Friday, December 5, 2008
Gino's East!
I am too lazy to take a picture, thus you have a backwards computer-taken picture.
But I am not too lazy to heat this bad boy up. Look it's Gino's East pizza! And I found it in Omaha. Gino's East is my favorite pizza ever. This was by far the best part of my day. The second best part, well maybe it's a tie, was getting a tetanus shot and not even coming close to fainting. I'm growing up.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Brooklyn Go Hard
Jay-Z on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes
The song is pretty sweet and catchy plus references from the Brooklyn Dodgers (of course) to Annie (once again) to Lykke Li. Nice. And cool typography graphics. B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N, join in.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Moxie Paper Press
I joined a small writing group a little while back. It has been a great experience thus far. It is a great group of people and it's nice to have a forum to share work and ideas. And now one of those ideas is coming to fruition. We are starting a small, independent press called Moxie Paper Press (click to go to our website) and we have a blog titled Fistful of Paper. A big shout out to the wonderful, hardworking Cody Peterson who designed our website, blog and logos. Thank you!
And for those of you in the Omaha area, we are gearing up to host our first event titled Monster Holiday on December 13 at the Bancroft Gallery at 10th and Bancroft. Honeybee and Talking Mountain will play and there will be readings by the members of our group/press: Annie Dilocker, Christin Goetz, Drew Hanson, Katie Wudel and myself.
Just wanted to get the word out. More stuff to come from Moxie Paper Press!
p.s. I've added a permanent link to the Moxie site on the left.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
American Music Awards
This year was the first year in many, many years (perhaps ever?) that I have watched the American Music Awards. When I say watch, I mean I recorded them for Beyonce's performance, but did fast forward through them while playing pieces.
Here are my unfiltered, stream of consciousness observations (most of them while watching):
New Kids reunion: Very strange to watch. They have to be around 40, right? Some of them must have kids. They perform part of The Right Stuff, complete with the side-to-side feet moves, this is the most exciting part of their performance. That one move takes me back to my pre-teen days. A time where I received a New Kids sweatshirt and silk pillow with their faces on it for my birthday party held at a roller skating rink in Dearborn, Michigan. I think I had a neon green sweatshirt and side ponytail. Donnie Wahlberg has definitely eclipsed Jordan as my favorite despite his pretty embarrassing attempts at hip-hop posturing. I like his style, nonetheless. The new songs aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. They broadcast Danny and Jon's face all of about 3 times total. This is not a problem for me, but it's funny how blatant they are about it. I do kind of feel bad for them. Jon seemed like he was in his mid-30s back in the day, the dad of the group, but he doesn't seem to have aged much since then.
Kanye West: Bizarre. Egotistic, fashionable, and truly strange. He's mysterious, obnoxious, fascinating, frustrating and talented and apparently "wants to be Elvis"...that's how he ended his acceptance speech. You never know what you're gonna get when he's in front of a microphone at an awards ceremony. At least he keeps it interesting.
This doesn't have to do with the awards, but the Heidi Klum Rock Band commercial is pretty awesome.
Miley Cyrus: I thought I would be really annoyed with her performance, but I actually thought it was exciting, visual, and surprising. Then again, this positive reaction could also be the result of very low expectations. She's pretty well coordinated. This reminds me a lot of Avril's teen-angst, my ex-boyfriend sucks songs with her PG-10, Hot Topic pseudo-rocker/rebel/goth image. Despite the total calculation/marketing ploy/co-opting of real, subcultural/underground styles and movements, there is something that draws me in to this in the same way that certain Avril songs/posturings/performances do. I think it needs just enough absurdity and actual distance from the real thing to work...although this formula doesn't work for Ashlee Simpson's dark eyeliner/emo-ish album or performances.
Coldplay: I would never associate Coldplay with the word avant-garde until I saw Chris Martin's moves. He's all over the place with no apparent rhythm, rhyme or reason. In one word: spastic.
RZA is there? He tells Jimmy Kimmel that his daughter has a Jonas Brothers poster on her wall. Awesome.
I love Terrance Howard. He can really change his voice. Does he really have to introduce Mariah Carey? Couldn't it have been Beyonce?
Beyonce/Sasha Fierce: She performs Ladies (Put a Ring On It). It's amazing. There is a strobe light, and a dramatic entrance. There is a really great cutaway to Queen Latifah doing the hand thing (as prompted by Beyonce). Love Beyonce's expressions, especially the end head pops, looking incredulous and pointing to her finger. Also love the all-female band.
Back to back performances by the Jonas Brothers and Pussycat Dolls? Really? I didn't know the Pussycat Dolls were even still around. Or that they were a real band. I always connected them with some kind of marketing scheme, show, or real dolls. Am I making this up?
Annie Lennox performs live. This is a surprise. Pretty intense. But good, and she's nice and humble in her speech. She seems genuinely thankful for the award, which has to do with humanitarianism as well.
There are at least 2 performers I don't know so far (Natasha something, already forgot the other).
Sarah McLachlan: Do they really need to reach back this far for a song to perform? That Angel song? What about a song from this year? Do they understand that there is interesting, progressive music still currently being made?
Conclusions:
1) The 90s live again!
2) When you're really out of what music is popular at the moment, it is really strange to watch these awards.
Friday, November 21, 2008
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