Mulley tipped me off about She Wants Revenge and now I pass them on to you. They've got a very Interpol-ish vibe, which made me skeptical at first (hard to make headway when you're so blatantly cribbing another band), but then I read a Spin feature on them which noted that vocalist Justin Warfield was the man behind the rhymes on Bomb the Bass' "Bug Powder Dust," which I first discovered through the Liam Howlett remix album that came out in 1999. Anybody that makes a reference to Heart of Darkness while rapping is alright by me.

Bomb the Bass / "Bug Powder Dust"
She Wants Revenge / "Out of Control"
She Wants Revenge / "These Things"
She Wants Revenge / "Tear You Apart"

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Long, insightful article about Louie C.K. and his new HBO show.

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I read a book! Freakonomics is a quick read and like Blink it's full of interesting stories that intellectual people will want to repeat at dinner parties. I'd say the main difference is that stylistically it's clear that Steven Levitt (NYT author Stephen Dubner gets co-writing credit) is a social scientist trying to be a writer while Malcolm Gladwell is a writer playing social scientist.

It's not insulting for an econ major to read, nor did it seem too bogged down in economic theory for the average person to understand. As such, the book comes across as candid, objective, and never tries too hard, all the while telling some interesting stories about flaws in the conventional wisdom that's all around us. And in that way it manages to say something quite refreshing.

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My CD buying experiences generally follow one of three scenarios. First, if it's a band I have liked for a while, I'll listen to the album a fair amount for at least a couple weeks even if I don't really like it at first. Then there are new bands which I hear a few good songs from, buy the album, and immediately get into the rest of the album, leading to regular rotation for a few weeks. And lastly some CDs I buy kind of randomly after hearing maybe only a couple good songs, and then when the rest of the songs don't immediately jump out at me I shelf the album and only listen to the songs I already knew I liked.

This last scenario is exactly what happened when I bought the Notwist's Neon Golden a while back. I loved the song "Pilot" but after one or two listens didn't bother listening to the other songs after I ripped them onto my mp3 player. Well it turns out I didn't even rip the entire album, and that one of the songs I had forgotten is actually really really good.

The Notwist / "Consequence"

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CMG breaks down the twelve best songs off of OK Computer.

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I am officially skeptical of anyone who can recite the specific rule(s) by which they live their life.

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Can't make this shit up.

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I saw Spanglish and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle this weekend. Both worth watching, especially the former. I don't think I ever need to see H&C again, but Spanglish was surprisingly good--it has a really good heart and manages to avoid falling into obvious cliches.


Rich white people + poor Mexican = hilarity and sociocultural conflict!

Paz Vega is a poor man's Penelope Cruz as a Mexican immigrant who takes a housekeeping job for a wealthy and (shock! horror!) dysfunctional LA family, helmed by the neurotic Tea Leone and likable Adam Sandler. And by "poor man's Penelop Cruz" I mean lesser known but better-looking.

And in case you were wondering, they are already working on the sequel to Harold & Kumar...if you have seen the movie you can guess what the general plot is.