Friday, September 29
it might be tougher for a less secure heterosexual man to admit this, but i'll say it proudly -- i went to a scissor sisters show last night, and had a great time. which is funny, because i don't even really like the scissor sisters that much. i'd always heard pieces of their albums or the few singles they've had, and thought, 'wow, i certainly don't need more disco in my life. no thank you'. i don't think i've listened to a full album of theirs a all the way through even once, ever. but jessica liked them enough to buy some tickets to their show (especially since she was down for the count during their coachella set), and offered to give me her extra for free for taking care of back in a tent in the desert in may. not wanting her to get stormed by cute lesbians who might try to steal away my cute girlfriend, i felt compelled to join her. and even despite awful, awful sound in the shrine, since the show was in the echoey cement-floored expo center side, not in the auditorium, they totally sold me with their live show. their singer has an energy level and list of dance moves that combine to make any human jealous, and the songs pretty much rocked and grooved all over the place (except for the two slow songs, during which i just wished they would save their elton john impressions for private use only). anyhow, now i've got to decide if i was just plain wrong, or if their live show is an entirely different experience than listening to their music in recorded form. either way, i got to have a fun night and see a bunch of pretty boys in makeup and tight pants, both on stage and off, which is always a good time, right? [ update: okay, so i listened to some more stuff i found floating around the internet, and i think it's the latter. maybe the flair gets turned down in favor of the rock when they play it live, and that's why i liked it more. however, 'i don't feel like dancing', even with all that in mind, is still a kickass infectious pop song. if only i could understand what he's saying in the chorus there...]
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 4:24 PM.
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Wednesday, September 27
hmm, some of those last few posts have been a bit on the downer side, haven't they. well i think i've just got an internal cap on happiness and after being content for too long, i get to where i need a quick cycle of self-doubt before i can swing back around to realizing that things are pretty rad. a healthy little dose of reflection to get the angst out of my system. and "if you're never down, how would you know when you're up?" sort of thing. so in counter to that, as it seems to have passed, here are briefly some things that are awesome lately. one: if you haven't seen or at least heard about the clinton interview on fox news last weekend, you owe it to yourself to check it out. the man stands the hell up to a brashly slanted question, and it's so satisfying to watch. i could drone on and on about my feelings on the topic, but that would take too long and be less-than-awesome, compared to seeing some actual fire out of a democrat for once. bravo! two: the shadow of the colossus video game. i won't write a review on here, cause i've never really done that for a video game before (although i've thought about starting), and also because i haven't finished it yet (although i'm getting close), so read that link instead. it sure is something different though and i love different when it comes to games. playing it on the new big screen is a huge bonus as well. seriously gets your heart racing climbing up the back of a freaking giant. three: monday night on NBC. i think i'm falling in love with studio 60 and the first episode of heroes definitely has me wanting to watch more. part of me feels guilty for watching more TV than i'm used to, but they're really making it easy with some well-produced and smart stuff. okay, heroes is a bit cheesy but i can't help myself. luckily with tivo though i can at least space it out and not spend two full hours at once watching it live; then i'd really feel like a slug. lastly, four: USC football, mostly for not letting me down so far this season, showing lots of potential for greatness, and giving me a reason to crack open beers much earlier in the day than saturdays the rest of the year. cheers!
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 1:19 PM.
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Monday, September 25
brian, you slacker, you almost forgot a whole week back there. and it's not like you're doing anything important, so what's your excuse? overly enjoying the copious use of your new Very Large Television does not pardon you from regular blog updates, unless you openly admit you're a lazy sack and give in to the higher power that is consumer media. funny, a few weeks ago when i was complaing about not having enough down time i couldn't wait for summer to go into decline so i could spend a bit more time sitting around doing nothing. now that i've done that for a week or two i'm already starting to feel like a boring and semi-useless sloth. why does leisure time always seem to lead to overly introspective ruminating about the quality of my life as a whole? can't i just enjoy some decent tv shows, netflix movies, do some reading, and kick back with a smile? the eternal curse of the overactive mind -- always turning on itself to make you question if it's being put to good enough use.  home land - sam lipsyte - 5 stars speaking of which, i just finished a great book which is an exaggerated tale of this very problem. [i know i haven't reviewed a book on here in forever, but that's because i've mostly only read books i've felt lukewarm about this year, as sad as that is. well, that, and i've been attempting to scale Mount Quixote for so long my enthusiasm for the printed word is being put to the endurance test of its life, as i oh-so-gradually near the peak and my resolve weakens in the thinning air. the new strategy, however, is to take it on in 50-page chunks and use other books like oxygen tanks to keep me up to the task, and this last one was the most refreshing yet.] maybe it's just my weakness for stories of over-intellectual, underachieving nobodies having to face their ultimate meaninglessness, but i whizzed through this one and quite loved it. true, it may be a little farfetched that someone who's done so little with his life would be blessed with such control of language. however, the idea of writing brutally honest updates to your high-school newsletter -- chronicalling your unemployment, failures, lost (or never had) loves, doubts, down to the details of your boredom and habits of personal pleasuring -- has much the same appeal as a really juicy personal blog would, and part of the pleasure is knowing you might well think or even write some of the same things if you dared. lucky for us, this guy has nothing to lose, so we can delight in his every hilariously pathetic non-adventure, and his endless analysis of every bland encounter. it's the hyper-literate quality of his telling that makes all this sadness so much fun to read though, so the thing that makes it the least feasible turns out to be its main selling point. boring conversations seem profound and carry great implications, and every small-town loser is a symbol of all our modern discontent. it's obviously very dark humor, so we might not be talking beach reading here, but i don't think i've been to the beach once this month and i thought it was a fantastic read.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 5:11 PM.
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Wednesday, September 20
like pretty much everyone else in the county who owns an lcd soundsystem album, i went to see the banksy show this weekend. i actually stood in a line on a hot afternoon just to see some art, which you'd be hard pressed to get me to do under any other circumstances. some people seem to be judging the whole event a little harshly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the huge live elephant he used as a canvas. on that, i have to say i think it's an over-reaction. i know we can't ask the elephant's opinion, but it was just some paint. i'd stand around painted and just eat all day if it was for a cool art piece by someone i respected. and what does it say that the whole point of the piece was to jab at 'the elephant in the room' of all the terrible things that go on in the world like war and starvation, and instead of being moved to action or at least discussion by the art piece, most people's instinct is to just bitch about a poor elephant's mistreatment by being kept in a room with a little bit of paint? i also don't want to fall prey to the other problem, which is only discussing the elephant piece, and say the art was extremely clever and well done. while some might criticize it for being gimmicky or too much like ironic t-shirt design, i'd argue the opposite, that this is a person with a clear and focused idea he's trying to communicate, and he does in in a direct and impactful way. check on flickr, the pieces are very clean and well-designed, but they all make you think right away. i much prefer some pop-art with political or social overtones than classic paintings you have to be an art history major to decode for proper understanding, but i guess that speaks more to my lack of education than the relative mertis of art styles. all i guess i'm getting at is that if his aim is to be thought-provoking through beautiful images, it worked on me and i'm glad i went to see it.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 9:32 AM.
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Friday, September 15
real quick stuff as i prowl the web a little on this friday afternoon. we saw soulwax live last night and their 'nite versions' stuff was pretty great fun live, but i think watching them play it and feeling the bass literally rumble your guts is part of the enjoyment. i'm fairly sure on disc the album would bore me pretty quickly. and since we're not jobless artsy club kids, we did not have the power in us to stay until 2am on a thursday night to see their 2manyDJs set, which was really a let down since that's the main reason i went. lucky for me i got in free through a hookup. catbirdseat's 'best of 2006' music blogger cheat sheet is fucking brilliant and if they had included the mountain goats they might have had my prelim list 8/10. i'll probably put a few more less artsy, more poppy albums on there, but then, that's why i'm not a music blogger and just an all-around cool dude. most importantly/surprisingly/interestingly, is that via the new gawker music site idolator, i hopped over here for the new my chemical romance song, and SHOCKING: i totally love it. not kidding an ounce. the resonator guy compares it to queen which i think is dead on and great, but no joke, i've listened to it about 10 times in the last couple hours. most triumphant!
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 5:00 PM.
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Thursday, September 14
 The Protector (Tom Yum Goong) - 4 stars i'm gonna make this quick, because let's face it, it's a kung-fu movie and there's not much to analyze here. covering off on the key bases though, this is a real stunt movie, not a wire movie, so it already rises above some of that goofy mystical reality shit even though that can be cool too. certain scenes were downright amazing, as expected: the warehouse scene, the stairway scene, the capoeira guy, the ring of bone-crunching all had us yelling out loud in the theatre. so it's definitely a worthy flick. my only complaints were that it took an awfully long time to get to the first action scene, and the story was even more ridiculous than the thin premises of most action movies. beating down that many guys on behalf of livestock seems a little silly, and everytime tony jaa rushes into a room and yells, 'you stole my elephant!' to his enemies, i couldn't help but laugh. better than ong bak? i'm not convinced, because i felt like that one hung together better overall, and the 'big final battle versus huge guys' in this one was a little more absurd than in the last one. still, this was surprisingly the #4 movie last week when it opened, and i suspect that's because even with faults, it's still a way fun ass-kicking flick.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 10:42 AM.
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Tuesday, September 12
fairly triumphant weekend news to report: after weeks of searching and hoping for a great, local place to get a tasty breakfast burrito -- which for some reason jessica and i crave regularly and strongly those lazy weekend mornings -- we finally put in some serious internet research and found a winner. actually, we were fortunate enough to stumble on this guy's blog entry which framed a similar problem, and lead to success for both of us: benito's taco shop. of course, his story put him in the west LA location, but we were lucky enough to remember there's one right nearby on the corner of beverly & fairfax. and oh was it delicious! the common problem we find is that you can't get ALL the best stuff in one burrito. eggs and cheese and sausage but no potatoes. or veggies but no meat. but wait, benito's to the rescue! everything we were looking for (chorizo for me, beans for her) in one place. hooray! i was so excited i had to post a review on yelp immediately in the hopes of helping out fellow neighbors find the answer to their own breakfast quests. if you'll notice, i've recently discovered and developed an internet crush on this site, as it combines the novelty of myspace with the usefulness you wish citysearch had. as such, i'm trying to log all my favorite LA places over time into their system, and even put a nifty map plug-in on this site as reference for all my adoring internet fans, should they wonder where i spend my time in this city of vast entertainments. in case you were curious, the rest of the weekend was also rad: friday the guys all played dead rising (excellent) at ted's place then went off to see the protector (fairly excellent, review tomorrow perhaps?). spent saturday evening at a pool party in the hills with the lady, the roommate, his lady, and others. another excellent night. sunday night was delicious food and wine and the unquestionably cool willie nelson at the hollywood bowl. openers averaged out to null, as neko case was great and ryan adams was booooooring, but i could have guessed that going in. overall, a very productive and full weekend, meaning this one coming up needs to be earmarked for relaxing and watching the USC game. if you're reading this, you're invited, but bring beer.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 5:08 PM.
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Thursday, September 7
 the mountain goats - get lonely - 5 stars everyone knows i'm nuts about this guy, so allow me to defend this album against the accusations even i, a big fan, might level at it. after (what, 10?) albums worth of singing loud about frustration and heartache, i think he's earned the right to put out a quiet one and have people pay the same attention to his storytelling lyrics. maybe it's not as catchy from end to end, although i'd argue that 'half dead', 'get lonely', and 'woke up new' have choruses you'll sing softly to yourself well after the song wraps. and maybe it's less fun and cathartic. but the writing still has depth, and in most places the punch has been replaced with beauty. is it as fun to shout along to on a drive home from work? no. but if you want a goats record for a lonely night of sorrow, now you've got a whole album that'll do the trick. [sidenote: the track ' if you see light' is the most un-mountain goats song on the album, or possibly ever, thanks to the use of horns and some cool uneven percussion along with an almost spoken-word feel, which oddly enough has made it one of my favorites off get lonely, as well as this week's pay day song.] cursive - happy hollow - 3 stars i fluctuate so wildly between feelings toward this album, i almost don't know what to tell you. one day i'll throw it on and love how it's so brash and different from their old stuff, another day i'll give it a listen and be outright annoyed at some of the blaring horns over chugging, repetitive guitar chords. my two favorite tracks are 'dorothy at forty', which is a screaming rocker with a pulse almost reminiscent of darker ska-punk from the 90's (i'm as surprised as you), and 'bad sects', which is one of the softest cursive songs ever made, with a cool melody and mournful lyrics. so frankly, i'm stumped. it's not a masterpiece like domestica where you can get behind almost every song. i can tell already it'll age more along the lines of ugly organ -- where after a while of listening end to end and liking it well enough, i'll only still really get into the best two or three songs, and if any of the rest come up on the ipod they will get skipped more and more often. and i have to say, that's a bit of a let down after such a long wait between albums (flaming lips syndrome!).
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 4:06 PM.
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Wednesday, September 6
 so there it is, in case you, like my parents who are also new Very Large Television owners, are wondering what the new rig looks like. i won't say i love it, because it's not a deep emotional feeling. i do have an unbridled techno-lust for it, however, as right now it's the second most beautiful thing in my life (kisses jess, you can't be replaced by electronics, don't worry). if one were able to have an affair with a plasma screen, though, it would be tempting... normally i wouldn't post to brag about a purchase, and i don't really think i'm doing that right now. it's just that one of the things i always thought getting into the professional world was, 'someday i'm gonna be doing well enough to own a Very Large Television', and i've finally done it. and so far it's as good as i hoped it would be, and i'm not boasting that i've got it as much as recording my pride in having come to a point where it was even possible. good job me, keep it up. (as in, you better keep it up or they're going to repossess it, but let's not be dour). anyway, playing video games on this thing is epic. and watching netflix movies just got to be so much more of a treat. we also started watching deadwood recently and holy shit, that swearengen fella is a whole lot more intimidating on a bigass screen where every angry wrinkle in his face jumps out to tell you to back the fuck off. overall, i'm tickled. you should come over and watch football on the new HD tivo if you can, as it should be grand. just to sample the quality, i caught a few minutes of monday night football the first week after we set this bad boy up, and it nearly made me gasp out loud. please, just don't jump up in excitement and knock it over, or i think i'd have defensible grounds for manslaughter.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 6:14 PM.
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Tuesday, September 5
on paper (or this reasonable approximation i'm writing on now), you might say this weekend was your generic holiday weekend. a group of guys on a small road trip to san francisco to see our two friends who live up there. we arrived friday night, had some beers and played halo. we woke up saturday, got burritos for lunch and played ping pong until our college football came on. then we barbequed and went out for drinks that night. totally standard. but with this group it's always so much more fun than it sounds, because these are easily my very favorite people in the world. we're laughing and talking shit the whole time, and usually also at least partially drunk. and then there are always the little details that make it more noteworthy, like ted throwing up over a third floor balcony, josh shattering a glass table during a vigorous ping pong game, dan proving a miraculous talent for talking to girls whenever in the bounds of SF for some reason, people passing out in embarrassing positions, or the dangerous air quality resulting from that many guys crashing in a confined space. so that was good. and even better, i came back exhausted to a nice laid back evening at the neighborhood bar with jessica, and a small easygoing barbeque monday with a few games of beer pong all of which i was on the winning side, including a one-on-one showdown with my trusty teammate/girlfriend, which i managed to pull out at the last minute for a fortunate maintaining of my manhood. cap it off with some good old deadwood on the big new tv and you got yourself one hell of a weekend. now if only all that party-related exhaustion hadn't given me this stupid head cold. my eyeballs hurt.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 10:19 AM.
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