If you've ever read Pitchfork Media, you know that it's just about the snobbiest of all music sites. So as someone who, for instance, goes out of his way to point out that he doesn't like Coldplay as much now that they're all gross and mainstream, I tend to be a regular reader. That said, the folks at Pitchfork are often way too full of themselves. And sometimes it's downright funny. Best example would be in the review of Liz Phair's eponymous (great word) last album. I actually own it, though I kind of regret buying it because it's not much besides "Extraordinary" and "Why Can't I?" I also admit it's a total sell-out record. But whatever. The Pitchfork review has perhaps the most outstanding phrase I've ever read: "Even more degrading is the constipated donkeyfuck harmonica solo towards the track's end, a hilarious sideshow that only magnifies the triteness of the song's glycerin-slick production." Constipated donkeyfuck harmonica solo! Awesome!


Nick and Alex of Franz Ferdinand do their thing.

One of the more bizarre things I've seen...a puppet of George W. Bush singing "Creep" in Portugese...with other members of the coalition playing in the band (most notably Tony Blair on guitar). Right HERE. Don't ask.

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Website of the week: Useless Information. I stumbled upon it after hearing a story during lunch about the Citicorp building in NYC...apparently a mistake during construction resulted in the building being susceptible to collapse during a windstorm. Anyway, I was curious, did a search, and found this page. I've only read a couple, but my favorite so far is the Japanese soldier who didn't know World War II ended until 1974. There's also the story about a guy who used a poorly devised Healthy Choice promotional scheme to rack up over a million frequent flyer miles by buying up tons of pudding...this was the inspiration for the part of Punchdrunk Love where Adam Sandler's character does the same. Mmm...$240 worth of pudding (actually, about $3000 worth).

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So a few weeks ago there was this girl scout selling cookies in the cafeteria of our office building. I skipped lunch that day, so I didn't see it myself, but apparently if you bought a box of cookies from her, she would then offer to sell you another box--one that would be sent to the troops in Iraq. Nice, right? Well, let's think about it. I'm not sure if this was her idea or what (one of our partners' daughters sold cookies as well but didn't try any of the buy more cookies from me because it helps the troops guilt), but those cookies cost $4/box. I'm not all that familiar with the cookie-making process, but I'd be willing to bet there's gotta be a 100% markup over cost there. And while I realize cookies can't be shipped to troops for free, I find it amusing that the girl scouts would sell cookies "for the troops" at the same price. Screw Haliburton, the Girl Scouts are the real war profiteers of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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Finally got around to posting some new pictures in my album; the new stuff is under "February-March 2004." Franz Ferdinand were amazing live. Best show of the year, which is saying something because I go to a lot of fucking shows. Great energy, great crowd, and they seemed really appreciative of the response. And oh yeah, great music. Too bad the douchebag next to me was a side-to-side dancer...c'mon, you CANNOT do that at a show. Move up and down, whatever. But don't be banging the fuck into me. It was bad enough he comes worming in front of me after the Ratatat set, and worse still that his fucking retard friends come piling in a few songs into the FF set, crunching me further. And then at one point he starts jumping up and down by using Nina's shoulders as leverage. Who does that? Plus he had bad breath, which he showed off by constantly turning to look around every which way before FF came on. But even that couldn't ruin a great show...

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Link forwarded to my by Schrades; this is good stuff. Wearing Your Collar Down is for Poor People (For the record, I only have a bright orange and lime green polo shirt, and I drive a 325i, not a 328ci).

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Finally posted a couple pics as well from Kevin's hockey game; they won in a landslide, 11-1 over Tufts, with Kev picking up a helper and too many hits to be counted. I'll try to cut one or two down for public consumption, because as is the pictures are pretty weak.