senior: D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
  10. Lou Reed & John Cale: Songs for Drella

Signs of spring on campus

Monday, March 13, 2006

More free music

The Caretaker has made two more albums available online - free! The first is A Stairway to the Stars, their sophmore full-length, and Additional Amnesiac Memories, the addendum to their recent 72-track epic Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia (also a free download, which I blogged about previously).

This past weekend was refreshingly uneventful due to the start of spring break. Friday afternoon I found a Borders gift card lying on in the street near my house. I immediately wanted to find out how much it was worth and spend it, but I have this irritating goodie-two-shoes quality that required me to try to find its rightful owner. I didn't find it in a location that led me to believe it belonged to a neighbor, so I called Borders. Their customer service rep said that there was no way to return it to the purchaser because it was not registered to anyone. She also told me that it had $30 on it. So all I could do was spend it and try to live with myself. Luckily I have enlisted the counsel of Prince, who is currently advising me to party like it's 1999. It's the most sensible advice I've heard all day.

I quite enjoyed the rain on Saturday. Though all the joints in my right leg were sore, I had a pleasant time wrapped in a blanket on the couch, listening to the rain and watching the Discovery Channel. My roommate, John, suggested that my joints were sore because of the weather. I am way too young for that, so I disemboweled him and made a macramé potted plant holder out of his small intestine. Just kidding - it was a toaster cozy.

Tonight I will watch a documentary about comets on the History Channel and play World of Warcraft. Yes, I know I'm a nerd - no need to post it in the comments.

My listening today:

  1. Akron/Family & The Angels of Light: s/t
  2. Patrick Wolf: Lycanthropy
  3. Kate Bush: The Sensual World
  4. The KLF: The White Room
  5. Cocteau Twins: Blue Bell Knoll
  6. Prince: 1999
  7. Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left
  8. Tapes 'n Tapes: The Loon

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Mobile blogging

I am a technology slut. Though my computer is only a few feet away, i am blogging from my phone. Why? Because I can.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

What I do on rainy Saturday mornings

paleunderweight podcast 6

This week's podcast is now online:

  1. Kate Bush: "A Coral Room"
  2. Isolée: "Surfers"
  3. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Interesting Results"
  4. Neko Case: "Dirty Knife"
  5. Pink Mountaintops: "Cold Criminals"
  6. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: "Saturday's Gone"
  7. Jeremy Reed: "Heliogabalus"
  8. Goldfrapp: "Satin Chic"
  9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Cold Light"
  10. Animal Collective: "Banshee Beat"
  11. Jens Lekman: "Hultsfred 98"
  12. Field Music: "Got to Get the Nerve"
  13. Bonnie "Prince" Billy: "Song for the Doctors Without Borders"
  14. Stereolab: "Eye of the Volcano"
  15. Terrestrial Tones: "The Sailor"
  16. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: "The Ghost"
  17. Mogwai: "I Chose Horses"
  18. The Impossible Shapes: "Twisted Sol Epoch"

Friday, March 10, 2006

Sugarfoot in the sink

I ♥ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

UPDATE: NASA is reporting that the MRO has successfully completed the aerobraking maneuver, inserting itself in orbit around the planet.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for the MRO, which will attempt a tricky aerobraking maneuver in a little over an hour. If successful, it will return more data than all previous Mars missions combined.

Today's listening:

  1. Jens Lekman: I Killed a Party Again
  2. Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice: Gypsy Freedom
  3. Trespassers William: Having
  4. The Impossible Shapes: Tum
  5. Thuja: Pine Cone Temples
  6. Kate Bush: Aerial

I ♥ Kurt Vonnegut; I ♥² Sandra Day O'Connor

I wish I had been at Kurt Vonnegut's final paid speaking engagement at OSU.

Even more, I wish I could have heard Sandra Day O'Connor skewer the "religious right" and their attacks on the courts' Constitutionally-vested authority. Snap!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Sweet dreams (are made of this)

I am notorious among my friends, family, and coworkers for my bizarre dreams. I keep a dream journal online, which I update whenever I have a dream interesting enough to bother posting. I have posted my most recent bizarre dream, but I must first make a disclaimer - this dream is adult-oriented. Do not read at work!

Anyway, here it is.

Breathtaking Cassini photo

I'm a sucker for astronomy photos. This image of Enceladus is a mosaic of photographs taken by Cassini.

Today's listening:

  1. Pink Mountaintops: Axis of Evol
  2. Isolée: Western Store
  3. Field Music: Field Music
  4. The Foreign Exchange: Connected
  5. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: House Arrest

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I ♥ Neko Case

I am posting to declare my willingness, nay, determination, to bear the children of the Canadian alt-country chanteuse, Neko Case.

Until this morning, I had only heard Neko Case's voice on The New Pornographers' three exquisite albums. Now that I've heard her new album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, I'm in love.

Just a few weeks ago, I was bowled over by Jenny Lewis' debut solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. No offense to Jenny and Mlles. Watson (her back-up singers), but Neko has shown me the light. Chan Marshall, Nina Simone, Anneli Marian Drecker, Karen O, Lisa Gerrard, Liz Fraser, Annie Lennox, Alison Moyet - all are mere shadows of Neko's majesty.

But maybe I should get her other albums before I go too far overboard with my adoration.

On that note, what have I been listening to this week?

  1. v/a: Not Alone
  2. Stereolab: Fab Four Suture
  3. Goldfrapp: Supernature
  4. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: Fear Is on Our Side
  5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
  6. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
  7. Mogwai: Mr. Beast
  8. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Ballad of the Broken Seas
  9. Animal Collective: Feels
  10. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  11. Terrestrial Tones: Dead Drunk
  12. Matisyahu: Youth

Do it for the animals

I have just received notice that HALO (Helping Animals Live On), the organization that runs no-kill animal shelters and adoption centers around the Phoenix area, will soon open a thrift store. If you wish to donate merchandise or volunteer, please contact Pamela Kleckner at PamHaloThrift@aol.com. If you don't, Sugarfoot will be sad!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Mmm... sacrilicious!

My blogging has been somewhat sporadic and impersonal lately due to one very important factor: pure exhaustion. Trying to keep up with the demands of school, work, volunteer activities, social obligations, and (occasionally) temple, combined with the anticipation of my imminent graduation, takes a toll on my well-being. I'm not performing anywhere near 100% scholastically, but I'm still so tired that I'm falling asleep on the bus by Tuesday morning. It will all be worthwhile, but I just have to muddle through somehow in the meantime. Luckily, I will have all of spring break to catch up on sleep and school work. There will be much less work to do after after the break, so the worst is already over.

In other news, I had the fortune and privilege today of photographing a member of ASU's Secular Freethought Society:

I praise his moxie and hope that he isn't accosted by religious zealots (who are preaching just feet away from his table).

Sunday, March 05, 2006

paleunderweight podcast 5

The new podcast is now available:

  1. Jens Lekman: "Jag Tyckte Hon Sa Lönnlöv"
  2. Destroyer: "Painter in Your Pocket"
  3. The Avalanches: "Frontier Psychiatrist"
  4. Modeselektor: "Silikon"
  5. Man Man: "I, Manface"
  6. The Caretaker: "memory fifteen"
  7. Madonna: "Push"
  8. Dengue Fever: "Tap Water"
  9. Sigur Rós: "Mílanó"
  10. Baby Dee: "So Bad"
  11. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds feat. The Dirty 3: "Time Jesum Transeuntum et Non Riverentum"
  12. Robyn: "Handle Me"
  13. Joanna Newsom: "This Side of the Blue"
  14. Okkervil River: "Black"
  15. Cat Power: "Hate"
  16. Stereolab: "Difficult Fourth Title (Contact)"
  17. Antony & The Johnsons: "Bird Gehrl"

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Dumb internet fun

The Tooth Puller

People Iced:Thirty Five
Car Bombs Planted:Five
Favorite WeaponMicrowave Oven
Arms Broken:Ten
Eyes Gouged:Thirty Three
Tongues Cut Off:Five
Biggest Enemy:Shady Sammy

Get Your HITMAN Name

Friday, March 03, 2006

Today's listening

  1. Frog Eyes: The Golden River
  2. Jens Lekman: Tour EP
  3. V/A: Compounds + Elements: An Introduction to All Saints Records

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Amendment I

I am alarmed the recent news that only 0.1% of Americans could name all five freedoms granted by Amendment I of the U.S. Constitution in a recent survey.

I was always raised to believe that the Constution is the United States. I think that not only should we revere it, we should memorize it verbatim and understand every Section and Article.

So here it is - the Amendment that so few know but so many disdain (emphasis added by me):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Today's listening

  1. The Secret Machines: Ten Silver Drops
  2. Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender
  3. Stereolab: ABC Music

New phone


I just received my upgraded phone from T-Mobile, replacing the old piece of trash I had previously. This is the first time I've had a picture phone, so I am taking a lot of pictures:




Here's one Michael took:

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

My listening of the past week

  1. Jens Lekman: You Deserve Someone Better Than a Bum Like Me
  2. Quasimoto: The Unseen
  3. Antony & The Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
  4. Modeselektor: Hello Mom!
  5. Clogs: Lantern
  6. Destroyer: Destroyer's Rubies
  7. Cat Power: The Greatest
  8. Okkervil River: Black Sheep Boy
  9. Dengue Fever: Escape From Dragon House
  10. Sigur Rós: Takk...
  11. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
  12. Original Broadway Cast Recording: Rent
  13. Stereolab: Oscillons From the Anti-Sun
  14. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Rarities & B-Sides

More illness

I haven't posted in a few days, largely due to becoming miserable ill this past weekend, then having to catch up on all the stuff I couldn't do while sick. Obviously, last week's podcast was cancelled. The podcast will resume as normal on Saturday, culling tracks from the previous two weeks' listening. I will soon post a list of what I've been listening to, plus some other recent developments.