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I think I’ve pimped Death Cab for Cutie’s music before on this site, but there aren’t very many rock stars I went to school with*. Anyway, Amazon’s mp3 site is selling The Open Door EP for 99 cents. I have no idea how long the sale will last, but it’s worth the price.
*I’m not sure whether or not we were actually at WWU at the same time, I think they were there in the mid to late 90’s, and I stepped on campus in the fall of 98.
But I don’t, and I told her that. She told me he was the hottest vegan in the world, so I guess she was hitting on me. I’m not going to let the interweb know what the trick is to picking me up, but it’s not telling me I look like Chris Martin.
Chris (and his band, Coldplay) have been nice enough to put a free live album up on their website as a thanks to fans. I haven’t listened to much of it yet, but it sounds like Coldplay, which is alright. Giving the world some free cuts when your a huge rock band is a pretty decent thing to do, so maybe I won’t be so put off the next time somebody tells me I look like Chris.
I’m listening to Ben Harper’s new album, which is with Relentless 7, as opposed to the usual Innocent Criminals, and I think sometimes it’s Ben Harper. But I’m guessing it’s always Ben Harper, the Innocent Criminals probably got too lippy in the studio and now their on the shelf. It’s pretty good, but I don’t think I’ll ever considerate one of his best. The album art is pretty cool, it’s got kind of a pulp fiction (like the old books, not the movie) feel to it. Ben and co threw on a new version of ‘Why Must You Always Dress in Black’ which was an all right song the first time he released it, but didn’t need revisiting. This album definitely has more rock to it than his other stuff.
In other music news Amazon is selling We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes by fellow ‘hamsters (and Vikings I believe) Death Cab for Cutie for $5. It’s not their best album, but worth $5.
I just tried to find something to link ‘hamster to (in case my reader didn’t get the reference, which would be weird) and www.hamster.org turns out to be the home page of an interesting fellow who as far as I can tell has no interest in hamsters. Somebody should throw some cash his way for the name and make it some sort of Bellingham-hype machine. Or maybe there’s already too much Bellingham hype out there.
Edit: iTunes has some bonus tracks with Senor Harper’s new album. I didn’t bother with the live ones but theirs two studio tracks that are worth 99 cents.
Everybody is putting their top 5 lists on Facebook, which I find annoying. I don’t think it’s annoying for blog posts, so without putting too much thought into it, here are some top 5’s.
Albums
- Ben Harper – Fight For Your Mind
- The Roots – Phrenology
- Radiohead – The Bends
- Damien Rice – O
- DJ Shadow – The Private Press
Nothing too recent here, perhaps I’m set in my ways in my old age, or maybe I just need more time to realize how great the las Jonas Brother CD is.
Movies
- Pulp Fiction
- The Big Lebowski
- The Departed
- Braveheart
- No Country For Old Men
Tough one to narrow down. Like the Oscar voters, I think I’m biased toward certain types of movies here. I really like comedys, but don’t think of them as ‘great’ no matter how hard they make me laugh. Sorry Superbad.
Books (Fiction)
- Fight Club – Chuck Paleniuk
- Hocus Pocus – Kurt Vonnegut
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
- Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut
I couldn’t think of a fifth book to add. I’ve really read more than four books, and if I was going to be completely honest this list should be Fight Club and four more Vonnegut books, but that wouldn’t be too interesting. I’ll try and remember to update when I think of another book I really loved, other than Stewart’s Calculus.
As I write these, I wonder if I’m being completely honest with you (and myself), or if I skew my lists away from how I actually feel towards stuff that I enjoyed but also think will make me look cooler/smarter/whatever.
Ben Harper’s new band, Relentless7 (not a WFS approved name) has some WFS approved music up on their website.
We like Ben’s music around here, the live show gets two extra big thumbs up. Looking forward to hearing him with his new cronies.
try this one.
The bloggin has been slow lately, mostly due to a lack of blog worthy activity. A perfect storm of dullness has swept into my day to day life. I’ve been getting my Scrooge McDuck on to try and save $$ for the coming grad school storm. I’ve been following through on the much talked ofbut often put off decrease in cold beverage consumption. All of this, in the past would’ve pushed me into a couple hours a day of exercise, but I’m taking one last stab at going easy on the shoulder before resigning to a life time of mild shoulder pain and no racket sports. I never even learned to play squash.
On the plus side I’ve been reading a banger of a book. Empire of Blue Water is part biography of Captain Morgan, part history of pirating in the Caribean (of course), and a very interesting take on the economics and polotics that caused all the swashbuckling. If you like pirates (and who doesn’t), I would recommend it.
A few other reviews of various things:
- Lupe Fiasco – The Cool I really like the beats and Lupe’s rhymes, but the hooks tend to be uninspired R&B riffs. It’s pretty good, but seems like it could’ve been so much better.
- Reign Down on Me – Adam Sandler/Don Cheedle in a dramedy that makes for good comedy and weak drama.
- Renesaince – Cool flick, mostly cause of the interesting cartoon. The story is similar to blade runner, kind of a noir mystery set in the not too distant future. It took a while to get going, but a decent flick once it did.
I’m hoping to get my hands on a few discs of the Wire to pass the time, although I still haven’t gotten over how they did Wallace.
So I’m watching ‘Change Your Brain, Change Your Life’ on PBS Sunday, some guy who’s got a lot of pictures of brains is telling me how I can keep from getting stupid in my old age. The pictures looked like they took a lot of work to get, so I think he knew what he was talking about.
Things that are good for your brain include
- Exercise
- Blueberrys
- Gettin’ busy
- Interacting with people
Things that aren’t good for your brain:
- Hitting things with your head
- caffeine
- Heroine
- Alcohol
As I watched and thought about some simple ways I could make my brain into a super-villain monster brain, my former roommate Steve called me up. “Ernie is down at South Beach, you want to go have a few beers?” So off I went.
Fast forward four hours, and more than a few beers. Steve, Ernie, my roommate Chris and myself are at a kareoke bar scouting lead singers for the band Ernie and I are apparently starting. Possibly due to a mediocre ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’ Steves eyes droop and his head hits the table. When the bouncer tells him he has to keep his head up if he wants to stay, he replies “Don’t touch me.” The bouncer tries to explain that he can’t let Steve pass out in the bar, but after a brief conversation it’s clear he only has one option: Bear hug Steve off the ground and remove him from the premisis.
As the rest of us take a last drink, Steve is charging back in waving his finger, and is quickly removed again. We catch up at the front door and put ourselves between the bouncer and Steve. I tell him “This place is dead anyway” in an attempt to get him to stop trying to get back in. He eventually concedes and we start making our way back home.
Ernie stops in to grab a pack of smokes, I follow him in to tell him to hurry up cause Steve really wants to drive home. Ernie doesn’t care. Chris is trying to babysit Steve, we text back and forth:
Chris: You better hurry he is going
Brett: Tell him to wait for ernie
Chris: He said fuck ernie don’t worry about it
Chris: Good thing is he doesn’t seem to remember what direction his car is
Just before that last one I told Ernie we should go so Steve wouldn’t kill himself trying to drive to Tijauna, to which Ernie replied “He doesn’t know where his car is.” Chris joined us for a beer after Steve took off to parts unknown.
We get back to the apartment to find the window open from Steve’s cat-burglar like entrance and our hero is passed out on the floor with his head on the couch. When I woke up in the morning Ernie was gone but had decorated Steve with some recycling.
Looking back, I can check off learning for Sunday (all about the brain), had some good social interaction, but I did drink some alcohol, so I’ll call it a wash for brain health. I don’t think I can say the same for Steve.
And if you’re wondering, Ernie and I did not find our Axl, but as soon as I learn to play a bass the band will start rocking. Suggestions for a band name would be appreciated.
When I get tired of listening to my cube-neighbor tell someone that the topic of discussion is ‘out of her realm’ (4 times this week, it’s Tuesday) I like to drown out the office BS with the trusty iPod. Shuffle lead me to Reminishce off of 9th Wonder’s new-ishalbum. A good song off a solid album. At the time I thought Gemini was on the track, but when I looked it up (cause I research these posts, I’m very thorough), turns out he isn’t. But I thought it was him, so I cued up the album he did with Dangermouse, Ghetto Pop Life.
I picked that one up back when Dangermouse was the guy who made the Jay-Z/Beattles album, before he was the guy who made that song with Ceelo that was cool the first 250 times and now you hope you never hear it again. Listening to it brought on memories ofmy brief stint in Portland, trips to everyday music followed by nights at the Doug Fir or that Irish bar Skittles loved.
So the points I was aiming for are:
1 – Ghetto Pop Life is ‘dope’ as the kids say. You should check it out. Steve Jobs will sell it to you.
2 – I love how the shuffle on my iPod brings me back to great music I haven’t been listening to lately. That alone makes it worth the $400.
3 – The people I work with annoy me.
Currently listening to the new pick what you pay Radiohead album. I loved their pre-Kid A stuff, but haven’t payed them much mind this millennium. Didn’t even bother picking up Hail to the Thief. I’m enjoying In Rainbows, it seems like the kind of album I could really enjoy turning on at work when I feel like spacing out. So I’ll probably listen to it a lot.
