I always feel like somebody's watching me...

posted by Colt45 : 7:21 PM

Do you use The Facebook?

If you're me, no. This is mainly because you have taken a moral stance against it that has nothing to do with morals and everything with "not conforming."

Well done, I must say, on my part.

Particularly because of the photo (left) of the vice president-elect, which the student newspaper ran on Tuesday. The story was slightly controversial, and viewed as tabloid. A random editor was searching the facebook and came upon the image.

The fact that she's 19, duct-taped to a chair and being fed booze isn't so bad, right? I mean there's worse imgages of me on the web. The thing is she just posted that image, after she was elected and after MU has announced a "Task Force" to "investigate" the Facebook. The story's about elected leaders, who are supposed to uphold university policies, not even listening.

But ignore that. Does anyone else find this scary? Task force?

I'm sure everyone's heard of people losing jobs over blogs and what not, but we're the Internet generation. This is our domain. (poor attempt at pun...you know "domain name," get it?...fuck you!) We were fed some lie about the freedom of the Net (except for Sandra Bullock), and now it's more likely to be policed than that hemp-smoking chap's dorm room.

Essentially, we've been dubbed "too dumb" to handle freedom. So, someone's going to hold our hand and explain what it means to put things online.

In other news, a couple hundred newspapers were stolen.

Kansas City and St. Louis media outlets are covering the story tonight.

It appears (note investigation pending) that it wasn't the duct-taped chair story, as much as the ball fondling story that inspired some lads to take the 'Eaters.

A bully for old Mizzou! We do our part to stir the pot.

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I'll show you the life of the mind!!!

posted by Anonymous : 3:27 PM

Sam's dead. How did he die? He cooked too much ham. He will no longer be selling again ham sandwich.

So a man who sounded clearly intoxicated (he's not really, just has a slurred voice and is primarily impaired by ignorance) called the OWH yesterday and declared that if the troops in Iraq don't withdraw within the next 24 hours (oops!), he will no longer support Bush and the "war." Apparently he supported the initial invasion and attack all the way up until yesterday, but would no longer starting today. Better late than never, eh?

I called in sick today. I'm not really "sick sick" as I am just sick of the receptionist not being there for absurd amounts of time and leaving me and the messenger to run the show. Getting your uterus removed undoubtedly entitles you to an 8-week sick leave, no joke. But that was the beginning of the year. I take care of the attendance and saw she has taken 48.5 sick days while I have taken a meager 6.5. And every sick day as of late no longer relates to her unbalanced anatomy anymore. Plus she's been milking every single vacation day at the end of the year and running hour-and-a-half errands over her lunch break when she does actually work. I sometimes forget there even is a receptionist anymore. And why do any of you even care? You shouldn't! I just get sick of the injustice of sick days and vacation days. Ah well, I already know for a fact that she'll be hip-deep in sheep dip, come Jan. 1st when it's revealed she has taken over 8 sick days in addition to her 40 days of repentance and uterus-healing (assuming she doesn't take even more). I think I'll have a uterus removed and put back in me (or vice versa?) if it means I get paid for the whole ordeal. It's easy to sympathize if you don't know her, but she's the disgruntled employee who'd rather be staring at a ceiling at home than being paid to do the same at work. Me too!

Okay, so I did actually feel like shit when I woke up this morning. I felt super-glued to the bed. Plus I really had some fucked up dreams regarding ghost-hunting and being possessed by them when I began pursuing the soul of a man who tortured and murdered family members in a log cabin near where my family and I were staying for the summer. It was pretty creepy when I woke up. Then there was something else about landing an X-Wing in a river and the pitfalls of doing so because the landing gear isn't equipped very well for it. That's probably why Luke ended up on the bottom of a swamp in his venture to Dagobah, home to dagos and small green jedi. To his credit, however, the conditions were rather inclimate and visibility was virtually non-existent. Not even R2 saw that coming.

Oh well, I reek of a bed that has seen too much sleep, so I might as well return to continue validating this whole sick day thing.

Toodles.

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Splitsville, population: two more.

posted by RICK : 11:54 PM

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson have officially parted ways. And while many in the tabloid press have seen this coming for some time, I have to admit that I'm at a loss for words.

Honestly, in this day and age, what does it say about the institution of marriage that two people can't join together in a loving bond, hire a camera crew, film the first 2 years of blessed unity, broadcast said footage over basic cable and then proceed to cheat on your spouse for the next year while the press reports all of this while you just smile and nod and say we're perfectly happy, ONLY to have the whole thing crumble under the scrutiny and the weight of this monolith you have constructed in your own image. I mean, if a marriage can't without those TINY tests, how are the rest of us suppose to make it work!

I... I just don't know where to turn anymore. The star system has failed me once again. Where do I turn, Auteur Theory? C'mon. What do you take me for, some Frenchie?

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Stop the presses!!

posted by RICK : 1:43 PM

Okay, I just had a thought. I did a Google-Blog search for my old high school, partially because it's the holidays and becoming nostalgic. Partially because I feel like I never really know what I should be searching for and just end up going for the staples: high school, omaha, things I find generally interesting, etc. Well, my seach pulled up some random blogger profile of someone who seems to be attending Millard West High School. Well, the profile included their DOB, which was September 29, 1990.

Let's let that sink in...

September 29, 19-NINETY. The 90s! There are currently people attending my high school who were not alive during the Reagan administration. Kids, who weren't alive when the wall came down. Kids, who have probably never even SEEN an 8-bit Nintendo. That is, to put it mildly, twisted. These kids, when they flip on VH1 on a random school-night, well not only will they be bored by the notion of reminising about a previous decade, but they might not even believe that said decade ever took place.

Is this really what we want? Do want our schools filled with children who grew up without Saturday morning cartoons? No. This passive-agression will not stand!

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Pat Morita, DEAD at 73.

posted by RICK : 1:29 PM

LINK.

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Recoil would like to give thanks to the following:

posted by RICK : 11:41 AM

Friends. Family. Our loyal readers. Our loyal lawyers. Rock Music. Music Boxes. Boxing Gloves. Danny Glover. Cripin Glover. Crispix Cereal. Serialized Television Dramedies. Telescopes. Scope. Monkey Trials. Witch Trials. Sandwiches. Sand Crabs. Soft Shell Crab. Shell Gas Stations. Gas Lights. Street Lights. Street Cars. The Cars with Ric Ocasic....

What are you thankful for?

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Two funny* things happened to me this morning

posted by RICK : 10:12 AM

ONE. At 7:05am I was sound asleep, buried under several blankets in my increasingly cold apartment. At 7:54am I was getting out of a cab at LaGuardia airport. It's weird to think about the relationship between time and place, especially when you throw sleep into the equation. I find myself thinking about this a lot whenever I oversleep and then have to book it to work. There have been uncountable occasions when the time between waking from sleep in my bed at home to actually working at the office miles away was less than 40 minutes-- even less when I was back in Omaha. That's a weird thing to think about in a way, and I guess really, just illustrates the magic of transportation.

It's nice to be momentarily overwhelmed by concepts that are incredibly common.

TWO. I just watched last night's episode of The Office. Hands down best of the season. Specifically the scenes in involving Michael at his improv class.

*Maybe "funny" should have been replaced with "interesting/entertaining"

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My Mother's Doctor?

posted by m.moore : 10:33 PM

So as I'm stuck in rush hour traffc today, I escaped my vegetative state only to discover the Toyota Sequia in front of me belonged to someone known as "DOCMILF". I'm forced to wonder; do I just not 'get it', or does this mean what I think it does? Anyone have any suggestions for me?

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Meanwhile, across the river

posted by Anonymous : 7:37 PM

I'd rather be...

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O Christmas List

posted by JDM : 3:50 AM

Hey kids! Help me make my Christmas list!

I love yearly best-of lists, but too many of them appear after I make my Christmas list. I currently have about 30 CDs on my Amazon wish list, but I want to make sure I am not overlooking any great music from 2005.

Which albums released this year are must-haves? Perhaps you could list your top record in the comments. Although I haven't made my favorites list yet, I'll start by saying that one must-have from 2K5 is The Woods by Sleater-Kinney.

Thanks for the input. If I were an innkeeper, and if you were a virgin about to give birth to the Son of God, I would totally let you hit the hay with the barn animals behind my inn.

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If you don't hear from me for awhile, it's probably because I've been shipped off to Guantanamo.

posted by RICK : 1:33 AM

If I end up here, it's likely because of this:



In other news, as you can see from the above image, I received Wilco's Kicking Television as a birthday gift (pre-ordered) from my friend Brock, and let me be the first to tell you how much fucking ass this record kicks. Probably one of the few live records I've ever listened to that I can't wait to listen to again.

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This one's for you, cap'n!

posted by Anonymous : 10:36 PM

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Where's the love for fonts?

posted by RICK : 11:08 AM

I feel like November is font-month. Or something. Honestly, as I'm planning out this post in my mind I really don't have the slew of examples I thought I had, but whatever, that's not the point. The point is that fonts are everywhere, and yet how many of us even know what the hell things like a "Serif" are?

The best moments in the film "Shop Girl" involved the character played by Jason Schwartzman. His job was that he stenciled amps, which in a way, is the perfect job to describe a certain type of big-thinking-slacker. He also spoke obsessively about fonts, and creating fonts. Hmm. Creating fonts. Doesn't that seem insurmountably difficult? I mean, I can barely write in cursive. Sure, my normal handwriting has developed itself into a bit of an original font over the past 5 or 6 years, and yes, my letters are uniform to my style and rarely alter, but that's not really creating a font. I could never "italicize" my writing or make it "condensed-bold."

This is my point.

Then today, I'm reading in the current issue of Esquire ("Best and Brightest 2005" Dec. 2005; Vol 144 No. 6), and they have an article about the "leading" font-makers in America. These guys. Their big claim to fame was inventing the Gotham typeface. The article made them sound, as it should, pretty brilliant, and incredibly meticulous.

But this leads us to the an overall thesis: no one gives a flying fuch* about fonts, and that's not right. We live in a world that has become hyper-designed. Just about everything we come in contact with has been layed out and arranged (hopefully) for maximum effect and usability (I'm NOT looking in your direction Pitchfork!) and fonts are the basis of it all. That being said, I know little about the medium and this troubles me.

If I'd have gone to design school I'm sure I'd be sick to death of fonts, but I didn't-- and I'm not. Really, its a shame that the medium has evolved into something that seems to be on a strictly NEED to know basis. In college I received a majority of my worst grades (and most sleepless nights) trying to recognize the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns (the latter being the only one I could ever remember-- because it has the leafing at the top) in art/architectural history classes. And do you know what? Most of those columns crumbled to the ground a THOUSAND years ago. And yet, humans still seem to be writing things, but my professors never taught me anything about fonts. Where's the font-appreciation course for someone who isn't planning on being a designer, but would like to know some of the origins to, say, 90% of ALL THINGS one looks at?

There is a problem with the system when you go through 17 years of eduction, learing all about the past, and yet walking away being completely oblivious to what is actually happening around us. Of course, I'm speaking mostly about how we educate people about art, but I think it applies to general history as well. There was only one class I ever took that I felt did a solid job of matching the history we were learning about to the present we were living, and interestingly enough it was also the first time in my life I ever gave a second though to fonts. That class: AP American History my junior year in high school. The font: Gil Sans. The near ream of handouts we got in that class were typed up using the great Gil Sans. It stuck out, amongst other reasons, because at the time Gil Sans wasn't available with the standard font-packages that came with a home computer-- at least not on a PowerMac LCII. The closest we had was "Gil Sans Condensed Bold," but try turning in a paper in BOLD-- on par with turning in a paper in "Chicago" or "Dingbats."

Gil Sans was my favorite font because of this-- because it was hard to find. It was art. Something to be respected not because of its utility, but because of its aesthetic and its scarcity.

Eventually I got ahold of "Gil Sans" and started using it all the time, and sadly, it's lost some of its magic. Right now I don't know if I have a favorite font. The aforementioned "Gotham" is pretty great, as it "Interstate." Actually, I'm becoming kind of an "Arial" fan as of late. Shittiest? Well that's obviously the one that is rocking this blog: Courier. Sure, it has its purposes. If you want a font that looks like it could come from a typewriter, then Courier is your goto guy, but it definitely isn't the most elegant.

I ask you: what is your favorite font?

*self-sensored because I'm at work and the stupid web-filtered seemed to be getting increasingly sensitive. Look, if you'd like a transcript of this blog entry with curse words put back in (and maybe even a few thrown in in places that don't really make sense for good measure), send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope and I'll forward you the original draft. (Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery)

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"Except after I'm done I make gold records!"

posted by RICK : 4:13 PM

Thursday afternoon I was sitting in my room watching old SNL episodes on E!, which will never sound right to me-- SNL belongs on Comedy Central and everyone knows it. In any case, the particular episode that was airing was the one hosted by Christopher Walken during the (I think) 2000-2001 season, and of course, the "More Cowbell" sketch aired.

The first time I saw this, was a year or two after it originally aired. I caught it on a replay (much like the one I was watching) while at work. I remember thinking how hilarious the sketch was, and that was about it. I brought it up with others over the next day or so and many had seen it, but it wasn't excessively quoted or really even that memorable aside from its general existence in the SNL catalog.

But then something happened, and all of a sudden it became THE sketch that defined not only Chris Walken, but Will Ferrell and really the entire post-Farley SNL era. The question is this: what was the turning point? Was it the best of Will Ferrell DVD? Was it subsequent Walken appearances that triggered the memory? Or was it simply the replays on Com. Central (or --shudder-- E!) that made sayings such as "I've got a fever..." commonplace. Maybe a more better question would be, "does anyone remember seeing this sketch on its original air-date?" I'm thinking the answer is NO, as really, who was watching SNL in 2000?

morecowbell.mpeg [29.4mb]

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For a limited time only...

posted by RICK : 1:47 PM

The always pleasant "G" tipped me off to this yesterday, and it's a deal so good, why keep it to oneself:

You can buy BOTH seasons of Arrested Development on DVD via Amazon.com for a mere $31.94.

Go get'em kids!

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What's a Knight?

posted by Colt45 : 4:52 AM

For the Omaha types...

1. What the hell's the deal with the Omaha Aksarben Knights? The Lancers are still around, no? Essentially Omaha has two minor league hockey teams in two different leagues. (I realize the Lancers play in Council Bluffs, but aren't they still called the Omaha Lancers?) I thought hockey died with the NHL strike. Counting Lincoln's team does the greater Eastern Nebraska/ Western Iowa region have 3 minor league hockey teams? This seems slightly un-American.

2. Anyone reading this blog is invited to participate in the Sixth Annual Ultimate Football Championship, the Friday after Thanksgiving. It involves amateur football, ultimate-ness, championship-ness and, for me, crying. Should be fun. Details pending.

3. I will return to the 'Ha this Sunday and will require company. Does anyone want to go to Tuesday's Knights game.

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R. Kelly is a genius.

posted by RICK : 1:28 AM

Are you as obsessed with the R. Kelly opera, "Trapped in the Closet," as I am? It's kind of, well, perfect. It is exactly the kind of ultra-high-concept and yet completely awful piece of popular media that you want in the world. It's the type of thing that 10 years from now people will say, "Oh my god, remember the R. Kelly opera 'Trapped in the Closet'? That was easily the craziest piece of R&B to be released in the fall of 2005!"
To which someone will likely respond, "Yeah, and didn't he also pee on a teenage girl?"
But then the first person will fire back, "Let's not split hairs, okay?"

And that's just it, the magic of "Trapped in the Closet" is that it momentarily (possibly permanently) will cause the average person to think of R. Kelly as some sort of mad-genious of deliciously bad concept-art and NOT as R.Kelly, child-pornographer/golden-shower-giver.

He was also the primary subject of this past week's episode of The Boondocks, a not-hilarious, but funny show about how crazy white people are. In the episode, I think Huey said it best, "What the hell is wrong with you people?!" The same can also be applied to, really, anyone who finds "Trapped in the Closet" to be a legitimate masterpiece. Let's be honest people, this isn't "Tommy," or even "American Idiot" for that matter, but you know those people exist. Somewhere, someone is buying chapters 1-12 with no irony, and maybe it makes me part of the media-elite, but that is fucking frightening. Seriously, Mr. Kelly can't even be recording these with a straight face, can he?

1) "Trapped in the Closet" to expand for no real reason -- CNN.com
2) Chapters 1-5 for your viewing pleasure -- Google Video

AND not to change the subject, but...
The best thing about VH1-Classic, isn't that they play classic videos, so much as the VJs introducing said videos look vaguely like a slightly younger version of your dad. It's refreshing to have music videos presented to you from someone other than an Urban Outfitters mannequin.

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The Pleasure of My Company

posted by RICK : 2:00 PM

If you are going to be around the Omaha metropolitan area on Friday, December 23rd, I'd like to invite you to join me at Sokol underground to see "The Good Life." Tickets are $8 and available through 1%. Should be a good time. This will be the second of 2 shows they're playing the first themed "The Quiet Life" and Friday's being "The Hard Life." Clearly, based on my tendencies of HARD living I'm going to choose the latter.

If you won't be in Omaha, you can always close your eyes and pretend:


notesinhispockets.mp3 [4.7mb]

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Sony records that have the evil DRM:

posted by RICK : 1:43 PM

From Idiot Aboard (via Gizmodo.

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Ever heard the one about the moccasins?

posted by Anonymous : 12:25 AM

A man walks into a bar carrying a lobster. The bartender, wearing nothing but an apron and a cock sleeve asks what the-- wait, no. The bartender is actually wearing a black sequined dress and is wearing moccasins. But, in order to get the moccasins, he had to kill an Algonquian Indian in the back alley behind the bar before the guy with the lobster walked in. Just to clarify, he killed the indian with a steak knife (serrated, but slighly dull and rusted from the excessive amount of meat-cutting in its 6-year lifespan).

Okay, so a man walks into a bar carrying a lobster, but it's really not a lobster so much as it is a gun. He walks up to the bartender, shoots him in the face, and steals his moccasins.

Moccasins are good footwear, as they are comfortable and can hold up over a wide variety of terrain. But the only way to get them is to kill an Algonquian Indian or a bartender who stole them from one.

Good luck.

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Missed Connections

posted by RICK : 9:50 PM

F-Train at W 4th stop. Saturday evening around 8:30.

Me: Skinny, cord jacket, playing Snood on my cell phone.
You: Todd Barry.

I don't know, did we have a moment?

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Sony music is the DEVIL.

posted by RICK : 7:15 PM

Is it a coincidence that DAYS after I loaded Stellastarr's Harmony's For the Haunted record on my computer, things slowly began to fall apart until I was forced to ERASE my entire hard drive (and entire music colletion) or stare at a screen claiming that it couldn't mount my hard drive? After all, it was recently noted that Sony has been playing "Spy Vs. Spy" with our listening habits.

In short, for those of you not keeping tabs, this is how it works: Sony-music, for about 6 months, has been selling a majority of their new releases as "Copy Protected." What happens is once the disc is ripped onto your computer, it installs a file on the hard drive that essentially monitors your activity, and also, the activity of the record that you just BOUGHT.

While this sounds seedy, it also sounds like something that was inevitiably going to happen, until you find out that said file burries itself on your computer and can be used as a gateway for all sorts of malicious computing by them as well as anyone with the skills.

Sony has recently issued a patch, but not so much of anything along the lines of an apology.

Had this unfortunate news for Sony NOT surfaced, they were planning on having anyone who purchased a future Copy-Protected disc to go onto their website and register said CD before it would play. I don't know if this is still planned.

So here's the bottom line: QUIT BUYING RECORDS FROM SONY MUSIC GROUP! Steal them.

Or, if your concious is eating away at you (mine does), buy the record at the iTunes store, burn it, and the re-rip it as mp3s.

But the bottom line is that I really wanted the new Neil Diamond record, but now I'm having second thoughts.

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I called in sick to work today

posted by Anonymous : 3:36 PM

Why? Because I woke up feeling like... well, let me use the following analogies:

1. Like someone slammed me over the head with a sledgehammer.
2. Like someone slammed my head in a door repeatedly. Ever see Kill Bill, Vol. 1? Yeah, like that.
3. Like someone methodically stabbed shrimp forks in my head.
4. Like someone pumped pain sauce into my sinuses.
5. Like someone doesn't like me (I'm looking at you, God).
6. Like someone punched me in the face while wearing a Power Glove.
7. Like someone dropped me off my balcony head-first while laughing.
8. Like someone jammed my head up a bobcat's ass while it was running.
9. Like someone forced a hose of slushy matter down my throat, giving me permanent brain freeze.
10. Like someone removed my brain and replaced it with thumb tacks.
11. Like someone put a jihad on my head.
12. Like someone threw napalm in my face.
13. Like I have a migraine.

Hence, I slept until 2:10 p.m. today. There was no shame involved. I've been using a lot of sick days lately, but I'm beginning to feel like Peter Gibbons in my office job.

Funny side story: this girl at work has this awesome postcard-sized picture of Milton posted in her cubicle. It's a snapshot from the movie where he's peeking out from behind all his shit on his desk. Some guy was walking by her cube and happened to catch a glimpse of it. He was somewhat surprised when he stopped and said quite seriously, "Hey I think I know that guy! Who is he?"

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Fox sucks...I should know, I work there

posted by Stein : 1:03 PM

I know at least some other people on this planet are fans of Fox's Arrested Development, and, according to the ratings, they probably all reside on the What Is Recoil blog. So, I figured I better inform us that Arrested Development has been cancelled (again) and there will only be a total of 13 episodes for Season 3.

That's right, no more magic tricks...illusions (a trick is something a whore does for money...or cocaine), no more seals eating main characters' hands, no more blue man group...and pretty much, no more comedy on TV. Ah, screw it...I'm going to watch the "Girls With Low Self-Esteem" video.

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Graffiti of the day:

posted by RICK : 2:50 AM

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Time to right this sinking ship.

posted by RICK : 9:21 PM

We've come to a point in the evolution of this blog I was hoping we'd avoid. That being: complete and utter lack of content. The idea, as I've mentioned before, is that by inviting anyone who wants to post to be able to do so, this blog can avoid those uncomfortable periods of postlessness that other popular blogs were often subjected to. But then something happened. Either the collective desire for personal-expression completely dried up, or perhap-- PERHAPS-- there simply is NOTHING going on.

I don't know, but I'm here to throw a couple topics into the discussion (or at least the hopeful future discussion).

While typing this I'm watching Mad Money for the first time ever, and I must say, its blowing my fucking mind. Is this the greatest program ever broadcast on television? No. Of course not. That's just silly, but what this program IS demonstrating is that no one can program a 24-hour network with ONLY news. You need some entertainment in there. Fox has known this since day 1. Of course, they're also batshit insane so maybe that's why the other networks could never figure this out. But this show is PERFECT. It's perfect for CNBC, which is a boring network anyway. It's perfect for audiences because you don't need to know a damn thing about what is being said, or really even care. It's just total theater.

It's the type of show that you expect to be mad-popular in college dorm rooms. It's like the old Iron Chef but with a screaming investor from Jersey.

If you aren't watching this show, do yourself the favor. So good.

Also, I know nothing about money (clearly), but it sounds like this guy knows what's up. He did, afterall elevate the Bluth from "Sell" to "Don't Buy".
Mad Money with Jim Cramer [CNBC 6:00pm, 9:00pm, midnight]


Have you heard of the new movie that is coming out called The Matador? I think it looks wonderful, and has gotten a lot of good press over the past month or so. But I'm not here to talk about a movie I haven't yet seen. I'm here to talk about its trailer. Actually, I'm here to talk about a peticular song in said trailer. It starts out like this:

bomp, bomp, bomp, ba-bomp, bomp, bomp. ba-- tink, tink, tink, tink

Okay, this isn't working. Do me a favor. Go watch the trailer. The song comes in right as Greg Kinnear says, "Aw, come on!" to Pierce Brosnan (about 1/4th the way through the trailer), and then it plays until the car is blown up. WHAT IS THAT SONG! I can't figure it out, and the internet has pointed me toward only 2 other songs-- "Town Called Malice" by The Jam, and "Mas" by Kinky. Neither of those are it.

Added bonus: if you can figure out what song this is I will send you something really cool. Or, at the very least, just something.

Go get'em tigers.

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24-Hour Movie Project

posted by RICK : 2:18 AM

A month or so back my friend Geri asked if I'd like to help out make a 24-hour movie. Wow, I thought, the longest movie I've ever seen was 6 hours, I can't even imagine--
"No, jerkface," she said, "we make the movie OVER 24-hours, not make a 24-hour movie!"
Boy, I felt like a bafoon. ANYWAY, the gist of the matter was this:
At midnight on Friday the organization hands out a topic. This time around, the topic was "Bad Decisions," or something like that "Bad Advice." Then the team has 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit a movie together. Sounds fun, right?

It was.

I could get into the gooey details, but this isn't really my project-- I was just along for the ride (amongst other things)-- so I'll leave the rest for Geri to either post on this site or on the comments as she was producing the bad boy.

So if you have a few minutes, enjoy "Under the influence!"

undertheinfluence.mp4 [18.7mb] (Updated Quicktime may be required)

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Picture:

posted by RICK : 11:33 PM

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Some blurry pics from the Fiery Furnaces show on Saturday

posted by RICK : 12:16 PM

They played at Northsix in Williamsburg, and while I won't go as far to say that it was a show for the record books, it definitely good. They played more or less the entirity of their new record, "Rehearsing My Choir," minus, of course, grandma. And a lot of "the hits" were reworked almost beyond recognition, which is interesting as a music fan because you want to hear your favorite songs as you know them on the record because then you can sing along and jump when you're suppose to jump, but conversely, that's why you have the album. Really, shouldn't you want to have a live band mix things up a little bit? Put their stamp on a particular show. It's a funny give and take the rock fan must comes to terms with.

Opening act: KAPOW!.

After the show we went to the bar and had some spirits. This, in hindsight was foolish, as if we'd traveled in the opposite direction we could have been treated to a free show by The Arcade Fire

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Blog post o' the week.

posted by RICK : 11:28 AM

via The PRC.

Highly entertaining.

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Are you the lead singer of Guster?

posted by Colt45 : 4:10 PM

Yes. (Who's the lead singer of Guster?)

--We loved your show. (They really think I'm the lead singer of Guster? They must, the two of them came over from the other side of the bar.)

Yeah, it was pretty good. Thanks for your support. (Wasn't that show on Halloween? Why would I still be in Columbia?)

--It was amazing. (These girls are way too excited. Man, are they going to be disappointed.)

I don't know about that. We do what we can. (What does Guster sing?)

--You should totally come to Kansas City. (I've gotta make sure someone notices this.)

Yeah, we've thought about it. I'm actually here visiting my friend from Kansas City. (Motion for friend at the bar.) Mike, I'm the lead singer of Guster.

Yes you are.

--Wait, you're not the lead singer of Guster. (They leave...quickly.)

Note to self: Next time in a faux-Irish bar and pretending to be someone I'm not, don't be so obvious when talking to friends.

I still don't think I look like him.

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Coming to a Theater/Video Store Near You...

posted by Anonymous : 12:17 PM

My friend Travis and I rounded up a comprehensive list of upcoming movie sequels, for good or bad. Keep an eye out for these in the coming two or three years:

• Fight Club 2: Final Withdrawl
• Innerspace 2: Siamese Orchid
• Toy Story 4: Everybody Dies
• Hot to Trot 2: Crypt of Malice
• Hot to Trot: Hottier & Trottier
• Final Destination 4: Phil's Pissed
• Speed 3: Hybrid Theory
• Home Alone 4: Necropolis Fissure
• Reservoir Dogs 2: Faux Sphinx
• Half Baked: Nemesis
• The Goonies 2: Real-Time Aberrations
• Passion of the Christ 2: Back to the Barn
• Arthur 3: The Kang Complex
• The Coach Carter Chronicles, Part III: Tittums is Nice, Yo
• Birth of a Nation 2: Fiscal Review
• D.C. Cab II: Straight Up Your Tailpipe
• Mean Girls 2: Crygor's Remains
• He-Man 2: Reverse of the Claw
• Bad Boys 3: Slim Rage Code Orange
• Mighty Ducks 4: Endgame
• Taxi Driver 2: Seminal Vengeance
• Scooby-Doo 3: Durango Finger
• Shrek 3: Return to Sagewood
• Iron Eagle 6: Siege at Scarmiglion's Roost
• The Bad News Bears: Death at High Tide
• Aliens 5: Ripley's Grip
• The Big Lebowski 2: The House of Reconcile
• Austin Powers: Falsetto Lord
• Three Men and a Ho
• Short Circuit 3: Assault and Battery
• Baby Geniuses 3: The Shame Remains
• Rocky VII: The Balboa Confessions
• Wayne's World 3: Uptown Resignation
• Seven: Eight
• Harry Potter and the Pension Plan
• Dangerous Liaisons 2: Bad Cunt

Remember, you heard it here first!

(This is the first report from the Hollywood insiders at Recoil.)

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What Is Recoil #22

posted by RICK : 5:47 PM

I asked this question to one Prof. Janice Portmeir, a linguistics expert out of Telluride, Colorado. She claims that Recoil and its Latin root "Recolus" deal with the ancient practice of human sacrifice. "I've studied many a word," she says, "but few are as interesting as Recoil. Really, discovering its true meaning has become my life's work-- sadly it has kept me from enjoying the fruits of some of my closest relationships, some even with other people.

I follow Prof. Portmeir into her office. It's a humble study with a roll-top desk, touch-lamp, and king-sized bed covered in satin sheets. "The sheets are satin!" she says. I say I know. She asks how can I tell without laying on them, and I respond that there are few things in this life I know a lot about, but thread-count happens to be one of them. Yes, thread-count, AND the collected works of --

She disrobes and jumps on the bed. Nervous, I begin playing with one of those paper weights that house thousands of metal pins-- the type you can press your face against and a pointilized, metal, reproduction will appear on the other side. She sat up, naked as pre-sauced pasta, grabbed the weight from my hands, and pressed it firmly against her right breast. Most uncomfortable.

I turned toward a stack of books on a shelf. On top sat He's Just Not That Into You by comedian-turned-author Greg Behrendt. The retail sticker indicated that it was a best-seller. "Now then, about this Recoil business," I say, never making direct eye contact and trying to right this sinking ship.

"Stop with the games," she says. "Take me."

"Take you where?" I was playing the fool. I knew full well where should would like to "be taken."

"You're right," she says. "This a love we shan't speak its name. Damn, but I just spoke it!"

"Look," I'm trying to reason with her, "it's probably high time I left you alone to your study. The true definition of Recoil awaits, no?

I head toward the door. She leaps from the bed, "WAIT!" I turn around, expecting to meet the business end of an ice-pick... or edible body paint. It was a weird vibe, I couldn't really gauge it.

"Why don't you take this with you." She hands me a tri-fold pamphlet: Recoil and You: Where like minds come to die. I took it from her hands, thanked her and high tailed it out of there. Was I closer to discovering "What is Recoil?" Not really. But I did learn a few things about life. Unfortunately, those things were weathered, old, and in need of some solid aerobic activity.

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Are We Shooting?

posted by RICK : 7:13 PM

In short, the answer is NO. I saw "Jarhead" this afternoon. When compared with the only other narrative account of the first gulf war that I have seen, I'd have to say that, generally speaking, "Three Kings" is better. But maybe that's because 'Kings has an urgency that "Jarhead" doesn't-- which might also be due to the fact that the latter is about boredom in the desert and the former is about trying to steal a bunch of Saddam's gold-- and then getting involved in unexpected politics. Hard to say, really.

Either way, "Jarhead" was AT LEAST the best movie I've seen in the past two weeks.

Also saw "Capote." I watched the film, but the whole time I was thinking, "I think I'd rather be reading this book."

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Flair.

posted by RICK : 1:46 PM

FYI posters. I just made a nify little download icon, so if you post some sort of cool media to be viewed or listened to or eaten, add this tag to the beginning:

img src="/downloadicon.gif" (only it should be surrounded by brackets "< >")

Example:

"Lady" -- Mando Daio

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Thank you Mario!

posted by Anonymous : 2:53 AM

Remember when Super Mario Bros. was the most intense and awesome thing you had ever seen in your life? Any kid with an NES was somebody-- a champion amongst queefs and a celebrity amongst 2nd graders. You know what I mean. Sometimes it's fun to go back for nostalgia's sake, but, as much as you kid yourself, the magic is simply missing. Then you watch a video like this and all the fun is sucked out of everything God created.

Then you watch a video like this and somehow everything God created in general seems fundamentally wrong.

Then you watch a video like this and you laugh and say, "Wow, that censorship thing really sucks. I want to laugh at Jesus a little more."

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Thanks for the memories, George. I'm out.

posted by RICK : 1:23 AM

This afternoon before going into work, I stopped by Circuit City to purchase Star Wars 3, which was just released on DVD. I'm assuming the DVD sales, as expected, will be astronomical as I had to wait in line for about 15 minutes behind several people with similar plans of attack. I might have given up had there not been an xBox 360 display across the aisle that helped pass the time. But I'm standing in this line and looking at my fellow Star-Wars-Nerd peers and I'm thinking to myself, "How many of these people are actually happy to be here?" Of all the guys (yes, GUYS) waiting in this line, how many of them are legitimately thrilled to FINALLY, after 5 months of waiting, getting their hands on this coveted DVD? My guess was few. Maybe the guy standing in front of me who seemed to be staring into the packaging as his watching the movie right there in line.

My point is this: I'm a Star Wars fan. I think the series, for all of its problems, is still pretty great. And, if I were between the ages of 8 and 14 over these past 6 years, I'd probably think that the prequels were the absolute bees knees. Granted, as a jaded movie fan I now know that what I'm watching isn't high art, but I am able to sit in a crowded movie theatre once every three years and check my pretentions at the door. That isn't the problem, the problem is the retail-pact I foolishly signed myself up for around the age of 14 or 15. Since 1995 I've bought every incarnation of these films on home video-- some lasted, other didn't (I'm looking in your general direction Episode 1 on VHS), but I've been there in line at the video store every time they graced the shelves.

I shouldn't even get started on the merchandising. There is still an enormous tub in my parents basement filled with the entire "Power of the Force" action figure series, as well as some random vehicles and playsets. Luckily, I gave up that trend right around the same time I started getting copious amounts of speeding tickets in high school. So I guess it wasn't really by choice, but by giving Douglas county a good portion of my paycheck every 3 or 4 months, it inadvertently kept me from dropping a C-Note at Target on non-collectibles.

But with the release of Ep 3 this morning, I'm officially DONE with Star Wars. From this point forward I will not be buying any more SW related products or rereleases*. That's right. Even if the mythical "Theatrical Release" of eps 4, 5 and 6 hit store shelves I'd have to say thanks, but no thanks. I'm no longer a Star Wars obsessive-- I'm just a regular guy who enjoys a little sci-fi every now and then.

Really, Star Wars just doesn't offer me what I need anymore. I mean, I've tasted "Firefly" and "Serenity"-- how can they really expect me to go back. It's like switching from broadband back to dial-up, or Apple back to PC.

I don't blame George Lucas. Amazingly. I mean, sure, its his fault. He sucked the life out of the series and then still managed to get me to buy it TWICE (two times), but he's a businessman, and I'm not in the game of keeping people from making a buck. He does what he does exceptionally well, and sometimes with great feeling, and while he is technically the hero and enemy to all Star Wars fans the war should not be aimed at his general direction. This is a war with ourselves. A war about realizing that we aren't the same people we were 15 years prior and that there will indeed come a day many, many years from now when we're going to say to ourselves, "Goddammit, these Star Wars DVDs are eating up all of my shelf space. Its time to chuck 'em. And why the hell was I so obsessed with that show 'The Arrested Development.' I mean, my god, it totally started to suck after its 12th season."

*Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably WILL end up buying Clone Wars Vol 2 when it comes out next month... but its SO good I almost don't count it as being part of the Lucas-Machine. Well, except for all the Wookies...

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NO SHAVE NOVEMBER.

posted by RICK : 8:06 PM

It's starting. It's starting today.

It is officially, "No Shave November." I encourage all of our readers to take part. To play, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Does my body grow unwanted hair?
2) Do I usually remove this hair for personal aesthetics?
3) Do I work in a field that does not put a premium on one's appearance?

If you answered YES to the previous questions then you are a perfect candidate to take part in the first annual "No Shave November."

Here is how to play: don't shave. During November.
Ta-dah!

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Halloween Parade '05

posted by RICK : 6:01 PM

I was working the parade last night for work. I'd never been before. Seemed like a good time was had, I couldn't really tell as I was held up in a SAT truck for much of the festivities. I did manage to take a couple shots:







Of course, the highlight of the day wasn't seeing the parade, but seeing ELVIS COSTELLO walk down the street in the middle of the afternoon. He was nice enough to let me take a picture:

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