Lost in GroVont : a blog

Vote!

Hopefully, you don't need another reminder to get out and vote today. Many I know have already voted either absentee or early voting where available. Those of you, like me, who have procrastinated should get out and vote today. Regardless of your political beliefs, it is important that as Americans we take full advantage of our rights to choose our leaders.

Because of my procrastination, however, I will be voting in Wyoming this year. Wyoming allows qualified individuals to register to vote at their polling place which is great. I'll get to register and vote at the same time.

I am slightly disappointed to not be voting in San Francisco this year. I am much more familiar with the city and state politics (plus it's much more interesting - just check out Proposition K), and there is a very important proposition on the California ballot: Proposition 8.

Proposition 8 comes down to discrimination regardless of your beliefs on same-sex marriage. The vote for Proposition 8 is a vote for the right to discriminate against citizens of the United States. We have arrived in the 21st century (even without the flying cars). Our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents still remember the fight for the right of women to vote and civil rights marches. Are we seriously going to regress back to a day where you and I could be walking down the sidewalk side-by-side and not have the same rights? It's an antiquated proposition and just plain ludicrous.

Click here for a real quick run down on Proposition 8. (It's a short article that gets right to the point.)

Not sure where to vote? Election Protection has a wealth of information and a phone number you can call.

Snow Day!

It's October 9th, and it's snowing here in Jackson Hole. Big giant flakes of snow. I was not prepared and had to purchase a toque after breakfast at Bubba's. Here's Daisy experiencing her first taste of snow:

A few more pictures of snow on Flickr.

Who is Sarah Palin?

Interesting news to wake up to this morning. John McCain selects "gun-totting" Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice-President. Over the next two months, we are going to get to know everything and more about Palin. (Her Wikipedia article has already been updated with her status as McCain's running mate.)

My first thought was this McCain's attempt to woo the uncertain Democrats who don't necessarily like Barack Obama. Most of the uncertain democrats are women, some of them are Hillary Clinton supporters. Palin finished her speech with references to former women who pushed at the political glass ceiling: Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. (The response to Clinton's mention was both claps and boos.) These mentions cemented the key reason why Palin was selected.

Waiting to see how some of the narrow-minded Republicans respond. This announcement makes the Presidential campaign even more interesting.

March Madness

This recently neglected blog is going to get new life. Over the next month, I will be taking a vacation and traveling and hopefully blogging. I've already ventured from San Francisco to Kansas to visit my folks. On Thursday, my mother and I will fly to New York for a long weekend. Afterwards, I will be flying solo from Newark to Paris for a couple weeks. Pictures and Tweets will be posted to document my travels.

In preparation for our trip to New York City, I've been reading the New Yorker. Today, I finished an excellent article about the MPs who found their morality tested unexpectedly at Abu Ghraib. Exposure by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris focuses on Sabrina Harman and her photos and letters detailing the treatment of prisoners. The article was written from interviews done for Morris' documentary, "Standard Operating Procedure".

One of the most interesting aspects of the article were the real stories from the MPs behind some of the pictures we have associated with Abu Ghraib. While the stories don't make the images any less shocking, it was easier to sympathize with the captors who were ordered to degrade the prisoners.

Posted at 9PM Central time.

Surf & Sierra

While I could complain about my sporadic access to hot water this week or the lack of power on my block for twelve hours this weekend, we all know there are more pressing concerns in the world. This week the country's oil issues hit close to home when a 810-foot-long container ship hit the Bay Bridge releasing 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay.

The area has been blanketed in a thick fog for a couple of weeks but this is typical weather here at 8:30 in the morning. No other ships in recent history have rammed into the bridge and investigations into the incident are ongoing. The Coast Guard is blaming the ship's pilot; the pilot is saying that the Guard gave him the okay. We'll probably be hearing about the case for months while it will take volunteers even longer to clean up the area.

The oil spill has already impacted the Bay Area. A triathlon on Treasure Island today became a biathlon as the swimming portion was canceled. The start of the crab season has been delayed and sport fishing has been closed.

Volunteers can call the Fish Game volunteer line at 800 228-4544 for information on opportunities to help today.

During my sojourn home, I read an interesting article in the New Yorker on Paul Watson who is the man behind the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society.

Raffi Khatchadourian paints Watson as a controversial environmentalist whose extreme tactics are not supported by other major environmental agencies. (Watson was kicked out of Greenpeace.) He and his crew of mostly unpaid volunteers seek out fishing ships in the world's oceans and impair the ships to prevent them from continuing to hunt and fish. This tactic also puts his crews in danger. In seeking out a Japanese whaling fleet, Watson's ailing ship the Farley Mowat set out "to end its days at sea as a battering ram in the service of marine life."

Depending on the interpretation of laws applied to the oceans, specifically the U.N. World Charter for Nature, Watson's activities are illegal.

No country regards ramming, disabling, or scuttling ships to be legal activities, and, except on rare occasions, even naval ships cannot lawfully interfere with foreign vessels on the high seas.

This has caused Watson's ships to be stripped of their flags by countries who did not support his actions. When the Farley lost its flag in Australia, Watson ran a Sea Shepard flag up the line and told his crew that they were "on a pirate ship."

While Watson is fighting the good fight and his concerns about illegal fishing of endangered oceanic animals is admiral, the actions he takes are questionable. Read Khatchadourian's full article online at newyorker.com.

Cocktail Wienies

I just finished reading Anatomy of Deceit which is an awesome study in how citizen journalism is necessary to keep both the government and the easily influenced media in check.

Marcy Wheeler writes about how bloggers scooped the media. The book combines the articles published on various political blogs to paint a vivid picture of what lead to the government leaks that lead to the outing of a covert CIA agent and the personal assassination of Joseph Wilson.

If you have any interest in political corruption, media studies, or, as is my case, anything CIA related, I highly recommend this book. It is a quick read at just over 100 pages with extensive notes and timeline if you are interested in the details.

The book was published shortly before Scooter Libby's trial, but you can continue to read about what is happening at The Next Hurrah.

Buffalo Crossing

Yellowstone Proposal Sets Greater Snowmobile Access - The New York Times:

“People go to Yellowstone one time in their lives with a few hours at Old Faithful,” said Jon Catton, an independent environmentalist who has worked on the issue for eight years. “You can hear the hiss and splash of Old Faithful, the howl of a wolf, or the persistent buzz, whine and roar of snowmobiles.”

As someone who has driven a snowmobile through Yellowstone to visit Old Faithful, I like the idea that the number of gas powered vehicles driven through the park was limited. The previous compromise of limiting the number of snowmobiles to 250 seemed like a good deal that allowed the snowmobile tour businesses to continue while taking into consideration the scarring to the natural landscape that is caused by the mobiles.

In news related to the area, one of my favorite authors, Tim Sandlin, has released his latest book, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty. Sandlin lives in Jackson, Wyoming, which is just south of Yellowstone National Park. Many of his books, including the GroVont Trilogy (the namesake of this blog), are set in Jackson Hole.

The good with the bad yet somewhat adorable

I finished reading The Kite Runner today. Khaled Hosseini's story starts with Amir's childhood in Afghanistan before the Taliban destroyed his homeland and chronicles his family's escape to San Francisco. The real heartbreak occurs when Amir faces his demons (literally through a far-fetched coincidence)  when he goes back to Afghanistan as an adult to discover surprising truths and right his and his father's mistakes. Despite many grim scenes, the book ends on a hopeful note and is riveting throughout its nearly 400 pages.

Unfortunately, the book is being made into a movie. The filmmaker's decided other areas are more picturesque than the Fremont where Amir and his father live after moving to the US as scenes were filmed seemingly everywhere in the East Bay except Fremont.

From good to bad...I saw Because I Said So this afternoon. Mandy Moore is adorable but that's about all this movie had in the positive column. Lauren Graham was underused as were all the supporting cast (except Tom Everett Scott who was annoying as one of Moore's suiters). I wonder if there were originally subplots with the supporting cast. Most of these actors we watch weekly deliver on their own television shows, but in this movie, you barely even noticed them. I think Piper Perabo's ass got more screen time than she did.

Skip Because I Said So and see Catch and Release if you need to see a chickflick this weekend.

File Under: Gov't is run by idiots

:: the redhead papers :: » “Security” doesn’t really apply to your office computer, dude..

This moron was not only trolling for underaged girls, he was trolling for them FROM HIS GOVERNMENT OFFICE. You know, the place where they tap phones and record calls and, oh, I don’t know, MONITOR INTERNET USAGE. Look, if the government’s going to try and monitor the internet usage at public libraries, then I’m fairly certain they’re going to do the same thing AT YOUR DESK, you smugly smiling toolbox.

Save the Baby Seals!

brooklynvegan: Stream the new Morrissey | Seal Hunts Suck.

We will not include any Canadian dates on our world tour to promote our new album. This is in protest against the barbaric slaughter of over 325,000 baby seals which is now underway.

globeandmail.com : Observers banned from watching seal hunt.

The quota for this year's Gulf hunt is 91,000 seals. Another 234,000 can be taken in a second hunt that begins in April off the north coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following the trend...

Seed: The Anatomy of a Hit Song.

Sociologists at Columbia University set out to test this theory by dividing 14,000 music-loving teenagers into two groups. They then allowed them to pick out their favorite songs by unknown bands. The experimental setup, carried out over the Internet, offered one group of listeners access to other people's opinions before they chose their preferred tracks, while other listeners chose their favorites without any outside input. According to Mathew Salganik, the graduate student who organized the experiment, the group acting under social influence couldn't get their peer's favorites out of their heads.

You can participate in the experiment too. (Although all the songs available were far too similar and mediocre.)

Update: Science Magazine has an article also.

Noise Pop 2006

Last year, I saw Ted Leo and the Velvet Teen, discovered the Golden Republic, and was reminded why I didn't like Nada Surf.

San Francisco's Noise Pop 2006, as usual, proclaims itself better than ever and now with self-cleaning action! The website has finally appeared but is still skimpy on information.

Shows I'm likely to go to between March 28th and April 2nd:

• Thursday, 30 March 2006: The National at The Independent
• Friday, 31 March 2006: Jason Collett at Cafe du Nord
  

Shows I might go to:

• Tuesday, 28 March 2006: Feist at Bimbo's 365
• Saturday, 01 April 2006: the Velvet Teen at Great American Music Hall

Tickets to most of the shows go on sale Sunday at 10AM. However, the schedule is still quite bare. A lot of the shows do not have more than an act listed at a venue per night. I hate to buy tickets to one show when something more appealing might appear later.

Asshole walks into a bar...

CBS4 Boston: Manhunt Continues For New Bedford Shooting Suspect.

An 18-year-old is wanted for a brutal hate crime at a gay bar in New Bedford overnight.

The asshole asked if it was gay bar then started swinging a hatchet. Personally, I choose to avoid people who I don't like as opposed to seeking them out to kill them. I prefer freedom to jail but I'm not an idiot.

Pants On Fire

The Globe and Mail: U.S. forces fire on Canadian vehicle in Iraq.

A vehicle carrying four members of a Canadian diplomatic mission in Iraq was fired on by U.S. forces inside Baghdad's Green Zone on Tuesday. No one was injured in the incident.

While watching the State of the Union tonight, I boo-ed during talk of renewing the Patriot Act, agreed with his alternative energy plans, thought his educational ideas were optimistic but non-inclusive of art programs, and ignored the rest. I was knitting a scarf.

Tegan and Sara Update

What are Tegan and Sara up to these days...

The other night in New York after the show At the Hammerstein Ballroom I played some of our new songs that we have Recorded for an assortment of people that work for us and hang out with us. Everyone thought that I might be drunk because we don’t usually do that sort Of thing, but no, I wasn’t.

Hopefully, Tegan's journal entry is a prelude to a break from touring to work on a new album. It is about that time. In the past every two years they've taken four months or so in the beginning of the year to produce a record for a fall release.

There is also an interesting article on NCTimes.com: Tegan and Sara share more than music.

Who said it first?

Yesterday at .: chromewaves.net v6.0:

It can't be any surprise that the ease with which people can constantly access and download new music without any real effort has devalued, at least for many, music. If something doesn't cost you anything, be it money or energy, why should you ascribe any real value to it?

The post is full of links to articles by journalists (pro and faux) and musicians who offer their take on the evolution of music distribution in the digital age.

You can not avoid the cliche

The Dears have released details on their new album. From the email newsletter:

Lots of strummy, dirty, riffy guitars. Ridiculous drumming and inventive bass-ing. Tons of creative  synthesising. It couldn't be a Dears record without that. There are no strings (thank heaven) and the only brass on the record is Chris from Stars with his F horn on songs like Ballad/Battle of Humankindness. My dad also plays tenor saxophone on a track called Last Breath; he's like seventy-something and apparently still has some chops.

Murray also mentions that he sounds less like Morrissey on the record. Is that good?

Watched Heights and Wedding Crashers recently and this article from Fametracker makes much more sense. Both films are good. Heights is a dark, family drama with good acting and dialogue. Wedding Crashers isn't laugh out loud funny, but if it had been billed as the romantic comedy it is, I would have been less hesitant to view it.

No more boundary-less ant farm to observe. Most of the ants have moved out of my kitchen. I left the house last night to go get drinks, and when I returned, the ants had dispersed.

As if I need another reason to hate MySpace...

Get out of MySpace, bloggers rage at Murdoch

The 38 million subscribers to MySpace, which News Corp bought for $629m (£355m) last July, discovered that when they wrote to each other about rival video-swapping site YouTube, the words were automatically deleted, and attempts to download video images from YouTube led to blank screens.

Wartime certainty

A few weeks ago, I posted about soldiers blogging from Iraq. According to this Newsday article the blogs that are not "completely patriotic and innocuous" are being shut down.

More and more, though, U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are clamping down on these military Web logs, known as milblogs.

After all, digital photos of blown-up tanks and gritty comments on urban warfare don't just interest mom and dad.

The enemy, too, has a laptop and satellite link.

Nowadays, milbloggers "get shut down almost as fast as they're set up," said New York Army National Guard Spc. Jason Christopher Hartley, 31, of upstate New Paltz, who believes something is lost as the grunt's-eye take on Tikrit or Kabul is silenced or sanitized.

...

One of Hartley's Web entries on April 24, 2004, carried a photograph of an Iraqi man's partially burned corpse clothed in a bloodied white tunic. Hartley's photo caption was a take on the "I [heart] New York City" slogan. His version: "I [heart] Dead Civilians."

In response, a visitor wrote: "Is this a joke or what? This whole blog gives a bad taste in the mouth."

Hartley replied, "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth? That's sorta the point."

Another blog reader, with the moniker Alberto, defended the shock-blog: "The point of being so graphic it's to see what a war really is. Good blog, keep it up!"

Neptune Karaoke

On Beverly Hills, 90210, we were given the Peach Pit After Dark. On Buffy, it was the Bronze. (What is the name of the place Seth "works" on The O.C.?) Veronica Mars is giving us coffeehouse karaoke. Courtney Taylor-Taylor, from the Dandy Warhols, grabbed the mic in the third episode this season, "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang", and it is being officially reported that Spoon's Britt Daniel is going to be making an appearance on my favorite television show.

What kind of stunt musical guest casting is this? Spoon is one of my favorite bands and I love Britt Daniel's voice, but what purpose is he going to serve on Veronica Mars? Taylor-Taylor's rendition of "Love Hurts" was horrible and it disrupted the flow of the episode's story. Is a 30 second appearance by Britt going to bring the legions of Spoon fans (only 10 of which own tvs) to Neptune? I doubt it.

The New Pornographers are going to be opening for Belle & Sebastian on their North America tour? Where are they going to fit everyone? That is going to be a long caravan. No word yet on where they are playing in the Bay Area.

Pre-orders are available for all three formats of the first single off of Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit. Why three formats for Funny Little Frog? I do not know. However, the band realizes the ridiculousness of it all and is offering a reasonable rate for all three with bonus tracks and videos and such. Offer only available overseas so be warned of higher shipping costs.

 

Bright lights in the sky.

Unable to sit and watch the news, I was reading at the same time.  However, this story about a meteor falling through the atmosphere being filmed by casual observers in Australia caught my attention. (The space nerd in me was very excited.)

Everyone is reporting different sizes of the meteoroid. I heard "half the size of a small car" and "the size of a soda can" and the linked article says that it was the size of a basketball. Obviously, there is no accurate way to measure the size of something based on the light it outputs (just thinking about the different variables in the equation is giving me a headache) but the range of the estimates is fairly extreme.

In local news, the Bay Bridge was shut down twice today due to a suspicious package spotted near Treasure Island.

Fighting physics to survive

Change is good, I guess. I'm in the process of adjusting to a new schedule and environment and my focus has been blurry lately. Transition is my word of the week.

Aberdeen City is playing at the Great American Music Hall tomorrow and I will be there.

Matador Records has posted an mp3 from the new Belle & Sebastian album, The Life Pursuit. My interest in B&S has been peeked lately because I'm still reading their biography. An iTunes exclusive release of a live taping of the entire If You're Feeling Sinister album is going to be released soon. The new album will be available on February 7th. In the meantime, you can listen to the "Another Sunny Day" mp3 via Matador.

In local music news, Live 105 is hosting a local band competition at Cafe du Nord on the 7th of December. Minipop is one of the bands competing. It's a $7 show on a Wednesday, what else are you doing?

Any advice for adapting to working from home is appreciated.

Off to meet the principal

Being from the central part of the country, spending Thanksgiving on the beach seems surreal. However, Thursday morning I found myself on the beach near San Luis Obispo where I was staying with friends of friends and consuming large quantities of food. Aside from post-tofurkey sickness, it was a fun holiday. We played many rounds of Cranium[1] proving many times that girls rule and boys drool before falling asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

On the Friday drive back to the city, we listened to NPR's This American Life which featured readings of blogs written by soldiers in Iraq. It was interesting and chilling. I recommend checking out Rebel Coyote's LiveJournal for a well-written and honest account. For a more blunt view, you can read Colby Buzzell's book, My War: Killing Time In Iraq, which was derived from his blog entries.

Last Sunday, I read 10:01 by Lance Olsen. It is a rare occasion that I read a book in one sitting[2]. Other than the fact that book is only 187 pages, the only reason I kept reading it was because I was waiting for something to happen. Eventually something happens, but it reads more like a character study and lacks a cohesive plot. Set in the Mall Of America, the book describes the consumer culture from various view points (cynical, exuberant, indifferent) giving you a sense of who goes to malls and why. The story is probably meant to be a statement but the ending wraps so abruptly, I didn't grasp the meaning of the climax right away.

Musically, I'm a little obsessed with Say Hi To Your Mom. There are nine songs available on the band website for your consumption followed by a reasonably priced shop from which to purchase swag.

[1] Scroll down to the "online Cranium!" link and you too can find out what the fun is all about!

[2] I still haven't finished Just A Modern Rock Story, and I stopped carrying around One Hundred Years of Solitude. Yeah, I know I need to read more too.

Gosh!

Walking through Union Square today I had to avoid more than tourists. Security guards. Trailers. Catering vans. Wires. Will Smith has been filming a biopic in the city and the shoot literally blocked my path today. Pursuit of Happyness [sic] is also hiring extras locally.

However, you can't just hire anyone off the street to be in your movie.

A co-worker and I had a discussion on whether or not it was allowed to hire non-union actors for a movie. The gist of the SAG regulations say that a film production has to prove the non-SAG personal possess a unique skill that cannot be found in a union member. Ruling is determined on a case-by-case basis.

Update: Other reports indicate Tony Shalhoub's Monk has also been filming in the area recently.

I saw Jarhead last weekend. Go see it. There were some Donnie Darko moments with Jake Gyllenhaal looking directly into the camera.

My week has been pretty dull with work consuming all my time. I am getting better at playing dominoes while drinking though.

Next week Tina Majorino reappears on Veronica Mars. Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite are the oft quoted movies in my world right now. It almost makes me miss the days when my friends quoted Top Gun.

Tom Vek is playing Cafe du Nord on Monday.

We exaggerate on the radio.

Talk host's towering rant: S.F. not worth saving.

"You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds,' " O'Reilly said Tuesday on his radio show as San Franciscans were approving the two measures. Perhaps, he didn't realize that he'd be speaking mostly to foreign tourists and suburbanites if he were standing in Union Square.

The article continues with O'Reilly encouraging terrorists to destroy Coit Tower which is a monument to firefighters.

A couple visiting Coit Tower commented on O'Reilly's remarks:

"The man is a sensationalist fool," said Paul Hickey, a 76-year-old visiting from Texas.
"He's irritating," said his wife, Judy Hickey, 67.

And they're from Texas.

Take a moment to scan the article for the political bickering which includes some humorous soundbites from both sides of the issue.

College Football

The week has been busy as usual with a splash of fun and a twist.

Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, has a MySpace page where he blogs often about touring and his relationships. Always interesting, it reads like any angst filled blog with a rock-n-roll twist.

After hearing "Beverly Hills" last spring, I had no desire to pick up Weezer's latest disc but I consider myself a fan. I first saw Weezer in high school when they were doing a amphitheatre tour opening for No Doubt. One of 2 friends that made the journey with me to Kansas City had a fresh =W= tattoo above her ankle but that night was my first exposure to Rivers and co. It was hard to get a feel for the band being so far away from the inconspicuous four-piece. It wasn't until the green album was released that I really started listening to Weezer.

I don't listen to No Doubt now but I still play Pinkerton and the blue album frequently.

Related article: "Foos, Weezer Try MySpace"

If you haven't heard yet, more Elliott Smith demos are being released almost everyday. Elliott Smith B-Sides has the bulk of the songs available in one zip file or by individual tracks. And Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands has three more tracks.

After thinking about it for a few months, I gave two weeks notice at The Job. Not caring about the work I was doing was frustrating and left me disappointed in myself for not giving 100%. Since taking The Other Job in June, I was reminded what it was like to get paid to do interesting work while being motivated to learn and contribute at the same time. Wanting to be able to focus my attention on work I can appreciate, I made the choice to sacrifice the extra paycheck and leave The Job after two years.

No more two jobs for me, just The Other Job.

How much is the rent?

The Rentals recently launched a new website announcing the return of The Rentals again. In the works is the third album from the Matt Sharp lead group.

In 2004, Mr. Sharp released an okay solo album which sounded like an Elliott Smith or a Nick Drake, he played Moog on Tegan & Sara's well received third  (or fourth, depending how you look at it) album, and went on a little tour which stopped in San Francisco. (It was a cozy show with Goldenboy in the basement of an Academy of Art building which was once a church. All fifty of us sat on the floor.)

None of The Rentals/Matt Sharp releases are brilliant or original but it will be interesting to see if the band follows the current trends in indie rock especially with Mr. Sharp's skill on the Moog.

From Matt Sharp's self-titled solo album: Goodbye West Coast.mp3 (7549.3K)

From The Rentals' last album, Seven More Minutes: The Man With Two Brains.mp3 (6547.7K)

In other news, Merge Records is offering up a free digital download if you purchase the new Clientele record, Strange Geometry, on vinyl. Hopefully, Merge will make this offer available for releases by all their bands and other labels will notice so the iPod and the turntable can peacefully coexist.

Recently, I purchased vinyl copies of albums that I new would be easily available for download, including Merge artist Spoon's Gimme Fiction and Death Cab for Cutie's Plans.

 

The Februarys

If you take a chance on any band in the new year, I recommend you listen long and hard to The Februarys.

For almost a year, I've been listening to the five tracks that were available for download on their now defunct website and eagerly awaiting the release of a full-length disc. Well, the wait is over...kind of.

The cd, The Brighter Side of Things, was released independently and from what I can tell is only available at their live gigs. The Vancouver guys have yet to leave British Columbia. Hopefully, they've been paying attention to what Clap Your Hands Say Yeah accomplished with internet sales and will post a paypal link when their new website debuts.

Until then, you can download three tracks from their MySpace page and here is one of my favorite songs from the first round of mp3s they made available:

Download Plight of the Artist.mp3 (4595.6K)

RIYL: The Killers. Do you remember Better Than Ezra?

Remember to vote on Tuesday! I'm tired of getting recorded calls on my cell from "Mark Leno" and "Matt Gonzalez" telling me to vote one way or the other. And my mailbox, which I only check once or twice a week, was full of colorful, political fliers yesterday. Last week, the mayor made a deal with major supermarket chains to limit the amount of plastic grocery bags in circulation but you send me 20 pieces of unnecessary mail!?! (Yes, I recycled the mail. And I bring my own canvas bag to the grocery store.)

In San Francisco, the air is damp and cool today with Twin Peaks hidden by fog and I have finally recovered from Friday night.

You Made Me Forget My Dreams

I vaguely remember a dream about staying in a hotel last night which had recliners instead of beds. Fortunately I didn't work there.

Listening to Tigermilk while walking through the city this morning, I thought that it seems to be a Belle & Sebastian type day.

Chromewaves.net reports on the upcoming release dates of January 16th for a single and February 6th for The Life Pursuit LP. However, from my inbox today the band comments:

As there's generally not much to do January, we thought we'd come out and do some shows for you UK folk. It's safe to assume there will be an album and single around this time too, but the press reports are slightly ahead of themselves. Not saying they're wrong. Just saying they're a little previous in declaring it all done and dusted.

(Emphasis mine. The grammar is Scottish?)

Damn you mood swings.

The rainy season has finally descended on San Francisco. I'm ready for dark mornings. Tall buildings draped in fog. Mist. Wearing a denim jacket and toque. Weather that fits my mood during the long work day.

The week has been a weird mix of too much work and staying too long at the hotel bar with co-workers after work. I haven't spent much time at home.

And the fun continues as Halloween weekend has filled my calendar. Friday night is No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. Last time I took home $49 dollars.

Don't know what I'm talking about? I learned how to play by watching Celebrity Poker Showdown. Phil Gordon knows what he is talking about.

I have an invite to a house party on Saturday. Unfortunately, I have no costumes in my possession so I might have to slap a "My Name Is...God" sticker on my jacket.

Last week, there was talk of a fund-raising costume party at counterPULSE on Sunday but further information is non-existent on the website.

Sunday might be my day of rest.

Other than Okkervil River, I've been listening to to old Belle & Sebastian while finally starting to focus on the band's biography, Just A Modern Rock Story. I also recently purchased the 33 1/3 book on Radiohead's Ok, Computer. (For frequent updates on the series, check out the 33 1/3 blog.)

As the bonus mp3, Belle & Sebastion's contribution to the Help: A Day In The Life album:

The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House.mp3 (5669.2K)

For a few bucks you can pick up the tracks by your favorite artists for a good cause, or you can get the whole album.

What's this cheery singing all about?

Parchman Farm (who I raved about previously) are on the cover of SF Weekly this week.

Here's a track from their s/t ep, which you can pick up from the Jackpine store.

Say Yeah.mp3 (3099.6K)

I will be seeing Okkervil River tonight at Cafe du Nord. (I'll be late though due some sneaky viewing of an illegal musical theatre production...)

Radiohead is blogging the progress of recording their new album.

In my perfect weblog world...

Ideally, every mid-sized music venue in San Francisco would have a blog. At the end of the night, a bartender or sound guy could go on-line to post a little anecdote or candid pic from the evening's events and the attendees of the show could fill the comments with their own experiences of the night. Most importantly, the kid(s) by the front of the stage who snagged the set list could post it, which would make me very happy. Hell, the band members could even post entries. Great American Music Hall and Slim's would be perfect venues to try nightly (er, early morning) blogging. GAMH and Slim's are some the best mid-size venues in the city, which feature some great indie talent almost every night of the week.

Although Tuesday night has come and gone, I would have read and commented on the proposed blog all day Wednesday. Slim's had Architecture In Helsinki; GAMH featured the double bill of the Hold Steady and the Constantines. Due to a hectic work week, I was only able to commit to the Constantines show, although I would have enjoyed hearing more about AIH and the Hold Steady shows.

The great thing about seeing a band live is determining who does what within the structure of the band. I hadn't realized the Constantines had two lead singers or that the bass player lacked the talent necessary to pull off the rock posturing he continuously displayed.

The set was strong mix of extended versions of older songs and tracks off the new album, which I've only listened to a few times since picking it up at the merch table.

They rocked. I rocked. "Nighttime Anytime It's Alright" is still one of my favorite songs. "Young Lions" is a treat live.

The opener, Tim Fite, was more spectacle than rock. He basically wore a powder-blue suit and stood behind a mic occasionally speaking/singing while text and video were displayed on the screen behind him. The "video Tim" played the guitar more than "3D Tim" while another guy wearing a matching suit hit the space-bar and turned some knobs.

Yes to music venue blogs. Yes to the Constantines. No to Tim Fite.

 

Scumbag College Students

Belle & Sebastian wants you to get dressed up in your best corduroy to watch them play.

“We require a TV audience for filming for a BBC program which will feature the group performing a bunch of songs from the new album.  The studio audience has to dress kind of 70s but NOT glamorous 70's, I'm thinking mid-70's Oxbridge/Scumbag College students, corduroy and suede, elbow patches, shades of brown and fawn, unkempt/long hair, perhaps some heavy eye make-up for the girls, black rimmed specs and stripy scarves.  Please NO trainers, NO printed t-shirts/logos/anything. How about the odd cloak?"

If only I lived on the other side of the globe...and owned a cloak.

And the new album Stuart spoke of is scheduled to be released early next year.

BART is still cheaper than MUNI.

First, BART announces that it will run around the clock this weekend. And now there is a downloadable schedule for your iPod.

...if only MUNI would follow suit.

Music In Museums Shakes The Skeletons

Architecture in Helsinki have a LiveJournal and the most recent post from Washington, D.C. included this snippet written by Kellie:

"I'm really looking forward to the show and we just spent a few hours running around at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum trying to take in all of the amazing exhibitions. I usually get all snobby at museums cuz i hate how they "dumb down" the nerdy info and turn EVERYTHING into an "interactive" display. Boring! But the Smithsonian was ALL class. The display were soooo good looking, the information was incredible and I have neverever seen anything quite like the skeleton display."

If you haven't already heard it, you should do whatever you can to get ahold of their most recent album, In Case We Die. Released in April on Bar None Records, the album is sonically dense weaving from orchestral crescendos to "Clap your hands! Dance!" pop. Although I caught this album late, a few months ago, and mentioned it here even later, In Case We Die is one my favorite releases of the year so far.
 

Does it make you want to read?

USATODAY.com - Is 'Lost' a literal enigma?.

Literary references have been sprinkled throughout the mysteries of Lost: In an episode last season, the character Sawyer was reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, the story of rabbits searching for a safe place in a threatening world. At another point, he read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, about time travel.

Are people going to turn away from the television and pick up a book? The people who write Lost fanfic and play the recurring numbers in the lottery might read the book of the week in order to dissect the mysterious plot, but will the general Lost audience be moved to pick up The Third Policeman from the library tomorrow? I doubt it.

In other news, the NHL season started today. Two years ago, I became a Calgary Flames fan when I stumbled upon the playoff games on television. After the strike, I hadn't really thought about hockey until today. (It helps that I read a lot of Canadian music blogs.)

The Flames play the Minnesota Wild tomorrow.

For those of you who live in your Friends page instead of a news aggregator, this blog has a LiveJournal feed. Add the other Lost In GroVont to your friends list.

Quoting Weevil.

In my day-planner under goals:

1. Blog more.

2. Sleep more.

3. Read more.

One is conveniently being fulfilled with this (cough cop-out cough) list.

Two also happens to be the number of jobs I have. Extra sleep is not possible.

Three. Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself To Live has been keeping my attention for a week.

The fall television season is upon us. I go through phases with my tv viewing habits. The invasion of bittorrents has increased the number of shows I watch but allows me to watch on my own time. (I do not have cable or Tivo. I only recently purchased a dvd/vcr combo device for my 12" screen.)

Very little about the new season interests me. "Veronica Mars" and "Battlestar Galactica" are the only must sees for me.

"Weeds" on Showtime with Mary Louise Parker premiered several weeks ago and has managed to keep me interested. Every thing Parker does is usually pretty good. If you haven't seen "Angels In America" add it to the top of your Netflix queue.

Over the past week, I have been entranced by season one (via bittorrent) of "House, M.D." A special division of a teaching hospital led by miserable, yet brilliant Dr. House takes on a rare medical case of the week while dealing with the oddities of his team--three damaged doctors too young and pretty to actually be a part of this special medical team. Season two premieres this Tuesday on FOX.

On my calendar for the week is the aforementioned Arcade Fire/Wolf Parade double header on Sunday.

A longer post than I anticipated. Helium's Dirt Of Luck has been in pretty heavy rotation in my head lately. "Oh the wind and rain" was the song of the day yesterday.

Crack Panda says...

Scott Bateman is posting an animated film a day for a year on his Bateman365 website. In the wake of current events, he has been using sound bites from politicians and adding his own commentary.

Bateman is a political and pop culture cartoonist. He has a cynical, "What the fuck?" view of the world that at times is relatable and other times I think "What the fuck?" Either way, he is worth checking out.

He updates his livejournal daily and posts a weekly music chart on Sundays.

And I see things out of the corner of my eye...

Here's what's on my plate this week (other than work):

Two (two!) Tegan & Sara shows. Wednesday and Thursday. At Great American Music Hall, my second favorite SF venue. The sound leaves something to be desired, but it's a beautiful space. Plus, the floor is large and entirely flat, so if you don't stand at the base of the stage or hang over the edge of the balcony, you are only going to see the back of some tall, skinny indie boy's head.

I probably won't review these shows simply because I know a kid who will be far more detailed than I so I'll post the link(s) on Friday, or, probably Saturday.

Having seen Tegan & Sara several times (thrice in the past 10 months), I'm more excited about seeing Every Move A Picture at Cafe du Nord on Friday. A local SF band, they're starting to get noticed. (If noticed means songs played in the background on WB shows, noticed.) Their Morning Becomes Eclectic set is available as a podcast from KCRW.org. Their sound reminds me of so many bands that I can't narrow it down to one (or even two). It's synth heavy, hook-y pop-rock. Obviously, I'll know more on Saturday.

Pinch me if I don't post anything by Sunday.

Somewhere they're playing hockey.

Kevin Beesley-Hammond from the Smugglers suffers heart attack after hockey match. He'll be fine. And his team, the Flying Vees, won the game 6-3.

I miss hockey.