Yes, yesterday I had my first official school day and it was awesome. I can feel my neurons and synapses waking up from the long slumber called the past six years. Last night, I decided to go matriculate myself (not as dirty as it sounds) by indulging in a bit of pop music nerdery: karaoke! (And this was extra-special karaoke, since it was hosted by Ms. Raised By Bees herself.)

I love karaoke. It would be nice to be in a band, but I am essentially talentless and unimaginative. You might tell me the bar for what’s deemed acceptable in this musical universe is very, very, very, very low. You’re correct on that. But I guess I’d prefer to skip past the years of heartbreak and “makin’ it” to doing karaoke in a bar.

One of the reasons I think Philadelphia is a great karaoke town is thanks to the overwhelmingly supportive audiences at these events. I’ve never heard anyone get booed, etc. Quite the opposite. So if you’re the type of person who’s terrified to sing because of negative feedback, no worries here.

Over the weekend American Idol had tryouts in town; last night a few of the rejectees came to sing and exorcise their hatred of Simon Cowell. Now, if these folks were rejected, then I really have to wonder how amazing the finalists were, because these people were just absolutely knock-down phenomenal. So phenomenal, in fact, that I had the largest bout of performance anxiety since my days as a competitive figure skater. I knocked down a couple of mic stands, couldn’t sing along, couldn’t hear myself and lacked zero stage presence to work the room. In short, I turned in probably the worst karaoke performance of my amateur career.

Dear All-American Idol Rejects, while I loved your performances, please stay away from karaoke. Bolstering your own deflated ego by making other people feel inadequate is just so uncool. Nobody likes a sore loser, y’know? (Trust me, I speak from experience.)

And to the Khyber, a space which I still love even though this city’s nightlife scene has essentially ditched you for a prettier, younger girlfriend that cleans up real well, get some fucking locks for your bathroom doors. I know you might think disgusting stalls are “punk rock” and “edgy”, but the world doesn’t need to see my most private moments nor do I need to contract a disease from the mess in there.

My life has been on a good streak lately, so there’s no real reason to clog it up with negativity, but these things I’m about to tell you, well, they gnaw and pick away at the very fabric of my soul….

The Italian Market = Ethnic Cuisine Amateur Hour
Over the weekend, I went to every store that carried Italian products, inquiring about panelle and arancine. I’ve been itching to have these lately, but was shocked to discover that none of the big names — Claudio’s, DiBruno Bros., Tallutos and so on — carried them. Well, half-truth: apparently Pronto, the DiBruno Bros. to-go store, carries a meat-free, wussed-out version of arancine — excuse me, croquettes. As for the panelle, looks like I’m going to have to take a trip to Bay Ridge or figure out a way to make my own recipe stop sucking.

Blogs I Can’t Fucking Read
Deep down, underneath the mania of Web 2.0, we all desire to be special snowflakes. It’s the motivation behind the countless, endless tweaks of blogs. As you may notice, I’ve fallen prey to the siren’s call time and time again. And I know I’ve put you through some lousy blog templates, but the one thing I’ve never done is made the type so small that it defies the whole reading aspect of it. So I ask bloggers, both near and far to do this for me — make your type size bigger. Please. Em, pixel, pica, point, whatevs. I shouldn’t need to create a Greasemonkey script for cleaning up your design oversight. Just nothing smaller than 11px — I don’t have health insurance, and the eyestrain is really, really taking its toll.

New Slang: “Gettin’ Honused” / “Honus Bonus”
This comes straight from my pal MTV and his sister, coined by being frequently shortchanged on coffee fill-ups by a certain barista-cum-indie-darling. If the coffee cup has way less than you paid for, you “got honused”. Similarly speaking, if your cup had an ample amount of coffee in it, you were the recipient of a “honus bonus”. Seeing the words “honus”, “cum”, and “indie” in the same paragraph = not a bonus.

Tobacco Companies & Their Marketing Ploys Strike Again
Seems like the upcoming Dinosaur Jr. show in town is being sponsored by Camel Cigarettes. It’s not being marketed that way, but if you wanted to know who’s ponying up the cash for the gig, well, there you go. I have this strong feeling that Dinosaur Jr. can command a hefty sum on their own, so why they’d want to get tangled up with R.J. Reynolds is beyond me. Looks like RJR is lobbying against a tax increase on cigs right now, anyway. Aside from the whole issue of bands being stupid enough to take this money, I wonder if RJR feels middle class indie rock yuppie types have the political clout they desperately need to make legislation like this happen. I just can’t imagine West Philly basement punks organizing a show a la Books Through Bars. Funny, I feel like I’ve been down this road before…

While I’m sad that I’m off the air (for now), I like these shows primarily because they take on the form of a personal favorites mixtape. They’re the songs I hold out on playing during the rest of the year because, well, WPRB’s library is gigantic and I prefer to dig through every nook and cranny — even six years in I feel like there’s still so much to explore.

What I’ll remember about Summer 2007: The Summer of Very Few Listener Requests. Really. It was kind of ridiculous, and I can’t imagine my show is that much of a crowd-pleaser.

Her Jazz 08-21-2007

camera obscura - if looks could kill - if looks could kill
———————
stereo total - mehr licht - paris-berlin - N
swervedriver - these times - 99th dream
tiny vipers - aron - hands across the void - N
jennifer gentle - i do dream you - valende
———————
spoon - you got yr cherry bomb - ga ga ga ga ga - N
the breeders - divine hammer - last splash
the strand - one more ring - seconds waiting
the wild stares - never seen before - 7″
the mo-dettes - white mice - the last stiff compilation… until the next one - C
these are powers - funeral xylophone - 7″ - N
prinzhorn dance school - you are the worker - prinzhorn dance school - N
superchunk - my noise - 7″
———————
the constantines - love in fear - tournament of hearts
oxford collapse - loser city - remember the night party
oakley hall - no dreams - i’ll follow you - N
cause co-motion - this time next year - 7″
versus - yeah you - secret swingers
the victoria lucas - finley street hooker song - hit the ground running fast
standing nudes - interstate five - ghost story - N
new pornographers - failsafe - challengers - N
———————
autoclave - dr. seuss - autoclave
delta 5 - mind your own business - singles & sessions 1979-81
tegan & sara - back in your head - the con - N
airlines - point that thing somewhere else - cleaned out!: a tribute to the clean - C
the unintended - the way i feel - split 12″ w/ the constantines
———————
uzeda - this heat - stella

No really, it’s the last show of the summer! School is starting soon.

Join me as I bid adieu to the airwaves until… the next time. When will that be? Thanksgiving? Christmas Eve? Next month? Next year?!

5-7PM EST
103.3FM or WPRB.com

K.I.T.
requests@wprb.com
609-258-1033
im: wprbdj

I received an advance of the new Aesop Rock album yesterday. My copy has my name written all over it and is watermarked digitally. No biggie.

The sound “sc” makes in Italian isn’t used frequently in the English language (Italians don’t use Y, so whatever, it’s a fair trade, I guess), so how are people going to know it makes a “sh” sound? I don’t blame any of you for making the mistake. 95% of people get it wrong, so I’ve learned to become amused at the many forms my surname takes — “Skeerino”, “Sickarino”, “Sssss (mumble)” [Thanks Ms. Factorial, for reminding me of that one!], “Serrano” and so on. I keep a running list.

That’s why I find it heartwarming/hilarious when every five seconds someone cuts in on the CD to say, “This promo belongs to Maria Tessa SKEEEERINO”. Thank you, faceless, nameless summer intern, for creating an Aesop Rock album that’s personalized — albeit incorrectly — just for me.

I’ll know when I have “arrived” (arrived as what? who knows) because I’ll start receiving watermarked promos with my name prounounced correctly. May that day never arrive.

Some people just have to get the Led out, huh? I wonder if I have enough faith and devotion to a single band that I’d be willing to carve it into a West Philadelphia sidewalk. What about you?

Her Jazz 08-14-2007

the yah mos def - stockton / malone on the microphone - live on WPRB 04-25-05
————————
daughters - cheers pricks - hell songs
mika miko - take it serious - C.Y.S.L.A.B.F.
lifetime - theme song for a new brunswick basement show - jersey’s best dancers
photon band - broken melody - our own esp driven scene
love as laughter - my case - sea to shining sea
————————
spoon - idiot driver - telephono
L7 - shove - smell the magic
the inevitable backlash - he never left - sex for safety ep - N
charlotte pressler - true confessions - 12″
the death set - once you know you know - rad warehouses, bad neighborhoods - N
brother jt - throwaway - purgatory, sweet purgatory - N
michio kurihara - wind waltzes - sunset notes - N
————————
tegan & sara - back in your head - the con - N
the pretenders - stop your sobbing - the pretenders
ra ra riot - a manner to act - 7″ - N
lush - baby talk - scar
lovechild - the rose is a thorn - witchcraft
silmaril - vespers - the voyage of icarus - N
————————
the sympathizers - canale claro (dq’s dubstep decision) - extended play for nothing - N
low - always fade - drums & guns
a sunny day in glasgow - laughter (victims) - tout new age - N
little claw - ice age - split 7″ w/ michael yonkers - N - R
yatsura - kewpies like watermelon - we are yatsura
comet gain - bored roar - city fallen leaves
immaculate machine - dear confessor - fables - N
————————
rainy day - rainy day, dream away - rainy day

Ahhhh, I start school in exactly two weeks!!! On the one hand I’ve been waiting for this moment, on the other I’m just not ready to think about homework and grades just yet (despite the fact that I’ve been TAing a film history course all summer long, so really, this is a non-complaint). Make no mistake: I am psyched. More psyched than you could ever imagine.

On that note…

» More blogging for Billboard is up. As you know, it’s a competition and the grand prize is covering an awards show from the red carpet. I could be the greatest writer since Dickens and a better photographer than Ansel Adams* but this is a game of cold, hard numbers, folks, and right now an entry about C14y 41k3n is kicking my ass. I need your comments and pageviews now so that I can fulfill my destiny of attending a red carpet event in a satin gown. Tell your friends, family and dogs to log on.

[* I don’t like Dickens or Adams, but I think you get the symbolic nature of the references.]

» The baritone sax player from the Budos Band is really, really hot.

» Jancee Dunn’s memoir is very funny. Probably the best out of the current round of “I Lived Through The 90’s” memoirs.

» My last radio show of the summer is 8/21, don’t forget to tune in.

So I wound up doing two shows this Tuesday! Dan Buskirk needed a sub very last-minute and I happened to be there. I had a lot of fun with this set, but then a caller assholed it up by telling me WPRB’s music selection “sucks”. Of course, I think the elderly caller was expecting a classical show when they tuned in, but really — was I that bad? Doubtful. I particularly liked not digging through the rock stacks. Maybe I’ll do it again soon.

And so my second, actual show had this weird, angry bent to it. Nothing worse than being in a bad mood and on the air, you know?

8/7/07 - Show I

william parker & hamid drake - chaung tzu’s dream - piercing the veil - N
————————–
selda - yaylalar - selda
creations unlimited - chyrstal illusion - because you’re funky: rare funk 45s - C
spanky wilson - sunshine of your love - funksoulsisters - C
————————–
rasha - azara alhai - rough guide to african blues - N C
gal costa - cultura e civilizacao - gal costa
gregory isaacs - cool down the pace - night nurse
joe king - you’re my everything - eccentric soul: the prix label - N C
sharon jones & the dap-kings - my man is a mean man - naturally
betty davis - don’t call her no tramp - they say i’m different
————————–
vandermark 5 - morricone - a discontinous line - N
M.I.A. - boyz - boyz 12″ - N
positive black soul - boul ma mine - africa raps - C
fela kuti - wadele wa robin - koola lobitos
————————–
lata mangeshkar - aayega aanewala - the rough guide to bollywood legends

8/7/07 - Show II

yeah yeah yeahs - rockers to swallow - is is - N
————————–
blonde redhead - in particular - melody of certain damaged lemons
calla - trinidad - calla
the rapture - pieces of the people we love - pieces of the people we love
the thermals - forward - freakin’ A
public record - fake rain - public record
the budos band - ride or die - II - N
————————–
the velvet underground - caroline - squeeze
the pastels - different drum - 7″
vini reilly - contra-indications - 12″
blood on the wall - mary susan - awesomer
harlan t bobo - sick of it - i’m your man - N
f’ed up - triumph of life - 7″ - N
one last wish - break to broken - 1986
————————–
tiny vipers - on this side - hands across the void - N
further - surfing pointers - 7″
guv’ner - almond roca - hard for measy for you
love of diagrams - all the time - mosaic - N
glass candy & the shattered theater - nite nurses - love love love - R
————————–
eltro - motorboat - past & present futurists
colleen - this place in time - les ondes silencieuses - N
archie bronson outfit - dart for my sweetheart - 7″
michael yonkers - i think - split 7″ w/ little claw - N
guided by voices - if we wait - sunfish holy breakfast ep
hole - dicknail - 7″
————————–
REM - orange crush - green