Forget Who We IzZzZz

I guess I'm not that much better than them, but if a bunch of Johnny-come-lately's crash this ticket on-sale and ruin the week leading up to, day of, and week following July 24 for me, I'm going to be pissed. I mean, I was five when they broke up but I have had an understanding of this band's importance since eighth grade. Matt Pannell put, of all songs, "Hey Ma, Do I Hafta Choke on These?" on a mix for me (the mix also included everything from the Anniversary to Shai Hulud to Reggie and the Full Effect.) Judging by these kids' absolute hatred of Joan of Arc and anything Kinsella-related that may not have an obvious hook/total emoshunul resonance, I doubt many of them have sat through "Hey Ma."  But it turned me on, mostly because it, along with Joan of Arc's So Much for Staying Alive and Lovelessness made me feel sophisticated and was a nice break from the glass-shattering, notebook-scribbling intensity of Saetia. That summer, I woke up around noon every day to the aimless open-chord bashing of "Basil's Kite." Back then, there was lots of mystery and I couldn't watch Cap'n Jazz play the Daily Grind on YouTube or connect with fans of Midwestern emo. I didn't even really know there was a Midwest "sound," but now you and all your buds can replicate that scene every Friday night at Philly's newest warehouse parties/basement shows thanks to a bunch of undergrads who chose fascinating names like "Snowing," and "Bearings"to silkscreen onto the covers of their demo 7". So I don't even know why I should be worried, maybe Philly will have had enough mathy emo stuff by the time July rolls around and... well nevermind, that's just not going to happen at this rate.

EDIT: And if Jade Tree folds because they really had to take a chance on these kids buying the Analphabetapolothology reissue and folks remain satisfied with their Soulseek downloads or whatever... sorry for the haterade.

The New Patriotism

This might get me into some trouble.

Between The Hurt Locker and The Monitor I feel that there's probably a new, young patriotism coming around... maybe one that's sort of, maybe, more understanding (?) of where we are right now? And what it took to get here? And an appreciation of where we come from? New regionalism?

That is a Polaroid Zach took of his room.

Dispatches from John Crodian

Texts:

Me - These tweenage girls on the R5 just said West Chester was boring. Want me to fuckemup?
John - Tell them about Macaroni Castle. That's what I'm trying to call my apartment.

First of many blurbs I will be writing about NBC's "Community"

I like that the writers don't overdo it with Abed. I think Abed is two things: a TV character with Asperger's and great metacommentary on how everyone wishes their life was more like a TV show and will go to distant ends to make that a reality. (Actually, those two things are pretty much facts.) It would have been really easy to: have the entire character (and maybe even entire show) revolve around the fact of Abed's Asperger's... the entire show would devolve into jokes about his "social awkwardness" (in most college lecture halls and conversations, being "socially awkward" is considered a disease unto its own) and Abed's storylines would be centered around trying to get him to assimilate into, like, normal society or whatever, and the lessons it would teach would be "it's OK to be different!" (Which it is, and I don't have a problem with that being "a lesson that is often taught," but it would get tired.) Also it would be really easy to have each episode be some amalgam of sitcom tropes and Abed would sort of ground the whole thing by calling everyone out on it. This is something the show does do a lot but not to excess. Abed isn't a crutch the show leans on... he really is like some kind of commentator keeping each character in check. In that way he works to the show's total advantage. Just as the audience is catching on, saying to each other "Hey this is just a riff on _________," Abed steps in and calls everyone out on it.


[Paragraph about the new, hilarious weirdness the show has stumbled upon, using each actor's ability to do physical comedy and tempering it with their great dialogue/chemistry, creating some kind of "synergy" unseen in any other sitcom of late (or at least the ones on NBC Thursday nights.)]

WATCH COMMUNITY.

Amazing Adverb of the Day

This is a Ben Franklin-level adverb, re: getting drunk, via Community creator Dan Harmon:

"Childhood-revealingly."

This entry is me taking notes. Required something more permanent than a retweet.

Everyone should also know I'm probably going to look like him one day (soon):

Boy on the Verge

I borrowed Vendela Vida's Girls on the Verge from my cousin who gets an A+ for her (to my total delight) so-clearly-a-Gen-Xer bookshelf. Douglas Coupland's Generation X, Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp, various McSweeney's, etc. The book is an excellent series of firsthand accounts of different rituals the modern day girl chooses to go through: marriage, rushing a Sorority, the debutante ball. But I look like an idiot carrying it around:

My cousin is also an OG Death Cab fan from back in the day. She saw them with the Dismemberment Plan during the amazingly named Death and Dismemberment tour. I had so quickly outgrown Transatlanticism that I couldn't take seriously claims that their old stuff is a lot better and a lot different. And actually when I hear a song like "Crooked Teeth," or even "I Will Posses Your Heart," I always feel like such an idiot for writing their new stuff off. But it's too late now. Or not. Because I ripped We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes and haven't stopped listening to it. It's fucking awesome.

It's mathy and has killer hooks and mopes only maybe a third of the time (Why do I think this is a bad thing for some bands and not others? I don't get me.) Some tracks remind me of American Football (this is always good if we're talking about a band that formed before the insane Philadelphia math rock boom of 2008.) I hate being wrong.

Note to Self

You should never appear literary. If it shows, then you've crossed the line and become a pretentious bore. And God save us from that.

-Larry Kirwan

Charter of Liberties

I get amazed by students have lived in this city almost two years and still they say things like Rittenhouse Square Park and have never ridden a bus.  It's easy people: William Penn laid out five SQUARES (just. squares.) in his original plan for Philadelphia, and all you have to do to catch the bus is find the sign and all you have to do to get off is pull the cord. Get it? Also find it annoying when students have never been further east than the train station, further north than Susquehanna Avenue, and further west than the fraternities.

One of many blurbs I will be penning about "The Monitor"

The Monitor, like Grievances, ends on an optimistic note (literally.) Both songs have the feel and the lyrical content of a person that's too tired to carry on. In Albert Camus, Stickles is sucked dry by Glenn Rock, toasting his "general indifference." After an emotion-shattering din, something -- an accordion, perhaps, or a melodica -- plays a melodic tune for the last 45 seconds of the record. A ray of light. All will be well... eventually.

"The Battle of Hampton Roads" goes from Stickles' minor-key pleas for his darling to not "ever leave," (repeated and reinforced by french horns and dramatic drumming,) to a seriously victorious-sounding bagpipe line (again supplemented by rolling drums,) inducing head nods and fist pumps. The rolls shift from the tom to the snares and crash cymbals. Guitars enter. The bagpipes drop out, replaced with an arpeggiating lead guitar riff, like the breakdown of "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ." This song is, thankfully, far from over. This lead slays. You have just succumbed to tears brought on by the bagpipe's beauty, and now this lead guitar is reminding you that everything will be OK. The band collapses into their trademark din and drone that shifts for another 90 seconds until it sounds like the tape machine is shut off.

In other news, I have been having an amazing time dogsitting my cousin's beast, Ella. She's a pit/cane corso mix and on most days that would a terrifying prospect but she's middle-aged and lazy. We play frisbee for a half hour (she's amazing,) go for a walk, and then she watches TV and eats pizza with me until bed... which she shares with me. 

And just like Halloween, I never want to not celebrate St. Patrick's Day. My Catholic grade school was St. Patrick's (and thus my Parish) so it was something I grew up with... it wasn't shoved down our throats, creating resentment. It created, like, a weird sense of pride. Fond memories there... Great friends followed me back to Whitemarsh Township where we enjoyed Franzone's, Guinness and Wawa. A total tri-force.

St. Patrick Was a Rocker

Just try and tell me listening to this song you still feel pangs of regret about all the money you spent at Hot Topic on Dropkick Murphys merch. Just try.

Irish Rose - The So So Glos

Waking Up Drunk - Spider Bags

Theme From “Cheers" - Titus An...

"So give me a Guinness, give me a Keystone Light, give me a kegger on a Friday night."




This song makes me think of a joyous St. Patty's day morning, pre-parade, everyone leaving their homes for the day.


"Brrrridie! Bridie, girl!" My parents took Mimi and I to see Black 47 at a college fair at, I think, the old Civic Center. I WAS GOING TO PUNK SHOWS IN WEST PHILLY 10 YEARS BEFORE YOU FUX.

The Inverted "Understanding Titus Andronicus" Pyramid

"OMFG OBERST IS OUR GOD HOW DARE YOU SOIL HIS NAME BY COMPARING HIM TO THIS AVERAGE GUY THAT HAPPENS TO FRONT A GREAT ROCK AND ROLL BAND, SOMETHING CONOR WAS NEVER ABLE TO DO FOR VERY LONG?" - Dumb Bright Eyes Fans that need to grow up at the bottom.

"Although he sounds staggeringly similar to another angsty youngster, Conor Oberst, Titus' Springsteen-Bloody-Valentine sound differs greatly from the Nebraskan folk troubadour." - Reductionist music critics that need to just take out their headphones and think of better things to say in the middle.

"We aren't going to mention anyone but Patrick Stickles and the rest of Titus Andronicus when talking about Titus Andronicus because if you're not lazy, you know that they have no easy points of comparison except maybe the history books they dig their noses in."  - Actual human beings at the top.

What I Get When I Tell My Friends to Pose

New Acquisitions

Of the physical variety.

Kathleen Edwards - Failer (used)
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Belly - Star (used)
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks

First time at Main Street Music in Manayunk. Awesome store, does a great job of bridging the young XPN demographic and the old XPN demographic.

You're Allowed to Have It

One of my favorite ever comedians, Paul F. Tompkins, did this HBO special about beer a long time ago.

Akin to being inside of an armpit

It's really weird watching the late-David Foster Wallace read an essay of his that I just finished.

Yeah I'm done for the day

...because I was retweeted by @nprfreshair.

 

This was in reference, by the way, for their call to tweeters to come up with their own NPR names.

John Crodian Dispatch

Text from John just now:
"It's 2010 and people in my English 295 class are doing bad Eric Cartman impressions."

Shiny Adidas Tracksuits

I just realized I have to figure out what I'm going to do next semester. I don't really know what the next step is... I'm going to have to meet with an adviser soon and pick out my fucking classes. I don't think I want to think about the fall just yet. Might apply for capital semester in Harrisburg just so they can make a plan for me. I wish Might Magazine were still around. I'd have my decision: I'd be in San Francisco in a beat, dude.

A Poem

I felt better today and I think I'm indebted to my commute-and-pre-class-listening: Andrew W.K. and Loudoun Wainwright III.  I also got a monthy Zone 3 Trailpass which I'm super stoked about! If I'm not going anywhere in life, at least I can go anywhere on SEPTA (within 3 zones, including buses, subways, NHSL, Trolleys etc.)

A Poem:

The conquest will survive.

The more that you can give it, then the more it will be
And if you do not have it, you can take it from me.
All we ever wanted was a thing to believe,
And now that we have found it, we have all that we need.

The more that you can give it, then the more it will be
And if you do not have it, you can take it from me.
All we ever wanted was a thing to believe,
And now that we have found it, we have all that we need.

We have found our pride.

Andrew Wilkes Krier


(Remember this on days that lack that extra something.)