Interesting to see how the red vs. blue states stack up in the generosity index...a lot of it is probably church-related, but still. Wisconsin and Massachusetts representing near the bottom baby!

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Little-known fact: stoner-punk-rap-reggae-rock band 311 was one of my first-favorite bands. Their debut album was one of my first-favorite albums back in 1995 or so--maybe '96?--and I had the video for "Down" taped so I could watch it whenever I wanted. [digression forthcoming] Also on that tape were the videos for the Biggie/Puffy/Mase song "Mo Money, Mo Problems," Puffy's "Around the World," and whatever that Mase song was where he danced around in a green jumpsuit. What can I say? I was proud to be a member of the Bad Boy family at the time. [end of digression]

Then a couple years ago Dave alerted me to "Amber" and "I'll Be Here a While" which were new songs at the time and which I both liked a lot. So long story short, 311 have long been a band I liked and rooted for despite the fact that I drifted pretty far away from them as my tastes evolved. Imagine my surprise when I saw on At Ease that lead singer Nick Hexum and his brother Zack (who is not in 311) gave a bunch of live recordings from their raise-money-for-Kerry tour to a 311 fan site, and that one of them was "Karma Police." They did all covers apparently, with some inane political bantering thrown in (listen and you'll see), but they also did kinda interesting versions of KP and "Don't Panic," which has been given a second wind by its prominent role in the movie Garden State. The vocals get kinda dodgy at times (especially with American accents), but sometimes I really like hearing other artists' renditions of songs I love, this being one of those times. Anyway, download the songs and listen for yourself.

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Note: Gordy is wearing a Stills t-shirt

Bloc Party, currently opening for Interpol on their European tour, are on the radar for having a potentially great first album. They've already released an EP with the fantastic "Banquet" on it, but no proper LP (download "Banquet" immediately if you have not yet...did I mention it is fantastic?). They frequently have free MP3s on their website, with another good one currently available, the surprisingly ballady sounding "Tulips." Another good one, recently supplied to me with mixed emotion by Nina, is "The Marshals are Dead."

Ironically, when the time comes that I can buy Bloc Party's debut album, it will be the first album from an artist/group with a black lead singer since I bought Puffy's debut album like seven years ago. By the way, I realize no one calls him Puffy anymore, but I think I should be allowed my nostalgia.

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Carly and I have been blathering for a couple days via email about how much we love "Arrested Development," and now I've found an excellent little fansite. While the fact that it holds to its newspaper-ish format is kind of lame, it has video and shit. I highly recommend the video of Will Arnett on Conan. Also, while waiting to get a bad haircut, I read a cool article on the show in this month's GQ. Giddyup!

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How did Curt Schilling do it? Dunno. But it wasn't pretty.



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None of these look great, but all look decent:

Imaginary Heroes
In Good Company

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The best soccer journalist in the world is Phil Ball, an Englishman who writes about Spain's La Liga for Soccernet. I love reading his columns because they have this whimsical romanticism for the game that give it this almost Hemingway-esque quality. Maybe I've posted about this before, but it seems like you don't even have to be a futbol fan to like his writing. But I'm probably wrong.