My friend from college, Mac Tonnies, has been YouTubed!

Ah, celebrity.

How much do you love David Cross? How much do you love Spoon? And ASL?

Well, I guess yesterday and today have been good days for democracy. I'm marginally excited - let's hope all this truly has a trickle down effect.

Songs I'm actually very excited about at the moment:

"When The War Came" - The Decemberists

"Been Here Before" - Jeremy Enigk

"Lazy Eye" - Silversun Pickups

"Friendly Fire" - Sean Lennon

"Way Out" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Song of the Day: "Young Men Dead" - Black Angels

I bring you, officially, the worst music video ever.

Reasons To Be Happy
(besides that you're no longer employed at a job you despise)

#1 - Fred Durst seems, at least for the time being, to have disappeared.

This is quite possibly the gayest video of all time. Seriously. Morrissey trying to drive a tractor! I rest my case.

You know, it occurred to me today that I never posted the pictures from our last holiday up to Portland. This is just as good.

Ok. I am not kidding here. I've become seriously addicted to SSPU.

"that's when it turned on me/
a motorcade of 'meant to be's/
parades of beauty queens/
where soft entwines make kindling/
these many detailed things/
like broken nails and plastic rings/
will win by keeping me/
from speaking to my new darling/
and there's no way to know/
our future foe scenarios/
that's when it turned on me/
where bobby pins hold angel wings"

I haven't heard poetry like that since Jeremy Enigk. Who, incidently, also has a new album out that's quite good. But that's not the point of this story. The point of this story is that SSPU is currently on tour. I saw the opening night at the Rickshaw and was floored. YOU MUST GO SEE THIS BAND ON THEIR CURRENT TOUR NOW, BEFORE THEY START DOING iPOD COMMERCIALS AND START TO STINK OF COMPROMISE. My legion of loyal readers in the KC/Lawrence area should be aware that SSPU will be play at the Jackpot (across from the Replay) tomorrow night. Skip the opening - Viva Voce - it's another Quasi/White Stripes thing. Consider yourself tipped off, kids.

I quit my job today. For the second time in three days. Here's a letter of resignation I wanted to turn in to a job three years ago. Except for a few minor changes, I feel exactly the same way all over again. Oh, the beauty of working for non-profits!

Well goddamnit if I can't get through some kind of celebration without pissing the entire party off. It happened again tonight, at my future in-laws house. For some unknown reason, although it's Jason's damn party, someone had to bring up how scrumdiddleyuptious Larry the Cable Guy is (I'll be goddamned if I'm going to link his name). As per usual in this kind of situation, I held my tongue. It's impossible to ever bring that kind of debate to an intelligent level. Everyone is laughing, recounting high lights of his television routine, and in general, letting their "true colors" fly. The kind of "true colors" you only fly when you're sure you're with like-minded company.

Finally, I was asked if I thought he was funny. I'm sure as hell not going to lie to curry favor, so I said no, that I found his work to be insulting.

There was a loooooong silence. And I could see everyone's inner monologue. To put it nicely, it said "uppity bitch".

Thank God for David Cross in these times of trial:

"It's a lot of anti-gay, racist humor which people like in America all couched in 'I'm telling it like it is.' He's in the right place at the right time for that gee-shucks, proud-to-be-a-redneck, I'm-just-a-straight-shooter-multimillionaire-in-cutoff-flannel-selling-ring-
tones act. That's where we are as a nation now. We're in a state of vague American values and anti-intellectual pride."

Yup. And I seem to end up getting into confrontations with every Wal-Mart shopping, Dodge truck buying, evangelical bigot this side of the Rockies. Did I point out I live in northern California, for God's sake? These people have infiltrated everything!

You know, if I'd gone to work today, I wouldn't have found this. And it needed to be found.

Top Five Songs to Listen to When You Skip Outta Work On a Monday

1.) "Definition" - Mos Def & Talib Kweli

2.) "Get Myself Into It" - The Rapture

3.) "Over the Pond" - Album Leaf & Sigur Ros (I have a theory that this song was in "Donnie Darko", but no one listens to me)

4.) "Just Drums" - Tapes 'n Tapes

5.) "Gold Lion" - Yeah3

Any feedback on Band of Horses would also be appreciated. I'm being peer pressured into listening to them.

Having a bad day at work? Has the strumpet in accounting hacked you off? Does your boss assume you read minds? Are you dying to leave an all-company voice mail expressing your concerns over the decrease in benefit coverage? Is the fax machine behaving like it has a personal vendetta against you? Then you need the Samuel L. Jackson Soundboard! Perfect for almost any occupational situation!

(via Posthuman Blues)

Curious to hear what Sunny Day Real Estate mixed with early Smashing Pumpkins would sound like? Then watch, listen and rock hard...

I am an IKEA nut. I go absolutely crazy for my annual shop-a-thon. Who knew it was so tawdry?

"We saw this particular photo when the prints came through here in Canada. ...But we can definitely say this is a picture of a dog's leg, and it is not something else."

I got my period today. Could you tell it was coming by my last two posts?

(Not that I'm backing down. Those are completely legitimate points. I was just more...vocal.)

So, you know, I get put through some very trying situations at work. It's really a quite stressful place to run. Social service agencies are known for being 24 hour crisis tornados. But this is not the point of this entry. The point of this entry is that, despite the hell I already get put through, I was persecuted today because of my personal beliefs. By four separate people while trapped in a 8 foot by 5 foot cubicle. Let me explain.

I'm easily the coolest person in my department. I have a clique - all the indie underachievers...we're all the same age, we all have credit problems, we all have cardigans, we spend most of the time chatting music rather than doing paperwork. Anyway, so today I brought up what I thought was a viable conversation topic - Weird Al.

There was a lot of silence. Then the slings and arrows of that high school type of "cooler than thou" stuff started. And it was seriously mean-spirited. I was essentially told that I was insane. "Partially schitzophrenic" was the actual term, I believe.

And I just wanted to know if they'd heard his new song, which you shouldn't download at all.

And it kept going on all day.

Here's my opinion on people who "don't get" Weird Al. I think, frankly, Weird Al is pretty much a genius. I mean - how high does your IQ have to be to pair the Beverly Hillbillies theme with a Dire Straights song? And have you ever listened to "Bob"? That's incredible. It's a little more than novelty. And it's fun. But I guess we shouldn't ruin our cynical cool kid attitude with something frivolous. If it's not hopelessly obscure, or bitter and addiction soaked, it's too far to stoop.

Screw that.

Song of the day: "Angry White Boy Polka" - Weird Al.

I had a sugary breakfast today, and with my blood glucose level soaring, I fired off this rant in an email. I feel it should be shared with my adoring public.

"Bukowski once explained how his childhood impacted his
writing: "When you get the shit kicked out of you
long enough and long enough, you learn to say exactly
what you mean. You get all the pretension kicked out
of you." Isaac Brock once said regarding Hank "Who'd
want to be such an asshole?". I say there's nothing
more all-American than getting a hard on for an
emotionally impotent, inflated myth creating, shitty
ONS (probably shot booze), live-pedestrian-die-slowly,
woman beater. People love to chalk it all up the Beat
Generation brilliance. Anti-establishment, my foot.
God. I don't see anyone drooling to make a fifteenth
film about James Baldwin. There's a serious lack of
standards in contemporary understanding of literature.
Shock fucking sells. Bukowski's no different than
any other drivel that comes out of American
television. And the man playing him in the film does
voice-overs for Pontiac! Jesus fucking Christ. Makes
me want to open my window and start screaming a la
"Network"."

My dear little sisters, Ginny and Kitty, leave tomorrow for their freshman year of college at Drake University. They grow up so quickly...and I'm so proud of them!

Remember when music didn't suck?

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Although I hated highschool, the soundtrack was awesome.