Month: August 2002

I’ve been on a Spoon kick lately. James, himself quite the Spooner, gave me a copy of a two-disc rarities comp when I was in Toronto. While zipping across the backroads of upstate New York last week, windows down and sunroof open on my little rental Sonata, I put A Series of Sneaks into repeat overdrive. I’m eagerly anticipating their 9/10-11 show at Rubber Gloves. And yesterday, their new album Kill the Moonlight came out.
I was looking online for the lyrics to (perhaps) my favorite Spoon track, “Quincy Punk Episode.” Great, rocking song that never fails to get my air drum attack launched. But I had no idea the song title is based on an actual, bizarrely moralistic episode of Quincy, the Jack Klugman vehicle from the early 1980s. (Synopsis of the episode here; audio and video clips here.) Much fun.

Here’s my story from today’s front page, on how the feds say Texas’ dropout problem is actually several times larger than state officials claim it is. For reasons utterly invisible to you, Gentle Reader, I’m quite happy with it. Not that it still won’t be a boring read.
Went to the Tipperary Inn last night for a trivia contest. We finished one question away from victory, alas, out of 19 teams. My highlight: being the only one in the bar who could answer the question: “Why is Pierre Omidyar famous?” Of course, considering the readership of this site, lots of you probably know.
Also had the unique experience of being recognized in the bar by three crabwalk.com readers (Dave, whom I’d met at SXSW when I noticed his Good Records t-shirt, and two CDMOM traders, Mike and Tony). Since I’m not in the habit of posting photos of myself here, I’m still not sure what it was that gave me away — perhaps the way I would speak every couple hours, pause to mention the exact time in the Central time zone, then plaintively say, “no comments?”
One hopes they will all attend the DFWblogs.com happy hour this evening.

Media whoring alert: I’ll be on TXCN through the evening. Haven’t taped it yet, but I’m curious how it’ll turn out. I’ll be talking about a wonky, stats-laden topic — differing dropout data methodologies! — but it’s also one of the few topics I actually know something about.

One audio artifact of my Northern Tour was a CD-R from Katherine of her CBC radio piece on blogging. (Yes, observant long-time readers, that would be the piece I blogged about a couple months ago.)
So, for your audial edification, I present Katherine Parrish on blogging (warning: 11.5 meg download). If you can stand the wait (and the host’s odd elocution of the word “blogging”), you’ll hear yours truly right before the end.

Harry Potter fans: check out a book just issued by a friend of mine from college, Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody. It’s a laff riot — guaranteed!

“Personality test: When you hear “Singing in the Rain,” do you envision Gene Kelly or Malcolm McDowell? If you picture Gene Kelly, don’t date someone who envisions Malcolm McDowell. Good sex, but it’ll never work out, so start every relationship with this question.”

It’s about damned time! Death to Delaware!

Two of my cultural heroes complain about their vegetarianism at the same time!
First, Ira Glass, host of This American Life, in dialogue with a reporter: “The food was vegetarian, but the couch was leather.”
Reporter: “You’re a vegetarian?”
Glass: “Yeah, and I hate it.”
Second, Travis Morrison, lead singer of The Dismemberment Plan, on a recent tour in Spain: “Any pretense of vegetarianism went out the window when I was confronted with a Serrano ham sandwich, and for six weeks, I was a crazy omnivore. I mean, you

Here’s a nice piece in Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger on The Long Winters, a very pleasant band from Seattle. The piece is fine, in the usual too-long alt-weekly way (don’t those people have editors?), but the real kicker comes on the third page of the story. That’s where the paper, in the spirit of full disclosure, details all the ways the paper and the band are intertwined. Some highlights:
Not noted in Jeff DeRoche’s fine feature on the Long Winters are the numerous CONFLICTS OF INTEREST that may have colored the writing and editing process. Indeed, the very selection of the Long Winters for a feature article in The Stranger smacks of favoritism. To facilitate the drafting of outraged letters to the editor, I have been asked to identify each instance of COI.
Mr. DeRoche’s article is about one JOHN RODERICK, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for the Long Winters. Mr. Roderick has, in the past, been an occasional contributor to this paper. The Stranger’s film editor, SEAN NELSON, is also a member of the Long Winters, and Mr. Nelson was once the lead singer for the band HARVEY DANGER, which featured EVAN SULT on drums. Mr. Sult, like Mr. Roderick, has occasionally contributed to this paper.
Additionally, Mr. Sult is the co-owner of 10TH AVENUE EAST PUBLISHING, a local publisher that recently released a book by Stranger calendar editor BRIAN GOEDDE (This World Is Yours, $10). Continuing along the Mr. Nelson vein, Mr. Nelson once worked at Metro Cinemas with BRADLEY STEINBACHER, with whom he now works with at The Stranger. Mr. Steinbacher’s former ROOMMATE used to date John Roderick who, readers will recall, is the subject of Mr. DeRoche’s article. Mr. Steinbacher’s former girlfriend, STEPHANIE PURE, went to high school with BO GILLILAND, former member of Western State Hurricanes, Mr. Roderick’s former band.
Additionally, Mr. Nelson’s grandmother, the late Evelyn Barrows, was a Polish Jew. POLAND is a country in EUROPE, and Europe is the continent that Mr. Roderick WALKED ACROSS; Mr. Roderick’s walk across Europe is the central metaphor of Mr. DeRoche’s article. Mr. Goedde studied in Madrid, a large city in Europe, and Harvey Danger toured Europe, but did not play Madrid. The drummer for the Long Winters, MICHAEL SHILLING, a Jew–like John Roderick, a Jesuit-educated Protestant, and Evan Sult, also a Protestant–has written for The Stranger.
[long entertaining section snipped]
Finally, the aforementioned Mr. Gilliland, who is, as already noted, a former member of Western State Hurricanes, is currently the boyfriend of former Stranger contributor (and current associate editor at the Seattle Weekly) LEAH GREENBLATT. Ms. Greenblatt has a pretty sweet ass, as does Mr. Roderick.

The crabwalk.com Northern Tier Listening Tour 2002 has been successfully completed. Much fun was had. Several beers were consumed. Wedded bliss was witnessed. Canadian rock knowledge was imparted. More details than you’d care to know will soon be typed, posted, and ignored by all the people Google’s been sending me lately on “serena williams naked” hunts. A special interim thanks to the folks who provided me with couch/futon/dungeon/bed of nails space, Fiona (Boston), Katherine (Toronto), and Ryan (Toledo).
For those of you who thought I was joking about that Cheap Date post a while back, Saturday’s paper contained evidence otherwise. Keep the ideas coming; I’ll need them.