Update

I'm not dead but I do sort of want to kill myself. This totally sux.
I'll post more soon I promise.

The future:

I seriously hate hurricanes. If my house is killed by a hurricane named Katrina I am going to be sooo pissed off. Right now I'm thinking about going to Atlanta so that I can be at my hotel, lying by the pool while my home and all of my belongings are being destroyed. Yay! Now excuse me while I go pack up all of my favorite things and then voluntarily evacuate.

Six Feet Under

I am mildly obsessed; it's just too great and so nice to look at. I think I would be more bummed about it being over had I seen all the episodes but I've only seen the first and last seasons. At least I can still watch the ones in between. The females on the show are just tremendous! And all of the characters are such messes that I couldn't not watch.

np - Page France - "Rhythm"

Things that freak me out 1

If I NEVER see another picture of "the world's ugliest dog", who is named Sam mind you, it will be too freaking soon. I basically share a name with the world ugliest dog; it doesn't even need to be in quotation marks because it's clearly true. That is one ugly sonofabitch dog. What happened to this poor creature to turn him into such a hideous monster?? I want to cry everytime I see his picture and suddenly now they're everywhere.
Those miniature babies really freak me out too. And lemme guess, that's real human hair too! Oooohhh! It's too creepy!

i am hobby

Amb bought me a button maker like one year ago and I never could think of anything super cool to make into a button so I haven't used it. Until tonight. Amb and I watched part of Empire Records a couple weeks ago and I got a hankering to recreate Deb's "STU-PID" button that she gave to A.J. and that got me to thinking on some other potential homemade treasures. Linda has been wanting to go out and kiss some boys and she special requested one button so that she could maybe make a few extra bucks at the same time, hence the top button. The other is a product of my brain.



(This is what they look like, except cooler. And rounder. I cut out the text on the first one and glued them all on separately so it looks more fun.)

Button making is a lot of hard work but it sure is fun!

np - Iron And Wine - "Muddy Hymnal"

Indie rock wonderland

So, the Athens Popfest 2005 was pretty darn fun. Robert was recording/mixing/whathaveyou with Will Hart for most of the time during the days so that equaled into lots o' Sam y Marci time. This consisted of activities such as watching Lifetime movies in our hotel room, napping, giggling, laying by the pool, eating soft batch cookies, and other things of that nature. I got into Athens at about 9pm on Thursday. Marci and I quickly slipped into our party pants and matching dancing shoes and went and ate dinner at Michael Stipe's bitchin' vegetarian restaurant, The Grit, before hitting the town. Here Marci and I both had two of the best sandwiches of our entire lives. I love eating at vegetarian restaurants and my food NOT tasting like it's been all ghetto-rigged together. I mean, that chick'n parmesan sandwich tasted like chicken parmesan is really supposed to taste. It was so yummy! There is a plethora of good veggie food in Athens thanks to the high concentration of the hippie/green/weird folk. Athens actually reminds me a lot of Lexington in certain ways. They are very close in size and when you go out you get that incestuous vibe that Lexington has. Everyone knows everyone else, everyone is intertwined in some way. Except of course, their music scene is much bigger and better, mostly due to the aformentioned higher concentration of weirdos there. So many people in Athens like good music! It's so refreshing.
The only band I remember really listening to on Thursday was The Visitations. I must have been loaded or something. Actually, I know we saw The Late BP Helium at some point. I'm thinking the schedule got switched up a bit and it was on Thursday just prior to The Visitations. Brian Helium is really attractive in a "he slightly resembles a goat" sorta way. All I could do throughout their whole set was stare at his goat head. They are very good though. We spend the rest of the evening at the bar nextdoor having to explain to Scott Spillane why we do not do drugs and do not like to be high. He couldn't fathom that at all.
Friday, Poison Control Center apparently were super fun and awesome. I met one of the guitarists, Patrick, at Marci and Robert's wedding in April and he was extremely fashionable and danced all night long. All three of us wanted to see his show but, no dice; we were too busy sitting on our asses in our hotel room and watching Arrested Development to get ready in time. But we did manage to see We Versus The Shark and Casper And The Cookies before Robert played and they were both semi-fun. Not enough so that I concentrated more on them than on my red bull and vodka though. During the acoustey part of Robert's set Will Hart and Bill Doss got onstage with him and they sang the old school song "Warm Milk and Chocolate", which was originally released on cassette in 1993. It was magical just seeing them all onstage together, let alone singing that song. Robert's Marbles show was extremely spirited and all of his E6 pals totally dug his theatrics, esp his I <3 MATH sequined jacket. Then Pylon pretty much brought the house down. I had never heard them before but had researched them a bit when I found out that they were the secret special guest. They were most popular in the early 90's and came out of the scene as R.E.M. That's exactly how they sound too; early 90's intellectual rock, the good kind. The lead singer is this woman who looks just like Marci's mother (and screams like her too) who is turning 50 this year and man, that lady sang her ass off! It was bizarre. The other guys in the band are all still skinny and lanky and just look like older dudes in a band but the lead singer looks like somebody's mom. But I really could see why people love them still after all of this time and were excited to get the chance to see them again after all these years. After the show Vanessa, the lead singer of Pylon, was fawning over Marci and Robert and telling them how great the Marbles show was and we were all backstage and she told us this riveting story about being in NYC in the 70's and meeting Andy Warhol in The Factory. God damn if I was too drunk to retain that memory. All I know is I was completely enthralled. Marci doesn't remember either; we are such drunk bitches. Oh, then we totally went to the lead singer of Elf Power's house because it was his birthday and he was having a party. I do not remember his name or how old he was but I do remember discussing how he looked like a Muppet with Marci, stealing his beers with Marci, and telling him Happy Birthday with Marci. We couldn't stay there for very long though because everyone there reeked of b.o. and we were loaded and tired. Seriously, I decided that 1 in 10 people in Athens just smells bad all the time. Pretty much I was constantly smelling body odor the entire time I was in the 40 Watt, just sometimes it was more potent than others. Don't those hippies know that they can get all natural soap? My Lush soap doesn't have animal fat in it and it makes my body smell like Pledge. I'll learn those darn hippies one day.
Saturday night Marci and I made a point to go out early, 8:30pm, to catch The Love Letter Band per the suggestion of d. But they had cancelled and Superfallingstars were filling in instead. They were fun, even though there weren't too many people there since it was so early and all. They finished it all off with a fun cover of "You Won't See Me" and had some awkward, little boys come onstage and assist with backing vocals. The lead singer, Mike, and I totally bonded later in the evening and talked about funny things. We also saw Elekibass, 63 Crayons, Circulatory System and Of Montreal that evening. Elekibass are 4 Japanese guys dressed in 3 piece suits who are totally hilaaaarious. They totally play up the fact that they are all asian and "don't speaka the engrish" so much. They were jumping up and down, playing their japanese regional art kazoos, tossing their top hats in the air, crowd surfing...I've never seen such a spectacle in the 40 Watt. Due to the fact that I had to go purchase their cd after they were finished, probably get some more alcohol and then talk to Marci about how funny those asians were I guess I missed most of 63 Crayons. Oh, I do remember though that I thought the lead singer vaguely reminded me of Clint Colburn. They look alike in the face a little bit, they do not sing at all alike though. I was super excited to see Circulatory System play; Will Hart is super anti-social so I never really thought I would ever get the chance to see him perform. They did not disappoint either. They were mesmerizing. CS is one of those bands that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and right, like their music is filling up the room. Perfection really.
Of Montreal was the final band of Popfest. They were good and all but I just saw them recently and I have realised lately that there are at least 2 members of the band that I think are complete dickheads and that really makes me give a shit about their music less and less. I don't know, it's unfortunate when that happens. I'll have to decided to get over it or let them go the way of GBV and no one really wants that.
I met about a million new, fun people and got the chance to get to know a bunch of the fun people that I've met already a little better. I was actually able to have a conversation with Bill Doss's wife Amy, who is so cool I can barely see straight. Talking to her, Kelly (one of Will's roommates), Eric Hernandez (one of the HHBTM guys who organized the whole Popfest) and Mike from Superfallingstars were probably my most enojyable interactions. Well, Marci and Robert too of course. Oh, John Fernandes is also fun. There are just fun people running around all over the place down there, eating good vegetarian food and playing tons of good music. It's a wonderland of sorts.
Oh, one thing I found out while in Athens, red bull is so not vegetarian. It has taurine (bull juice) all in there, as does apparently every energy drink. So, there go my energy vodka cocktails. WHY IS THERE MEAT JUICE IN EVERYTHING?! God!

The Popfest website has little bios for all of the bands that played over the weekend and an mp3 for about a 3rd of them. I've been listening to them all day.

Anton Newcombe is a loose cannon.

Amberly and I went and saw the Brian Jonestown Massacre this evening and we both emerged victorious, aka without being punched in the face by Anton. Seriously, anytime I am attending a BJM show and I know Anton is somewhere in the building I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, trying to avoid an unprovoked punch to the back of the head or something. They were good though, whenever they weren't indulging in 30 minute long masturbatory jam sessions anyway.
And now I pack for Athens.

Oh, and I finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and now I'm all kinds of distraught. Just so you all know. Distraught.

My robot friend

My friend Seandd is galavanting about the East right now "working"; he's in Tokyo at the moment and we were just emailing about how cool it is. His evidence was this:

"...the cool thing, too, is that they have robots everywhere. like, when they have road construction, instead of having a dude standing there with a sign, they have a robot that looks like a construction worker, and he has a sign and an arm pointing to the alternate route..."

God, that really blows the coolness factor of those Lexington segway cops WAY out of the water. Robots dressed as government workers and performing their duties is like the coolest effin thing I've ever heard!!

Nostalgia #1

I am, as I often proclaim, a victim of nostalgia. I tend to place great sentimental value on anything and everything, but childhood items in particular. One of my favorite things to think back on and be nostalgic about is my old Swatch phone. When I was in 8th grade my best friend, Plemen, got one and we pretty much thought that it was the greatest invention known to pre-teens. It was called the "Twin Phone" and was equipped with dual receivers. After dialing, you could pick up the base and turn it over and there was another receiver so you and your BFF could talk to your other BFF on the phone at the same time.
In all its glory:

Shortly after Plemen procured her Swatch phone, I convinced my mother to haul my happy ass over to Service Merchandise where I was able to whip out all of my allowances that I had been hoarding and purchase one of my very own. I could hardly contain myself as I watched my new source of joy come down that conveyor belt. (Any and all theories on why Service Merchandise was sooo shady are welcome.)
Our phones looked just like the above picture except that Plemen's was dark blue and mine was dark green. And now that we both had them if the opportunity ever arose 4 of us hideous, awkward, acne-ridden freaks could all chat at the same time. Which you better believe we did whenever we got the chance. There was also a handy mute button, not readily available in those days, so that you could talk shit about your friend who was on the other line to your BFF in the room without her hearing as she was still babbling on the other end.
Unfortunately, little did we know that our great and wonderful fun with the Swatch Twin Phone was going to be fairly short-lived. Turns out they didn't really work so well after all, eventually both mine and Plemen's lives were turned into a living hell due to our previously beloved telephones! I know, it sounds dramatic now but just listen and imagine how infuriated you would be. And then imagine being a psychotic 13 year old girl on top of that. First, the saved phone numbers stopped dialing, then all of the number buttons stopped working, sometimes one of the receivers wouldn't work, sometimes the damn thing wouldn't even get a dial tone. What's worse than being 13 and trying to call your friend to talk you down from some hormonal crisis and your gd personal telephone not working?! Sometimes the Swatch phone would have a good day and things would come back to life and maybe some buttons would work again. But, really, neither of them were long for this world after that. Nothing can be expected to last long after being hurled against the wall in a fit of fury SO MANY TIMES, least of all a Swatch Twin Phone.
I hung onto the dead Swatch phone a long time though, even though it didn't work at all by that point I had it stashed in my closet for years and years. Apparently, I finally threw it away because I don't have it anymore. I'm sure I ditched it when I was approached with the idea of having to pack and move it somewhere else. The only time I ever throw anything away is when I am faced with packing all of my possessions and then hauling them somewhere new. That's the only time my pack rat nature becomes an issue. All other times I completely love that I am a total pack rat. Sad that my first phone (uh, SWATCH TWIN PHONE at that!) had to be lost to a move. Le sigh.

* This post is dedicated to Jenny Plemen, with whom I spent many longs hours talking on my Swatch Phone. In the past couple years I have reeeeally wanted to purchase her another one even though I know it would piss her off so much due to the immense rage that the thing caused her in 1994.

Mtv = suckfest

This starts next Tuesday. I think I may meet Robert and Marci there for Friday and Saturday. I'll get to see Of Montreal, Circulatory System and Marbles, plus numerous other bands that I will probably enjoy. More than that though, I'll get to see Robert and Marci's shining faces and we can shake our asses together.
I thought for sure the "special guest" was going to be The Olivia Tremor Control since they have played a few shows this year. Not so.
Amberly and I are going to meet the Cocaine Bros at The Saint later tonight. The fact that we are hanging out with men we have dubbed "Cocaine Bros" does not necessarily mean that we will be ingesting said illegal substances. It just means that we will be staring at attractive mens is all. Just to clarify. I don't want everyone to think I'm all coked up all the time or something. The three of us hung out with Brother Tom again last weekend and we discovered that the Brothers were indeed brothers! We always suspected but never knew for sure.
And since when did "Mtv" become an acronym for "all hip-hop, all the time" aka "suckfest"?