once again, another restructuring, not entirely sure if it will be final. i am kinda digging this layout [hemingway] but definitely needs some tweaks.

quick week in review:

» delta 5 cd is out. electrelane’s mia clarke reviews it for pitchfork. you’d think for someone who plays such incredible music thats obviously influenced by bands such as the delta 5, the writing could be a bit more, um, passionate.

» my interview with the penn current is out. lots of nice emails from many folks in the past couple of days.

» ive been invited to speak at sxsw on a panel about mp3 blogs with matt, scott stereogum, mark from music for robots; jason gross, who oversaw the delta 5 project i worked on, is the moderator. should be interesting! i hadnt planned on attending this year but this is a nice development.

while im on the subject of sxsw, let me vent for a moment. to preface: i LOVE sxsw. i love getting away from the dregs of an eastern weather, wandering streets packed full of rock stars, like im in some sort of dream. so it goes without saying, i am SO TIRED of hearing people say “the best moments of sxsw are not the ones in the festival.” lets face it, this kind of half-assed statement is not that far off from saying “its not the size, its how you use it.” worst offenders? townies.

look, i get it: you hate the festival. two weeks out of every year, all these assholes crowd your town, generating revenue, like, OMG LIFE IS *SO* HARD. if you hate it that much, put your vacation time in a year in advance, fake your death, anything — whatever it takes to get you to shut the fuck up, im all for it.

i find the whole idea that good tourism means slipping into everyday routine a fallacy, which explains my utter contempt at the suggestion that the best moments are the day parties. day parties are part of the machine at this point and really, sound far too much like my weekends as-is: some bands, a lot of stilted conversation with industry folk/hipster glitterati/whathaveyou and booze.

truth of the matter is, the best moments of sxsw i experience are when its obvious i dont belong. wandering down south congress and feeling that extra ounce of friendliness heaped on me by the parts & labor clerk because im clearly from out of town. the spark of travel thrives on otherness — isnt that why townies pack up for a few brief days, too?

check out the following three posts by patrick over at carrot top [1] [2] [3] and *definitely* make sure to read the comments. great discussion about the state of cd sales in independent music, although im feeling a “some of your friends are already this fucked” vibe from it…

i’m in this week’s issue of the penn current, the faculty & staff paper here at penn. have i ever mentioned my second love, goofing off in front of the camera? if it werent for these cursed genetics, id make a great model!

Man Man “Ice Dogs”

So have you ever seen The In Crowd? I have probably caught this movie more times than a human being should. But its always made me curious of the age when the Geator was gold and American Bandstand’s presence loomed large over West Philly, way before the thought of moving to Philadelphia ever entered my mind. I have a sneaking suspicion Man Man feels this way too, throwing off the mustachey, Beefheart affectations we’ve come to expect for the lone stylistic break on the forthcoming Six Demon Bag (nice WoW reference, d00dz, btw, LOL). The simple chug of a piano breaks through the murky flute-laden theatrics, like the sun rising up over the Ben Franklin Bridge and then the there’s a pitter-pat of the hi-hat and then, oh, and then the motherfucking “sha-do-ba-doo”s kick in. It’s a doo-wop recreation where women suddenly sprout beehives of frosty colors and keep their sxe tattoos. Out of Man Man’s quasi-carnival ouevre, this shit is the freakiest. (Purchase Six Demon Bag Here!)

» its here! the delta 5 reissue is finally available for purchase! buy the cd here or download from emusic. i cant wait to finally get my hands on a copy.

» podcasts are kinda retarded — leave the radio thing to us pros, alright? with that said, i only listen to two. tim gunn’s project runway podcast is fantastic because it has all sorts of tidbits about the episode which don’t make it to the final edit. [obsessed, eh?] cant stop the bleeding’s podcast features a different person programming it every week, which makes it feel more like a radio station.

» my high school classmate christina wilson, who totally stabbed me with a protractor in 10th grade geometry class [but was also instrumental in introducing me to the likes of the smiths, morrissey, pogues, etc], is showing her photographs at the metuchen artworks cooperative gallery. her series of train photographs, “rested travel” were taken over a two year period where she practically lived in an abandoned train. more details:

Metuchen ArtWorks Cooperative Gallery proudly presents Rested Travel The Lambertville Train Series featuring the work of fine art photographer, Christina L. Wilson. The exhibit runs from Wednesday, February 1st 2006 through Sunday, February 26, 2006. There will be an opening reception with photographer, Christina L. Wilson on Saturday, February 4, 2006 from 7pm till 10pm.

In her debut exhibition at Metuchen ArtWorks Cooperative Gallery, Christina L. Wilson examines the association between light and shadow and the properties and relationships of points, lines, angles, curves, surfaces, and solids revealing the unexpected beauty of abandonment. To create this series Wilson spent several weekends (over a period of two years) practically living in an old abandoned train in Lambertville, New Jersey. Immediately drawn into the irony between the neglect and the stunning beauty that has been created from it, as an artist, Wilson set out to concentrate on abstract form as a subject in itself while still allowing recognizable details of the architecture as well as certain spatial relationships to remain identifiable. “I found myself involved in the evolution of the trains purpose,” Wilson explains, “In an effort to expose the art within the remaining structure of the trains, I approached the project in a metaphysical manner, choosing not to manipulate those elements of nature that have created the existence of the art within the trains. Combining scientific processes, urban graffiti, and artistic vision, Wilson , within the train, an art of pure expression.”

Rested Travel The Lambertville Train Series caters to the viewers sense of familiarity with travel, while challenging the viewers relationship with the reality of abandonment. In creating such work, Wilson is successful in blending the obscure with the ordinary. Those features that appear recognizable are used to introduce the viewer to the unexpected beauty of the abandonment of the trains. Each image stands as a portrait or an individual historical record, possessing its own traits. Collectively the images represent the transformation from a forgotten physical function to the beauty revealed through decay.

The Metuchen ArtWorks Cooperative Gallery is located at 15 Station Place in Metuchen. Gallery hours are Wednesday Saturday, 12 NOON 8:00 PM, and Sunday, 11AM 5:00 PM. The Gallery is located within walking distance of the Metuchen NJ Transit train station. By car take exit 131 off the Garden State Parkway or exit 10 off the NJ Turnpike. For more information contact the gallery office at 732-603-9299.

» now for a moment of bitching: what the fuck, class of 1923 ice rink? why are your only weekday public skating sessions at one in the afternoon? how is that convenient for anyone? now, i understand you have to cater to hockey league schedules, but this shit is ridiculous. i tried going to riverrink over the weekend for some saturday skating and the session was sold out. [so shady: i got on the ice because i found an admission tag on the ground]. what am i going to do once the rink shuts down for the season next month? wissahickon is a private club, rizzo rink is difficult to get to. what? how will i continue getting my exercise? as a child i dreamed of having an ice rink in walking distance and you cant get your shit together to give the public one user-friendly skating session. don’t make me take drastic measures and like, ice down my deck or something.

» note to will leitch: if you want to learn how to not fall down, or how to get over your fixation with falling down, call me. seriously, why do they leave the reportage of skating to morons?

From my friend Steve. This is scary but it looks like everyone held their own, so kudos to them.

Man, Jersey Cops.

So last night Yah Mos Def played a show in Williamstown NJ. The show was put on by this dude Alan who has been putting on great all-ages shows in the area for a long time. This was at a new venue that was owned by some other older dude. So during the course of the night some kid stole a sign from the bathroom. This was fucked up, because anyone knows we have to respect these places if we want to be able to use them as show spaces. But this was not Alan’s fault, just some stupid kid being funny. But the guy who owned the place flipped out and called the cops.

So while Amateur Party is playing, Alan comes in and says one more song. I guess the cops told him to wrap it up, and he came in to do so. So Amateur Party starts playing the shows last song, and one of the cops says “no, no more music”. It is a confused situation. So Alan kind of just stands there and does not say anything, not knowing how to react.

So from here on out I have it on video. Since Alan does not respond, the cops says “that’s it your under arrest and grabs Alan. He says something like “fuck you” cause the cop just grabbed him so hard by the neck, but did not resist or anything. All the sudden 2 other cops run and, and they all jump on the kid. I was fucking insane. People start taking out their phones and cameras and taking out pictures. One of the cops starts yelling “put away your phones”, and a kid in the crowd says “this is America” and the cop responds “I don’t care, you’re in my town now. WTF! He gets in my face and starts telling me to put away my camera or I will get locked up. I tell him to F’ off, and that I work for a Law Firm (which I of course don’t), but that I know my rights. The kid next to me, who I don’t know, spits out the amazing line “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we have the responsibility as citizens to record this”. I love that kid.

Anyhow, if anyone has pictures of info from last night please put them in a file and hold on to them. Even if you have memories you should jot them down in a word document incase Alan wants to sue those fucks.

Man, Jersey Cops.

If that’s not enough for you, check out the video footage. As many know, my brother is a cop, but I hope he’d never do something as shitty as this.

» my newest column for XLR8R magazine is out, or should be out soon. this is notable for a variety of reasons, primarily that it’s my final column for them. yes, yes, i am the victim of restructuring and now that leaves me writing for no one. im actually happy about this. another reason you should totally check out the column is because the art department screwed up the picture of spoon. the band in the picture is clearly not spoon, but appears to be some sort of limp bizkit-esque group. [hi, antny!] its page 89 in issue #94. unless you’re into hot chip [seriously, why?] just spend a minute or two browsing it at your local book/magazine/record store.

» caught the oxford collapse last night at the north star, opening up for myspace-hyped we are scientists. ill have to have a better listen to WAS but they were impressive live, asking the OC dudes to come onstage to play/sing along to the ronettes “be my baby”. i dont think the audience “got” it, nor did they the oxford collapse’s cover of “roadrunner” [in which WAS took the stage for that, sorry i didnt come up on stage dudes -- could you believe i was feeling sheepish?!]. it was a weird mix of no one over the age of 24, total suburban types, possible retard bloggers and emo dudes [due to criteria's mineral-esque tendencies]. you know, crowds who are “indie” but dont have a clue what that really means. whatevs. OC played a rock-solid set, dedicating songs to the guy in the audience that looked like johnny lawrence from the karate kid and the girls who were sitting down in the front row. also to note: their new band t-shirts, which combine their two loves. im not going to spoil it for you, its that awesome.

» thanks to my EMP proposal, i have officially overdosed on figure skating. saturday and sunday it was watching nationals and the ice diaries, wednesday it was skating with celebrities and project runway, the last one was like watching two halves of my life fold over. it will be interesting to see if these ideas trickle down into the sport but that seems doubtful. as for SWC, it was pretty awesome.

» i dont know if i mentioned this yet, but im performing in glenn branca’s “hallucination city” piece on february 4th with 99 other guitar players [one of which is mike from lee-jae-won]. details here.

» quiet weekend around here — ive got to plow through the rest of geronimo for class and then start the autobiography of alice b toklas. i also have some skating and pizza club matters to tend to!

no, i havent died. ive been tearing my hair out trying to put together a proposal for this year’s emp pop conference. here, have a read and see how smart i is:

Friday night. Hundreds of business school students huddle together, as I sit on a metal bench in this freezing concrete bunker, struggling to hear the strains of the Black Eyed Peas “My Humps” at holiday exhibition of a local university’s figure skating club. As the sound wheezes from the too-slowly-dying PA system, an Asian girl swathed in shimmery gold Spandex complete with a perfectly coordinated shrug slowly glides around the ice. So far, a typical display of the sport. Yet, there is a difference; our tiny dancer, instead of reprising the graceful, tasteful, and stereotypically “feminine” performance essential to women’s figure skating as we know it, was getting jiggy on ice, thrusting her arms and chest in a flailing, unintentional caricature of an Usher video. This spectacle was primal, overtly sexual, and completely awkward. The juxtaposition of her naïve aping of street culture while skating to one of 2005’s most cringe-worthy singles, created a monstrous hybrid of race, class and gender norms that transfixed the arena. This particular performance serves as a microcosm; it is an entry way for analysis of figure skating’s never-ending dance around vexed social issues. These issues allow audiences the guilty pleasure of watching a seemingly simple and wholesome competition defined by the rules of demure femininity, rather than a rough-and-tumble sport, a pleasure all more guilty in light of society’s Title IX lip service to women’s sports as a haven for gender equality.

Propelling this regressive narrative is musical selection. The pressure to select the “right” music—fear of stepping outside the box of what is acceptable—is the fear of fan criticism, or worse, censure from skating’s officialdom. What makes a selection such as “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from the musical Flower Drum Song acceptable, but not Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing”? Thus music would seem to be at the very heart of this ice princess simulacrum, but both music critics and sport experts instead dismiss music as an afterthought, eliding the possibility of any critique of cultural and aesthetic values of skating’s rigidly codified saccharine musical choices. Considering how integral song selection is to these narratives, I will use this cultural lacuna to destabilize the myth that music is portrayed as inessential, or as the least important part of figure skating’s cultural project. As a former competitive figure skater and current indie rocker, I will use primary source materials and interviews as the basis of my intervention in the gender politics of skating music.

ill write more later this week. i have a crazy couple of days!

just upgraded to wordpress 2.0, which is why everything looks totes wonky. bear with me in this time of growing pains.

update: could someone please help me figure out how to get archives to post in K2 [the new kubrick theme]? its really late, my mind cant wrap around php at this hour.

omg! click it!