Vidiot Tumble

I got a lot of questions about this post. Well, two varieties of...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:28:00 -0400

I got a lot of questions about this post. Well, two varieties of questions:

1) “Who is that band/what is that song? Because it is fucking awesome.”

and

2) “Why is two weeks in New York too long? What is wrong with you? And what the fuck does that have to do with this song?”

Well. The song is called “Coast to Coast,” and it’s by Love as Laughter, the touring band of Sam Jayne, who used to be in the long-lost Lync, and also used to play guitar on the road for Beck and Modest Mouse. It’s from the album Sea to Shining Sea, which is basically a concept record about touring. It covers the predictable life-on-the-road bases: being homesick, getting wasted, hooking up, having to say goodbye to someone with whom you’ve been getting wasted and/or hooking up and suddenly realising that you don’t want to go home after all, etc.

I travel a lot. I did the math the other day: based on the number of days I’ll be away in July alone, I might as well flush $495 of my rent down the toilet. I do it because not doing it kills me…and because I don’t know how to do anything else that would allow me to afford to throw over a third of my rent. Until I come up with my own version of romantic hedonist bullshit to make sense of this, I’ll settle for the hired-hand 2nd guitarist for major label indie rockers’ version.

Here’s another song from that record. It’s called “French Heroin.”

Wow––I NEVER get those kinds of numbers when I go on panels drunk.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:15:50 -0400

toomuchawesome:

fek:

So, almost 1,000 comments and over 44,000 ($220!) views later, have Moe or Tracy issued any kind of apology or explanation? Also notable: they’ve each only knocked one bylined post in today, for what it’s worth.

Don’t you pay attention? Tracie was depressed.

NewTeeVee Station

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:15:18 -0400

NewTeeVee Station: No, I didn’t stop writing for NewTeeVee––my stuff just lives at the above link now. This week, I reviewed P. Diddy’s video blog.

Cutlets (or is it Maurer?) blows the lid off Food Party

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:06:03 -0400

Cutlets (or is it Maurer?) blows the lid off Food Party: Via Wiley.

This is the song I’ve been trying to place since...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:55:33 -0400

This is the song I’ve been trying to place since Saturday…I obviously haven’t listend to Ciccone Youth in a while, because I thought it might be new.

Also: if anyone has any video of them ever playing “Kotton Krown” live, will you please upload it somewhere? I will pay.

I’m on a bit of an early Stereolab kick lately.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:13:38 -0400

I’m on a bit of an early Stereolab kick lately.

Reproductions: Songs of the Human League

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:53:30 -0400

Reproductions: Songs of the Human League: Jesus Christ.

Ian from makeUP/Nation of Ulysses is DJing tonight in...

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:40:00 -0400

Ian from makeUP/Nation of Ulysses is DJing tonight in Williamsburg. I’m getting ready to trek over now.

"[Hunter S. Thompson] got very depressed when Bush won in ‘04 and not long after that he committed..."

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:12:00 -0400

“[Hunter S. Thompson] got very depressed when Bush won in ‘04 and not long after that he committed suicide. I think it’s too much to say that that’s what drove him to suicide. There are lots of other factors that are not so pretty. But I think he would say that we’re seeing the triumph of fear and loathing over that other part of the American character, this sense of idealism…I think he’d be an Obama guy now. He would say, “Here’s somebody who understands the need for a prime actor in the theater of American politics. A “together Hunter”–as his wife says– not the drug-addled drunk. The other Hunter would have something to say about it.”

- Interview with Alex Gibney, director of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

July 4th Reading!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:12:15 -0400

If you’re anything like me, you like to come home in a drunken stupor after celebrating the birth of this great nation, and read a bunch of movie blog posts. Here’s some stuff that we’ve published over the past couple of weeks on SpoutBlog that I don’t think has been given the proper attention:

10 Movies, 10 Years: NYC in the 90s

Huey Lewis and A Brief History of the Plot Song

Mad Man and Hitchcock

The Death Squads and The Film Critics

Left, Right and Center: The Blog

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:23:12 -0400

Left, Right and Center: The Blog:

“KCRW’s popular Friday afternoon politics gabfest has added a blog. If you want to argue about Bob, Arianna, Matt and Tony or discuss things with Left, Right & Center producer Sarah Spitz, head over,” writes Kevin Roderick.

Honestly, there are only two or three things in this world that I would rather do than argue about Tony Blankely, and one of them is argue WITH Tony Blankely. But Vox? Seriously?

Because two weeks in New York is too long.

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:39:30 -0400

Because two weeks in New York is too long.

Help me, sex bloggers!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:27:00 -0400

Anyone know of blogs/message boards/communities that would be interested in analyses of S&M (both literal and implied) in classic film? Like this, this or this? We’re looking to get a conversation going as much as attract traffic.

Chuck Klosterman surveys his classroom of German students on the Americans they most identify with

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:09:41 -0400

Chuck Klosterman surveys his classroom of German students on the Americans they most identify with:

ksen:

gregbrown: The results are pretty interesting. (attn Mindy)

Further proof of my recent discovery that Esquire publishes some pretty great short essays. Their online archives are full of them.

No shit––Scott Raab’s story on Cory Booker in the latest issue blew my mind. Better yet, it’s the object lesson rebuttal to the guy who was railing against the use of the first person in journalism on that panel we did at SilverDocs.

"An audience is like a broad – if you’re indifferent, endsville."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:13:58 -0400

“An audience is like a broad – if you’re indifferent, endsville.””

-

Quote, attributed to Francis Albert Sinatra, at the top of the reviews page of the above book, which I found in one of my dad’s bookcases full of forgotten paperbacks and smuggled home with me.

smokin'

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:17:36 -0400

lefindumonde:

so i recently noticed cigarettes now cost a whopping $9.25/pack in nyc

this means if you smoke a pack a day you’re paying

$64.75/week

$277.50/month

$3376.25/year

This is truly a tragedy…for thise of you who don’t travel regularly. I smoke more like a pack a week anyway so I’m not that badly affected, but I also regularly drop into regions where a pack still costs $5 or less.

"Doesn't anyone just fuck anymore?"

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:09:59 -0400

"Doesn't anyone just fuck anymore?"

Canadians are killing us.

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:53:22 -0400

youngmanhattanite:

If you spent the afternoon watching VH1’s History of Rock ‘n Roll (given the stock Sunday options you could have done plenty worse) and specifically the Bob Dylan mid-60s, then Ian Svenonius’s “Eat the Rocument” essay is a must read. Fortunately I have scanned and uploaded it for you. It’s included in The Psychic Soviet, a book I am now re-reading for the 78th time. I suggest you search the Internet hi and lo for it. Going direct will help. Here’s a favorable review that reaffirms my advice so you really have no reason not to trust it. Your effort will be rewarded, for once. [Previously: Searching for Eternal Truth]

I met Ian when I was at SilverDocs, for the second time in 11 years. He claims he remembers the first time––which was when some friends of mine and I ended up going out for coffee with him, Michelle Mae, Calvin Johnson and Erik Erlandson (yes, seriously) after the last Jabberjaw show in 1997––but I’m sure he was just being polite. Anyway, he said two things last week of note:

1) Complaining about the current state of independent film, he said, “It’s like in the punk rock days, when there was a fear of melody––now there’s a fear of narrative, like god forbid we make it too easy.”

2) He then complained about Standard Operating Procedure (as well he should), and asked me what films at SilverDocs (an all-non-fiction festival) that I would recommend instead. I suggested My Winnipeg, which he hadn’t heard of. I told him a little about it, and he shook his head sadly. “The Canadians are just killing us right now.”

The Death Squad and the Film Critic

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:20:30 -0400

It’s a third world dictatorship, and the strong man has a list. On it are the names of every known American film critic, from the blogs to the Chicago Reader to Ain’t-it-Cool to The New Yorker to the two wiseass Koreans who used to man the cult counter at DVD Palace on 44th and 8th. They’re already on the road, the death squads. Your door bows in, storm of boots, and before you know it you’re lined up on your knees alongside J. Hoberman and 3 Black Chicks.

I saw it coming a long ways off, so I dressed in militia rags, became a scout helping round up all those poor bastards. I did my best to drown out the whimpering as I double-checked restraints and supervised the digging. But something tugged at my conscience during the second or third corral. It gave me an idea of how to save the critics.

I told the local chieftan that we should spare this particular batch of vermin because their skills might be of use in the propaganda effort. “How do you mean?” asked General Taharqa. “Well,” I began, my heart skipping a beat at the prospect of seriously pissing him off. “We want the people to be more squarely behind our movement. We want to do this with less bloodshed, not more. We know that our filmmakers are instrumental in shaping the public will, and that they have been failing us with their crude, transparent methods.”

“Okay, wrap this up. I’m ready to kill these motherfuckers.”

…an excerpt from a short story for film critics.

"Punk, says Suvy, is “the only view that makes sense to me.” Work is for yuppies. Rent is for..."

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:57:10 -0400

“

Punk, says Suvy, is “the only view that makes sense to me.” Work is for yuppies. Rent is for yuppies. Shelter is a basic human right. The government is bullshit. Corporations are bullshit. He “fucks capitalism” by pissing in the corner of the Dunkin’ Donuts.

“No one has a right to tell anyone else what to do,” Greg says. “Like, it’s your life, you should be in control of it. I don’t pay for anything—just drugs. They don’t tax drug dealers.”

“Hey, you guys want to see that punk show?” Suvy suddenly asks. Rumors have been circulating of a free show that night in Bushwick. The question is how to get sufficiently blasted to appreciate it. Greg thinks he knows where they can get ecstasy for $15 a pill, but who has that kind of money? Eric agrees with Suvy that Elmer’s glue or rubber cement might be the best solution, if they can find some.

”

- Consider this as Related Reading to this and this.