I don't watch reality shows in general, though I did watch The Real World from roughly the San Francisco season (I rooted for Puck) through the Seattle season...for some reason I stopped watching when they started having only attractive people on the show. Which begs the question--why on earth did it take so long to get attractive women on that show? Men will always watch shows if hot women are on them. This is a fact. I refer you to the case of ABC's Desperate Housewives as exhibit A. Incredibly, there wasn't a legitimately hot girl on the Real World until Jacinda from the London cast. And she was weird and unlikable (which by the way is quite a feat for an attractive woman to pull off...we want to give the benefit of the doubt here).


Real World 'Frisco: One social landmine after another...

I have to say that the San Francisco cast was easily the most annoying for me. You had Puck who was admittedly a huge tool, but I couldn't help but like the guy compared to the bunch of lameasses in the house with him. Judd? HUGE tool, with an incredibly dislikable haircut. Mohammed? He put the token in "token black guy." The freckled Asian chick? She wasn't even on the show really. You gotta love how she was too busy to even be a part of her reality show...or that she was so un(dis?)interesting that whenever she was around they didn't use those parts. Cory? A massive hole of suck. And whiny and naive too...that's always a good combo. Rachel was a Latino Republican...of course you didn't know she was Latin until you heard her pronounce "Pedro." Which brings us to Pedro himself, who was--let's be honest--a pretty lame guy. Ok, so being HIV positive doesn't make you much of a sparkplug at parties, but whatever. Jo was kind of attractive but I didn't even remember her until I saw her bio on the RW website.

I've seen a few episodes of the newest season (set in Philly...ouch), though I think they've got 7 gay guys or something. Coming next year--Real World: Albany.

Anyway, for some reason Fox really has my number. I remember watching Temptation Island sophomore year, and then last year I watched My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance. Then while watching the wonderful season premiere of Arrested Development on Sunday I got sucked into watching the premiere of My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss. It was moderately amusing. And then tonight I saw much of the Rebel Billionaire, which is nothing short of marketing genius by Richard Branson.

Not every reality show is smut though. I swear the last two times I have cried was after the two episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that I've seen in the last couple months. That is some inspiring fucking shit. Also, there's something about seeing all the fat people on The Biggest Loser lose weight which is kind of nice. No hotties there of course...


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Louie CK is, as you certainly know, my favorite comedian. But he's also got some pretty cool thoughts about the election. Tons of awesome clips are here, if you've been too fucking retarded to check it out yet.

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Selling out is Ok if you are underappreciated. Hence, Ratatat's otherwise dubious decision to let Hummer coopt the brilliant "17 Years" for a new commercial is perfectly acceptable. Just go to their website, click on "Hummer World" and go to TV commercials. It's actually a good commercial. This is the second time Hummer has used an otherwise good song in their ads--their first ad campaign featured Filter's "The Only Way is the Wrong Way," though the 10-second loop of the song that they used was absolutely ruined forever by the commercial. Luckily it's not the best part.

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The making of The Machinist. You'll never look at Christian Bale the same. Especially when you consider that his next role is Batman. I had a chance to check The Machinist out last weekend and it was well worth the $9. It has a Memento-ish intensity, and it has a "surprise" ending that's not too gimmicky, which is a plus. Bale's physical transformation is really the centerpiece of the film, but that's too bad because it shouldn't obscure the rest of his performance. I doubt he'll get any nominations because the film seems a little too obscure, but that's a shame.

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I'm two discs into the DFA Compilation #2, and it's pretty sick. Definitely out there, and not for the faint of heart, but if you like the Rapture it's worth a look. The songs tend to be *really* long but good for grooving along to in the car. I'll certainly be playing it in the car a lot over the next while. I know I'm Ok because Pitchfork says so.

Recommended songs:
Black Leotard Front / "Casual Friday"
LCD Soundsystem / "Yeah" (Pretentious Mix)
LCD Soundsystem / "Beat Connection" (Disco Dub Connection)
Pixeltan / "Get Up/Say What?"

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So I got out to see DiG! while it was playing at Kendall and found it thoroughly entertaining. It's a seven-year documentary that shows the rivalrous friendship between Courtney Taylor/Dandy Warhols and Anton Newcombe/Brian Jonestown Massacre. Drugs, dropkicks, and lots of funny shit. Go out and see it if you ever get the chance.

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To Download:

Frausdots / "Dead Wrong"
Starts out kinda creepy, with a "One Horse Name" reference, then builds into this really pretty (albeit dark) pop-rock song. One of my recent favorites.

Elefant / "Misfit (remix)"
I've seen Elefant a number of times and have always liked "Bokkie," "Annie," "Love," and "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid" more than the original version of "Misfit," but that track seems to be the most popular off the album, judging by what I've heard. In any case, this remix sounds a little more rockier, which is good, and will tide us over until they release a new album.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre / "Nevertheless"
This is a somewhat older song but from the limited number of BJM songs I've heard is my favorite. You can download every one of their songs from their website, so if you're bored go nuts. This is also the song used on the DIG! homepage, which is how I found it.

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Ratatat rocked last Monday...they even added an overhead projector that showed cool little clips and animations, like their logo on fire. Guess you had to be there. Anyway, Mike and Evan were on form as they churned through their album more or less, and threw in a new song as well which sounded really good. Highlight for me was either the driving end to "Lapland" (it will always be "Epliohunk" to me), or the twin climaxes to "El Pico." And "Seventeen Years" also rocked. It's tough not to enjoy them live...and it's the only band where the guitarist is doing on huge solo the entire time. Mike hardly played keyboard at all, which was good because it's a lot more entertaining to see him shredding (dude!)on guitar.

The openers were Junior Boys, who I also liked a lot. They're two guys from Canada, who do pretty chill electro-pop, one playing a spaced-out guitar and the other handling beats and keyboards. Not the most engaging type of music to see live, but I'll probably pick up their album Last Exit at some point. A gushing review is here.

Some pics from the past few weeks of Sox madness are on the photo page. I also made it out to Walden Pond while Shannon was visiting, which turned out to be a really cool place. Great for snapping pics.



The steps down to Walden Pond

Walking back from the Square last night Alex made a good point about Halloween. It's always amusing to see girls really take advantage of the day to dress slutty and then pass it off as being a costume of something--slutty nurse, slutty firefighter, slutty nun, slutty pirate, etc. But see, they're not sluts, they're just going in costume. Right. The best part is then when you see girls walking around who are having second thoughts about the sluttiness of their costume because they didn't get as drunk as they thought they would.


I'll take it.

I'm sure it will grow on me, but the 2006 BMW 3-series (codenamed E90) seems neither mind-blowing nor disappointing. I won't have one anytime soon, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. Actually, looking at the pic I just found to post above, it looks really sharp. Well played, my Bavarian brothers, well played. Maybe towards the end of the decade I'll be able to afford an E90 M3. Giddyup.