Bad Track Record

Medieval Times: I’m holding an invisible shield. You know,...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:39:54 -0500

Medieval Times: I’m holding an invisible shield. You know, for protection.

Beige Rock

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:40 -0500

Beige Rock is a term I’ve been using for several years that I want to explain a little.

It’s derived from the term “beige food” which my Dad started using years ago in reference to the food served at restaurants that appeal to old folks, particularly (the now defunct chain) Bill Knapps. At Bill Knapps, the food was edible, but designed for the dulled-by-age sensibilities of old people — nothing too bright, too dark, too hot, too cold, or too spicy — in a word, BEIGE. It’s not necessarily bad food, just bland and uninteresting.

Okay, so that’s beige food. Beige rock refers to the kind of music exemplified by the “rock” bands that get played on top 40 radio stations, most prominently NICKELBACK (but they are far from the only practitioners of beige rock -I’m looking at you, Creed, Default, Puddle Of Mudd, Three Doors Down, Matchbox 20, Fuel, and ~~Slayer~~).

Their music isn’t bad from a technical standpoint — they’re all competent musicians, the audio itself is produced to professional standards, and there are even some moments where they do, in fact, rock a little bit. But like beige food, beige rock rarely strays too far from dead-nuts center. The heavy songs aren’t that heavy, the fast songs are just a few bpms too slow to be fast, and the structures are satisfying in a safe and predictable way. Beige rock, while using the term rock, often borrows from other (bland in their own right) genres like pop and country, further diluting their already watered down concept of rock.

But as much as I loathe beige rock, it’s a necessary part of the equation. These are the gateway bands for kids. They can listen to Nickelback and gain an understanding of the basics of rock music. However, the problem is that some people never step through the gateway. They stay on Nickelback, never letting that lead them down the path to better music (Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath to Metallica to Pantera to any of the hundreds of metal sub-genres, just to explain one potential path).

And if you like beige rock bands, hey, don’t sweat it! Like whatever you like, but if you ever have a moment where you feel like there might be some richer, more satisfying musical experience waiting for you out there, know that you’re right, there totally fucking is.

I don’t know about always, but its definitely sunny in Philadelphia this morning!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:30:31 -0500

I don’t know about always, but its definitely sunny in Philadelphia this morning!

OH HELL YES. [via].

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:41:00 -0500

OH HELL YES.

[via].

servemyworldblog: DONATE MONEY AND I’LL TATTOO WHATEVER ON...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:28:25 -0500

servemyworldblog:

DONATE MONEY AND I’LL TATTOO WHATEVER ON ME!

I’m raising money for Third World orphanages. For every $10 you donate, your name gets entered into a drawing. Your name gets picked, you choose any tattoo for me to get. I get tattoo, kids get help, you get the glory of knowing there is a human out there with a tattoo of your face on it. Everyone’s happy. DONATE, read awful tattoo submissions and submit your own HERE!

* REBLOG - FOR EVERY REBLOG UP TO 3,000 MY DAD WILL DONATE $2

GUILT TRIP ALERT: $10 will give a classroom of kids education for one day or buy you two drinks at Starbucks.

Just in case I have tumblr followers who don’t know/follow Jillian, you really ought to skip a couple coffees, pass on that pizza, or abstain from a couple beers at the bar and donate $10 to her and bask in the reflected glow of her bright and shiny soul.

And who knows? If you donate by this Sunday, you may get to stick her with a terrible tattoo. And honestly, I’m sure you’ve spent more money on things with less return.

If You Weren't Already Aware...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:21:00 -0500

I’m coming to visit all my L.A. friends this Thursday! I’ll be in town from Thursday afternoon until early morning on the next Wednesday. I’ve made no specific plans, and I know everyone’s got their own stuff going on, so I’m up for whatever kind of hanging out and having fun presents itself. However, here is the brief list of things I’d like to do while I’m in town.

—Eat Mexican food (at least once a day)

—Eat sushi

—Purchase and consume some sodas from Galco’s

—Group viewing of Mad Men season finale on Sunday (are you guys still watching?)

—Distribute and accept absurd numbers of high fives.

—Red Lion Trivia

—See Del’s nekkid behind (it’s inevitable, so I might as well list it, right?)

—See the ocean

But really if all I get to do is eat tacos and hang out with everyone, it’ll be a successful trip.

(And BONUS! I got my biennial 48 hour sickness out of the way this weekend, so I don’t have to worry about catching anything on the flights)

I AM THE DEVIL'S NIGHT PRANKSTER

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:31:03 -0400

Yes, it’s true. I’m already in LA and I pranked all of you jerks last night. You can call the authorities if you want, but I promise I’ll turn myself outside Terminal 1 at LAX this Thursday.

I would have gotten away with it too…if I hadn’t just confessed on Tumblr.

Or maybe They put me up to this. Maybe I’m just a patsy.

Holy Shit. I’m watching this documentary...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:46:10 -0400

Holy Shit.

I’m watching this documentary called Resolved.

I had no clue this is what High School Debate is like. I’m impressed.

Strike while the kettle is hot!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:04:36 -0400

ridiculousroo:

Whenever there are travel sales, the window of opportunity to book a trip at that cost is limited. Thank God we jumped on it because out of curiousity I went to United today to see what the cost of our flight is today and just the flight would have cost what we ended up paying for our whole trip. So essentially it’s like we are getting to stay in a sweet hotel suite (haha I laughed after I typed that) with a balcony overlooking Waikiki for free.

I’ve heard this isn’t always true. From what I understand, when you’re shopping for airfares, a lot of the websites show you one price on your initial visit, and then (through the magic of Internet cookies) on your second visit they show you a completely different price. Try clearing out your cookies to see if the price goes back to where it was. I don’t know if it’s a way to diminish buyers remorse (as in your case) or a way to make people more prone to just jumping on the first decent price they see, or to buy the “new” increased price under the pretense that it’ll go up even more if they wait, but either way it’s pretty damned shady.

WHOA. Thanks to the new Converge record, I think Rocktober might...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:04:00 -0400

WHOA.

Thanks to the new Converge record, I think Rocktober might bludgeon November into letting it stick around for a few more weeks.

(Converge - “Dark Horse”)

GPOYW “Screw costumes…chubby kid wants candy!”...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:24:23 -0400

GPOYW “Screw costumes…chubby kid wants candy!” Edition

Do you think there are Skateboarding classes for adults? I don’t ever think about regrets...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:49:45 -0400

Do you think there are Skateboarding classes for adults?

I don’t ever think about regrets (mostly because I don’t think I have many), but I definitely regret not learning how to skateboard when I was a kid (I’ll blame lack of skateboard culture in my peer group and geographical region, rather than my own fairly pronounced lack of athletic ability).

I don’t need to be able to a backside nose grind or anything, but being good enough to use a skateboard to get from point A to B would be pretty awesome.

"will you come talk to the students about your experiences working in LA?"

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:30:10 -0400

hizzobizzo:

I am speaking to a video production class tomorrow morning. What should I talk about?

Here’s what I would say (off the top of my head):

—That although your formal education can instill a lot of great concepts regarding professional behavior, you likely work with very few true professionals, even in at a “professional” level.

—That to make it anywhere in this industry, you MUST take matters into your own hands. No one is looking to work with or hire you until you MAKE YOURSELF into someone they’d be a fool not to work with or hire. College can offer you some opportunities to make yourself into that person, but it’s your job to take advantage of those opportunities. But even that’s not enough. Don’t wait for someone to teach you Final Cut Pro, don’t wait to get your hands on an HD camera, don’t wait for someone to assign you a project. If you wait, YOU ARE WASTING TIME.

—Someone will ASK YOU if they REALLY want to read your script/watch your demo reel.

—If you are moving out of state to find work, bring your significant other with you or end the relationship before you go.

—The entertainment industry is the biggest pond you’ve ever been in. You are a smaller fish than you’ve ever realized, and you’ll find that there are more little fish in the pond than you could possibly imagine. Some big fish are awesome - they share food and show you how to swim better. Some big fish are assholes. Some little fish are good at making themselves look like big fish. The sooner you realize you are not a big fish, the sooner you can start becoming one of the awesome ones. There’s enough food for most fish to survive, but if you want to get bigger, you’ve got to be a strong swimmer.

—All of these statements can and have been proven wrong.

If I Had A Bucket List...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:21:06 -0400

…I’m pretty sure I knocked a couple things off of it today.

1. Waking up and starting a day at 2:30am.

2. Walking in the middle of a major expressway without fear for my life.

Thanks, Show Biz!

Cursive - I Couldn’t Love You …and this is the...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:35:16 -0400

Cursive - I Couldn’t Love You

…and this is the lousy (boring) one, despite starring the woman that played Alex on LOST.

Cursive - Let Me Up My Cursive Music Video Theory still holds...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:34:00 -0400

Cursive - Let Me Up

My Cursive Music Video Theory still holds up — for some reason they can’t make two good music videos in a row. This is the good (or at least interesting) one.

I just finished watching Transformers 2...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:30:11 -0400

delbertshoopman:

I want my fucking auto-bot industry bailout back!

*wonder how much GM paid to have there cars in it… wonder how much of our money was used.

Now, Del….you’re probably joking, but you’re smarter than this. You know how long it takes to make a movie, and you know that as long as it takes to make a movie, it takes even LONGER to make a movie with as much CGI as Transformers 2.

GM received government money in what? March?? And Transformers 2 came out in June. So there is absolutely no way government bailout (our) money went into financing the completion or distribution of Transformers 2.

I know the movie sucked (if the decepticons could turn into humans why did they only do it once and WHY did it turn into a slutty co-ed and not the President or something useful to their scheme), but this is Tumblr, not cable news….let’s be rational.

veganchameleon: jordychristine: Please reblog this to help...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:35:11 -0400

veganchameleon:

jordychristine:

Please reblog this to help strike a blow against pediatric cancer. I will post on Sunday exactly how much I’ve raised by doing this!

Additionally, if you would like to make your own donation, you can do so by clicking here. My mom is donating an additional $.25 for every $1 that is donated until 8 AM CST on 10/17/09.

NO SPOILERS....

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:01:45 -0400

…but if you’re going to see Where The Wild Things Are in order to reaffirm your belief in the splendors of childhood….

DON’T.

(I thought it was a good movie, it’s just not the movie that Warners is marketing, which I think will disappoint/piss off some people.)

Hey All You West Coast Twee-Hipster-Nerds!!

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:29:18 -0400

I’m going to watch Where The Wild Things Are at least six hours before you.

Suck it.