standing in line to see the show tonight

So, the reason I toggled over to Blogger was to make sure you all knew about the upcoming Get Smart movie, which pleases this little fan to no end. And as a huge proponent of all things Steve Carell, I think he'll be excellent--but Anne Hathaway? Seriously? I don't care if she did flash her boobs in Brokeback--she is not mod enough for 99, no way (plus she has big chicklet teeth). Who would you pick instead?

In other news, I saw a fan-freaking-tastic Red Hot Chili Peppers show last night! Seriously, I don't care how old those guys are getting--they can still bring the rock. (Not The Rock; however in a weird twist of coincidence, he, too, will apparently be in Get Smart.) Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith are all top musicians and Anthony Kiedis is an incredibly entertaining frontman--plus, I personally much prefer their newer catalog to their old stuff, so the fact that it was Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium-heavy was not disappointing in the least. Somewhat disappointing, however, was the performance by opening act Gnarls Barkley, who seriously seemed disengaged from the whole thing. Maybe they've played "Crazy" one too many times? (Maybe they just need some new music, huh, boys? I've heard rumblings about a new album in the works.) Still, a thoroughly entertaining evening on the whole...

...except for chain-smoking dude in front of me, with total disregard of the fact that the venue was NON-SMOKING. This happens a lot at big shows: once the lights go down, the smokers figure they're safe and start lighting up. It pisses me off because I can't say anything to them--they're obviously devoid of any sense of moral propriety or they wouldn't be sneaking cigs in the first place. Plus, this guy was so obnoxiously drunk that he would probably have sneered at me and then blown smoke deliberately in my face for the rest of the night, which I definitely didn't need. No joke, though--he was practically lighting them one off the end of another. And I'm so exhausted today, and it's because I don't react well to secondhand smoke. It's like my body has to fight extra-hard to process that crap out of my system, so the usual amount of sleep just doesn't cut it. I hate smoking, and if you're lighting up in front of me, you can bet I'm judging you for it.

Make all the excuses you want, smokers, but someday you're going to want to quit. Or you'll die. It's that simple.

the light in the tunnel at the end

I had these for supper tonight:




And you know what? It's hard to be tired and cranky when your meal is smiling cheerfully up at you.

this story would break my heart

Zero attention span.

Seriously. This is bad. I'm supposed to be in bed, asleep. So now I'm telling myself to finish my reading and be in bed, asleep, by an hour from now. Instead, I'm wandering the RSS feeds and TWoP forums (never a good sign) and listening to Aimee Mann on repeat instead of just DOING MY DAMN TAX READING.

Remember the vicious cycle from yesterday? Well, I think the reason my tax reading is so daunting is because I'm so tired. But the longer I wait to DO it, the more tired I'm going to be, so I really should've just read it an hour and a half ago when I got off the phone with my mom. (And by the way, Foxy's first 3-month post-cancer checkup shows her to be still cancer-free, but she's lost a half-pound, which is sort of not good, but not symptomatic of anything in particular.)

Anyway, I'm not going to dally here, because it's just another scheme to delay the inevitable (tonight, "the inevitable" happens to be the accrual method of accounting). I've said it every semester thus far, but I MEAN IT THIS TIME: NO MORE 8:45 AM CLASSES. If I could get to bed before 2 am, I might be okay, but I'm apparently unable to manage that. Sigh.

i'm in a crisis

Sigh.

I had a pretty crappy couple of days towards the end of last week, for mostly emotional reasons (namely: I was too damn tired and my emotions were fraying under the strain of exhaustion), so I took a Mental Health Weekend--in other words, I didn't do any work. Friday, I did laundry (*tiny cheers from the crowd*), then went to a bar and played board games with the Boy and friends of ours. Incidentally, I knew I sucked at trivial pursuit (the old, classic version), but it was made abundantly clear to me that the ONLY trivia I remember is that which is music-related, seriously. My narrow-minded prowess is downright laughable--though I now know that Leadville, CO is the US's highest highest point incorporated city (and the reason I'm remembering that is also music-related, as my fru-friends will attest).

ANYway. Saturday was sleeping late, lots of TV, a homecooked meal by the Boy and The Illusionist (which was pretty good, due in no small part to my main man Paul Giamatti). Today, I had tasty dim sum and a Chinese New Year parade (though I eventually got too cold to really enjoy the festivities), plus a viewing of last Thursday's installment of The Office and Wigmore Follies rehearsal this evening.

So, yeah. Awesome. Except now? I'm still at school, I have a LOT of reading to do plus journal-related stuffs, and I'm setting myself up for another exhausting week. This is a vicious cycle.

Anyway, the first round of ExRec '06 has shipped, so if you haven't received yours, let me know. And if, after seeing this (kick-ass) playlist, you want one for yourself, it's not too late.

1. Regina Spektor—Better
2. The Decemberists—O Valencia!
3. Beirut—Scenic World (New Version)
4. Of Montreal—Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
5. Built to Spill—Liar
6. John Legend—Save Room
7. The Twilight Singers—Forty Dollars
8. Panic! At the Disco—The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Remix)
9. Office—Oh My
10. Rainer Maria—Clear and True
11. Ben Kweller—Penny on the Train Track
12. The Long Winters—Fire Island, AK
13. Regina Spektor—Fidelity
14. Imogen Heap—Speeding Cars
15. Winterpills—Found Weekend
16. The Submarines—Brighter Discontent
17. Voxtrot—Trouble
18. Kaiser Chiefs—Ruby
19. The Shins—Phantom Limb
20. Michael Stipe (feat. Chris Martin)—In the Sun
21. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins—Melt Your Heart

the days, they seem to fall through you

HOLY CRAP.

A friend of mine from high school just got married in Vegas last weekend.

Not five minutes before I heard about it, I was poking around an old Geocities website of mine (animated gifs galore) and happened across a photo of me and her from the end of our freshman year, and got to thinking about what we'd've been doing ten years ago (probably planning a girls-night anti-valentine's cookie party or something)... shoot. I realize we're all certainly old enough to get married, and another of my high school friends has been married for a couple years already, but I didn't even know this friend was dating anybody! I guess I'm kind of out of the loop.

Anyway, it's definitely in character for her, so while the whole thing is somewhat shocking, I'm not exactly surprised. Plus, she looks absolutely lovely and glowing in her photos, and I'm sure she and her new husband will be very, very happy.

But still, Vegas! Wow. Her life is entirely more carefree and thrilling than my paltry mechanics-of-tax-code-section-7872 existence, I assure you.

engagements are booked through the end of the world

So, another law school blogger linked to this awesome video showcasing Steve Burns (formerly of Blue's Clues) and Steven Drozd from the Flaming Lips performing a cute song about Groundhog's Day. She labeled her post as "for the mommies," but I heartily disagree, and not just because I'm a childless fan of smart kids' music (my sixteenth birthday party did, in fact, prominently feature VeggieTales' first Silly Songs video).

It reminded me that after Songs for Dustmites, Steve Burns totally dropped off the map, which is sad because I liked that CD quite a bit and I wanted to hear what else he had to offer. A swift iTunes search confirmed no new albums, and a swift trip to his homepage confirmed that there's a new album "nigh," but not yet here. However, I DID see that his cover of They Might Be Giants' "Dead" is available on iTunes, and I recommend it.

In ever-outward-spiraling efforts to procrastinate, I sampled the rest of the Hello Radio TMBG tribute album and found... not much else to recommend. The Long Winters' "Pet Name" is possibly better than the original, and I snagged "Narrow Your Eyes" for the cool harmonies on the chorus, and "It's Not My Birthday" because I just love that song, and the cover features an accordion. But the rest? Meh. Several sound like dirges (including, disappointingly, the Wrens' "They'll Need a Crane," and OK Go's dismal rendition of "Letterbox"), others are just ill-conceived ("Boat of Car," "She's an Angel"--and seriously, that is MY SONG, and I'm so bummed at how uninspiring the cover is), and still others I just reject on principle (I've never liked "Road Movie to Berlin"--sorry, Frank Black. I hear your album Honeycomb is highly reccommended, though).

Bottom line: TMBG fans, get the Steve Burns and Long Winters tracks, leave the rest. If you've got the originals, you're not missing anything.

Anyway, that was an unusually digressive trip round the internets. And as I'm leading discussion in Trip to Egypt Class tomorrow and not yet done with the reading, I've lots to do this evening. But I'm in a cheerier mood, thanks to the groundhog song. hee.

will you feel better?

It's official: ExRec '06 is done but for the pressing.

Tracklist to follow shortly; the recipients deserve to be surprised. And if you've never been on the Exam Recovery list before, hit me up in the comments and I'll get you hooked up. (For the uninitiated--are there any?--this is my eighth(!) annual year-end best-of mix cd. I work hard to make it awesome, which is why it takes so long, sometimes.)

And yes, it's damn belated. But it makes up for it in musical goodness, I promise.

you're gonna hate yourself in the morning

I have no idea how it got to be after midnight and I haven't done a lick of reading since class ended at 6. GAH.

...well, okay, I do have some inkling: I went to the gym, and then the Boy came over and helped me finish Superbowl/indian food leftovers, then we watched Family Guy from a week ago, then I read about eight thousand law school listserv emails about the untimely resignation of our student bar association president (I'm mildly interested, but more because it's something out of the ordinary than because it affects me in any way whatsoever) and futzed around the internet, as I'm wont to do.

So, now, I'm going to go to bed late again, and I'm going to be tired tomorrow, and that wasn't the plan.

And I shouldn't be dallying on the blog, but I wanted to mention that Mom and I saw a pretty awesome Eddie from Ohio concert on Saturday night--they were at the Black Orchid, a kind of upscale/art deco/yuppie venue within walking distance of my apartment (normally... when it's not, like, -10 degrees outside. In fact, as I type this, I'm wearing a pair of emo-rockstar fingerless knit gloves I got for free at the Death Cab concert on my birthday in '05. They shield my poor skin from my drafty apartment and my trendy metal computer case, and for that I forgive Q101 for sponsoring such a fashion faux).

I don't think I've seen an EFO show outside of FRFF since Jack Quinn's in March '04, and while sitting through "Great Day" without actual blue sky and green grass (...well, sitting through "Great Day" at ALL, but that's neither here nor there) seemed a little odd, it was a fantastic set. Highlights for me were "And the Rain Crashed Down," "There's a Carp in the Tub" (heee robbie kid song), and their cover of "We Belong Together," in honor of their friends Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro. I was reminded suddenly of FRFF '05 when it seemed like Dan was everywhere, and always wearing the same shirt--a shirt for HIS BAND. Hilarious. This year is my fam's ninth FRFF, incidentally... kind of hard to believe. Hopefully I can escape NYC for a (long?) weekend so I won't miss seeing my extended folk family (and the artists, I suppose).

...but anyway. I also will highly recommend the Goose Island Sunday afternoon brew tour--as I said to Bruce in the comments below, $5 gets you a tour, six beer tastes and a pint glass! I think having a pint before the tour was probably a bad idea... but seeing as how Chicago totally sputtered out in the Superbowl anyway, napping through a good portion of the second quarter didn't really make much of a difference.

Mom also mentioned that she reads ye olde blogge, so hi, mom! I'm doing all my work and not messing around at all! That stuff up top about procrastinating online--lies, all of it, I swear... *laughs nervously and changes subject*

blood still warm on the ground

Have we all seen the Decemberists' new O Valencia video?

It's a little reminiscent of the video for 16 Military Wives, though the plot's a bit harder to follow. Still, fun to watch. Plus, I haven't seen Chris Funk since his shred-a-palooza on the Colbert Report.

More soon, as I'm in the middle of a totally fun weekend (next stop: the Goose Island brewery!)--but in the midst of all this Super Bowl nonsense, don't forget about the REAL contest this afternoon: Puppy Bowl III!

we'll bill this city

Wait, so, to publicize release of the Vista OS, Microsoft has hired... Starship? On a FLATBED TRUCK???

Way to keep your finger on the pulse, Gates. I bet all Zunes ship with "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" pre-installed, huh? Sheesh.

i have hardly grown up since you met me

HOLY SH--wow, that was close.

So, like, for ages and ages, a long long time, THIS blog has been at the top of my Blogger options. Now, however, "Music, Copyright and Digital Technology" is before mine in my blog listing (there are only three blogs--it's not like it's overwhelming), so I, of course, blindly click on the first blog and start typing.

And thank GOD I decide to use my "shenanigans" label for, like, the second time, and yet it doesn't pop up automatically after I start typing. So I click the "show all" option and the only tags are "Apple," "iTunes," "DRM"... and I think, huh. Have I even USED those tags?

THEN I realize, OH. THIS IS NOT MY PERSONAL BLOG.

ABORT ABORT ABORT

I could save myself a lot of trouble if I just hosted my own damn blog on kkdotcom. Sigh. I was going to talk about shopping for swimsuits in January, but now I'm just thankful I DIDN'T talk about shopping for swimsuits in january on my CLASS BLOG.

Off for Indian food, which should make it all better, I hope. yikes.

all about chemistry

It's official. Music class = the best law school class ever.

Why? Because my reading for tomorrow (portions of Rockonomics) contains an extended quote from (Semisonic drummer) Jake Slichter's masterpiece, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star.

Coincidentally, I read that book nearly two years ago, while visiting the law school for Admitted Students Weekend. It's a phenomenal piece of work about the music industry and you should all read it yourselves.

And *I* should finish my reading for tomorrow. But seriously? I LOVE THIS CLASS. It's like getting class credit for doing the stuff I do normally.

I'm totally pulling one over on the administration. (Shhh, don't tell.)

edited to add: Well, whaddya know. Apparently music class will be blogging through Blogger, too. So, I'm making my profile private for the time being--no sense tempting fate. I've said nothing but good things about the class here, but I'd just as soon not encourage clickthroughs from bored classmates.

haven't thought of you lately at all

So, what would you rather do tonight:

Watch the State of the Union, on EVERY major channel at 9pm/8 CST...

...or watch Veronica Mars's first new episode in two months on the CW?

Unless there's a murder mystery on the State of the Union, I'm sticking with option (b), please.

(er, that is, after I spend four hours taping students negotiating. THEN Veronica.) reprieve! I can go home now--and do laundry! hooray!

come on chemicals

This video is completely insane. Like, batshit-crazy. And you must take three and a half minutes out of your busy weekend to watch it:



I have a lot of Of Montreal songs, but I've never taken that step forward in purchasing an album. Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer is a must-get, no question--comes out next Tuesday.

edited to add: Apparently this was directed by the Brothers Chaps! That actually makes a lot of sense. Heh.

we're on the edge of a knife

Blogging on a Friday night--how rockstar of me.

But anyway--our music class prof told us to check out the Digital Music Weblog, which I'm now subscribed to and find really interesting. So, if you're into that sort of thing (iPhones and Baidu.com and ragging on the RIAA--what's not to like?), check it out. Or, at least, read this posting about an independent artist who managed to sell enough shares (or "parts") of his record to fans on Sellaband to make the $50,000 necessary to fund his album. Awesome! And a truly auspicious harbinger of success with a new business model in the music industry.

Oh, and grades came out today, a day or two later than they were supposed to (the 1Ls were in a FUROR--still are in a furor, actually, if the action on our listserv is any indication). I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat, but I do get a little rush of adrenaline when I log on to check grades each semester. Keeps the heart pumping. All I can say is apparently I'm getting the hang of law school now, which is good. I wouldn't relive last semester for ANYthing, but all's well that ends well, I suppose.

Now the Boy and I are going to watch the Office from yesterday--well, we will, when Monk and Psych stop recording. (Yes, I still use a VCR--but I also get free cable from my building management, so the TiFaux will have to wait.)

it's not unusual to be loved by anyone

Is there a reason that iTunes would send me an "alert" containing news about a Decemberists live EP... and Tom Jones's From the Vaults??? Huh. We appear to have a fraught relationship, iTunes and I.

I killed a silverfish the size of a small car in my bathroom this morning. I still have the heebie jeebies. Add to that the ENORMOUS cockroach that disruped my Music, Copyright & Digital Technology seminar (hereinafter, "music class") and I've had a very buggy day. The cockroach gushed when it was killed. Ickkkkk.

Music class is great, though--I love that I could participate by being able to explain what the Grey Album was and who did it. We also got to listen to snippets of both George Clinton's "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" and N.W.A.'s "100 Miles and Running," for academic comparison purposes (of course) regarding a recent sampling decision by the Sixth Circuit (in effect, "If you sample, get a license").

I've gotta give props to my good ol' college senior advisor, Professor Dunne, because I read enough cases and learned enough about copyright law four years ago to be able to hold my own against those who took copyright law in law school. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose? Newton v. Diamond? That George Harrison lawsuit w/ the Chiffons? Yeah, we were all over it. Anyway, it's shaping up to be a great class, cockroaches notwithstanding.

I've got miles of trusts & estates reading to do before I sleep, so off I go. Even though I've now got "Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!" running a pleasant little loop in my head...

makes me kind of nervous to say so

YAY three-day weekend! And possible snowstorm on Sunday night/Monday! If I were in grade school, I'd be furious to have a snow day on a holiday--but I'm not, and I love winter weather, and we just haven't had enough of it this year. (Sorry, Bruce!)

Anyway. I'm working on ExRec '06 (*tiny cheers from the crowd*) and accidentally deleted the iTunes playlist with all of my ideas, lovingly compiled over the last 4-5 months. This is the second playlist I've accidentally deleted in as many days, and I'm REALLY annoyed at iTunes for not having an "undo" function to fix such errors. I guess I'm so used to being able to undo anything--cutting and/or pasting, moving files, transferring things to the trash--that this new development came as total shock/horror. I acquire a LOT of new music on a weekly basis (courtesy of the music blogs, mostly), and many of the tracks on this lost playlist were one-off songs that I couldn't recall offhand. GRRR. I've managed to cobble together a new playlist and am working on whittling it down/fixing the track listing, but seriously? iTunes needs to get its act together. If there's a way to make it ask you twice ("Are you sure you want to delete this playlist? Circle one: Yes, No, HELL NO, AND BACK AWAY SLOWLY FROM THAT DELETE KEY"), I'd love to hear it, because, arrgh.

swear to shake it up

So, I'm spamming my blog this evening--think of it as penance for taking an extended hiatus over the holidays. Those of you who don't use a blog aggregator to read these entries might notice a rather unending list of Panic! At the Disco songs to the left, courtesy of last.fm. I kind of feel silly, because their lyrics are SO earnest and almost laughably meta at points--but holy crap, it's catchy stuff. And it's proof positive that a good alternative radio station works wonders for album sales: if I'd listened to Trunger's recommendation a year ago, I'd've bought the album back then--but with no music to go on, I forgot about them. And I was feeling severely heat-sick during their set at Lollapalooza (plus the burlesque girls onstage with them were a little off-putting), so I missed them in favor of the AT&T Blue Room o' Air Conditioning.

But when I was home for vacation, friend Dara recommended that I check out a new alternative radio station out of Cincinnati, 94.9, that was playing GOOD songs, like what we used to hear on the radio in high school, not that new-metal crap that alternative stations morphed into in the early 00's. And it did play good songs (Pearl Jam, Bush, old Beck, even stuff like the Smiths and the Cure)--but it was also playing the heck out of "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" (did I mention that this band is overly earnest?). And I was intrigued, and the chorus got lodged in my head, and I received $50 in iTunes bucks from the 'rents for Christmas... and now? I'm so all over it. A little behind the curve, and possibly a little sheepish (the median age at their concerts must be, like, 16), but all over it.

Relatedly, I've long thought that the first version of a song that you hear is the version you like the best (assuming you like the song at all). For instance, I'm way more partial to Rufus Wainwright's "Hallelujah" than Jeff Buckley's (and Leonard Cohen's, though that possibly goes without saying) because I heard it first, and I think his voice just suits the song so well (and is a little less over the top, blasphemous as that might seem to some). So it makes sense that I think I prefer the Snakes on a Plane remix of "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage" (I downloaded it from some blog or another; I swear I do not own the SOaP soundtrack (though I do still like the Cobra Starship theme song)) because I heard it mere seconds prior to the album version. Heh.

Whoo. Anyway. I'll try to rebuild my indie cred tomorrow; for now, I'm happy with my carnival emo-pop. Let's get these teen hearts beating faster, faster...

adrenaline pulls us near

YAY! Good news on a Monday: R.E.M.'s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! Hooray! Other inductees: Patti Smith, Van Halen, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and the Ronettes. I don't really know what the induction gets you, other than absolutely no indie cred whatsoever (hopefully some cash?), but it's damn cool nonetheless. Supposedly they're recording a follow-up to Around the Sun right now? Maybe I ought to renew my fan club membership in case they tour--it's worth the $10 fee a hundred times over for second-row seats, no question. The fan club CD this year was the songs they played at the 40 Watt club in Atlanta w/ Bill Berry--verrrry excited to listen to that.

Oh, and you get another YouTube video to commemorate the occasion. I was going to post Bad Day, because I love how earnest and news-anchorly Michael looks, but there's too much going on in it and it doesn't translate well to pixely streaming video. So, you get this one instead:



well, I lied--you get two videos, because I have a very fond memory of making my friends rent a tape of R.E.M. videos in high school and then watching this one over and over again until we had the dance down. Heh.

throw your love around

Happy 2007!

It's January 5 and it's 60 degrees here in warm & cheerful Centerville, OH. (At least the "warm" part is apt, but "cheerful"? Try me again when I've got something to show for my paper revisions.) Woo freaking hoo. El Nino + global warming = teh suck, for serious. I want WINTER weather, damnit--or if it's going to be WARM, at least be SUNNY. *stomps foot*

Anyhoo. I had a wonderful Christmas (would you believe... the Get Smart DVD Box Set was under the tree?!) and a KICK-ASS New Year's in New Haven--more Catchphrase than anyone thought humanly possible, peppered with spontaneous renditions of "Dick in a Box"--yeah, good times. I won (!) a game of Poker, helped teach 6 people Euchre, and floundered at both Apples to Apples and Categories (underwear is SO sports equipment. sheesh). We had 16 former classmates show up for the NYE festivities, which was a truly amazing turnout. Oh, and if Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers come to your town on their spring tour (as they're likely to do--they'll be in Chicago twice in the next four months), you TOTALLY need to check them out. SUCH good music, and so very all-around entertaining. (Also, though it helps to look up directions to the venue before you leave, it's definitely not required--especially if you want an accidental tour of the sketchy parts of Bridgeport, CT.)

I could go on, but I'd rather share this gem I came across from Filter's celebration of Michael Stipe's 47th birthday yesterday (it was also the Boy's birthday yesterday! but he hasn't danced with the Muppets, so he doesn't get a YouTube link):



Does Peter Buck ever smile? Seriously. Watch the original Shiny Happy People vid again, too--SO AWFUL, and yet so awesome. Christmas also brought When the Light Is Mine, the DVD comp that coincides with R.E.M.'s IRS-label retrospective, and I'm eager to watch it...

...which is why I need to get going on these paper revisions. Sigh.