Oh you're so silent

I hate it when I get to work with the intention of listening to specific albums and then realize that said albums are definitely not on my iPod. My desire for weirdo organ music (aka Caroliner Rainbow, Mudboy and other similar artists) will have to go unfulfilled for today and I’ll just sit here and listen to the melancholy Jens Lekman to cheer me up. I also find that working here I tend to think of bands or movies or shows that I want to read more about but then by the time I get home I totally forget my previous thoughts.

thoughts...
Christmas, couches with blankets, Freaks & Geeks, bizarro dreams, tattoo ideas, cuckoo clocks, DIY synths and drum machines, being more assertive, amazing gift ideas, money worries, hotel plans, winter clothing, baking cookies, my favourite movies from 8 years ago, combining my past with my future.

"You know who I blame? The Large Hadron Collider.  It is the world's largest and highest particle accelerator. You may remember we were warned that it could create a black hole and destroy the Earth. Consider this: it launched in mid-September, when John McCain was leading in the polls. I believe it jolted us into a parallel universe that was exactly like our own, only Barack Obama is president and the Phillies are world champions." 
---Stephen Colbert 

My new job has allowed me to read more blogs in the past week than I pretty much even did when I was still at Convergys yet I still manage to get a sizeable chunk of work done in a day.  It's certainly quite a change from working 'assembly line' style jobs (aka Convergys, GWL) to spending more than a day on a particular project, and certainly a welcome one.  Here's some of best of the blogosphere that I've been following in the past week.

With the US election there certainly hasn't been any shortage of stuff to read, be it Palin being thrown under the bus, McCain conceding and actually acting like not too bad an individual (his SNL appearance swung me to him comedically at least) or the crazy close races for senate/house.  In particular, the senate seat for Minnesota appears to be going to a run off/recount because the difference between Franken (he's good enough, he's smart enough...) and Coleman is less than 300 votes as of me posting this, which is frankly insane considering the number of votes is in the several million range. Looks like things are swinging towards Franken but I guess we will see in a bit!  Nothing is nerdier after an election than all the sweet statistics and maps that are presented in the media.  This link has some of my favourites that I've seen.

Slashfilm is very quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs (thanks Ashley) and the 2 podcasts they operate are frankly amazing, extremely nerdy, and yet incredibly hilarious.  Too bad they're reporting that there is talk of remaking Oldboy with Will Smith and Steven Spielberg........ ugh.

Speaking of new blogs I've been checking out, I've also fallen in love with Lifehacker (which I used to read occasionally) and moreso MAKE Magazine, which is getting me excited to actually start building something electronic/instrument-ish in the future at some point.  But it seems a lot of the time they also just post about awesome iphone apps, with the most amazing of course being:

Definitely some stuff I'm forgetting I'm sure, and I'll likely post more highlights from my blog reading sometime this weekend!

Last days

This is how I spent my last day of work, compiling a list of my 25 must-have albums at the behest of Ashley who was prompted to do the same by her boss.

Sonic Youth - Dirty

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Descendents - Milo Goes To College

Sebadoh - Bakesale

Pixies - Bossanova

Air - Moon Safari

Sloan - Twice Removed

Destroyer - Streethawk: A Seduction

Black Flag - My War

Bad Brains - ROIR

Velvet Underground w/ Nico - Self Titled

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World

Of Montreal - Satanic Panic In The Attic

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

Jawbreaker - 24 Hour Revenge Therapy

Jets To Brazil - Orange Rhyming Dictionary

Love - Forever Changes

Joy Division - Warsaw

Beck - Midnite Vultures

De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard In My Backyard

Sparks - No 1 In Heaven

Hurts to leave off so many great things but oh well, notable omissions by bands like The Replacements, Suicide, Jonathan Richman, Beach Boys, Pavement, etc.

In other news, life is pretty awesome all around.

Racial Windstorm

New Lykke Li video?  Yes Please!

Breaking it up – alternative live video. Filmed by: Christian Haag from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

I feel the need to mention the upcoming movie JCVD because it definitely combines two of my favourite things in regards to film; "meta-film"/documentaries and Jean-Claud Van Damme.  I'm just hoping it gets a decent release here since I'd actually really like to see this in theaters.

Yesterday with Amber included some of the most bizarre encounters I can ever think of in one day.  Crazy racist yet completel normal looking guy on the bus who was somehow still trying to get everyone to talk on the bus, and then the strange, Asian group of singers + guitar singing about Jesus on Portage & Vaughan in the middle of crazy fast winds.  Racial windstorm indeed!

Also got to hangout with Aggie at the old homestead and visit my cat friends who I desperately miss.  Was clearing out my SD card on my camera this morning and remembered these classic shots from about a year ago:

Aww I miss them.

And here's a good documentary to balance things out

NY No Wave

I just watched this documentary about the world of zine making (particularly in Portland and the Pacific NW) and it kind of made me really annoyed.  I tend to hate anything with this much blind optimism and this was no different, and I'm shocked that I made it all the way through. While it does contain a lot of information about zines, it purposefully tries to distance itself from music based zines, and pretty much badmouths blogging and the internet in general as 'bad' or 'impure' or something along those lines.  I think zines were (and sometimes still are) an interesting medium, but I actually find that blogs generally have a much higher quality, are better written and are written by a MUCH larger variety of people providing differing viewpoints.  It does not shock me this documentary was made in 2003/4 at all haha.  The best part of this thing however was the scenes shot in Stumptown since they're so awesome.

In actual life happenings however, I finally got a job that uses my degree, an RA position doing marketing research which is both awesome career wise and awesome $$$ wise.  The first thing I really need to buy with some of that wealth is a good record player, because after spending thousands of dollars on records, I definitely need something worthy of playing them.

 

I also really need to get off my ass and find another couch, and some art for my walls since my living room is looking pretty bare on the one wall.

Record arrivals of the day:

Black Pus / Foot Village - Split [dnt] LP
Cheveu - My Answer Is... [rob's house] 7" 
Pink Reason - Borrowed Time [fashionable idiots] 7"
Pink Reason - Winona [woodsist] 7"
Tyvek - Sidewalk [m'lady's] 7"
Vivian Girls - I Can't Stay [in the red] 7"

Someone should buy me this sticker pack too:

US election gifs are awesome

Writing is hard on the weekends, more awesome and interesting stuff to come tomorrow.

The blog sampler pack

The first information I've heard about the movie adaptation of "The Road" is out now, and it gives me great hope that it will be just as awesome as the book.  No Country was good but the potential for this being even more badass is definitely there, who cares if it was an Oprah Book Club book?

Random sweet band I read about today, Christmas Island.  Definitely reminds me of the Dead Milkmen at times (especially vocally), but also retains this sweet lo-fi quality as well.  I definitely need to pick up these records when I get a chance.

I'm not exactly sure what this shirt is trying to say, or why a Misfits reference is even being put forth as some sort of commentary on the US election.  Possibly the most ridiculous thing I've seen today? No, it definitely is.

Un jour comme un autre

With all of Thanksgiving day off and numerous tv marathon choices available, I actually watched a couple of hours of Iron Chef America which I had never really watched on principal alone after being in love with the Japanese version since high school.  It actually was much better than I anticipated, and still kept so much of the goofiness, especially the 'Chairman's' face after yelling out the theme ingredient "BEEEEEEEEEEEETS".  

I digress though, the host is Alton Brown, who hosts possibly my favourite show on the Food Network now that Food Jammers is over and done with, Good Eats.  The style of the show is what makes it awesome honestly, because its setup almost exactly like Billy Nye or even Beakman's World (if anyone actually remembers that) and at least 50% of the show is spent on food history and terrible jokes and costumes.  I definitely recommend watching it if you're a food (or history) nerd, and I definitely still need to see if Movie Village carries the dvd's since the only online rips I can find are of pretty terrible quality.

 Watching this much food related television has definitely made me want to get wacky and try out some weird stuff now.  List of possibilities:

-making beer

-baking tortillas/tortilla chips

-amass a huge assortment of spices

-ice cream production

It's been a busy week otherwise so far, with Vancougar on Monday and CBK last night which included probably one of the more hilarious bike rides there and back I've experienced. Saturday has me attending a wedding of a girl I went to high school with, with open bar as well which should lead to... interesting times.

Record purchases as of late:

Vancougar - Canadian Tuxedo LP

Bauhaus - In The Flat Field LP

Bauhaus - Burning From The Inside LP

No Talk - Police Mafia 7"

Double Negative - Self Titled 7"

Brain Handle - Smiling 7"

definitely more music related posts coming in the future.

First post of my new blog ( http://whatsupsven.blogspot.com ) right here, hopefully I'll actually keep this up and you can be wow'ed by my writings a few times a week depending on how lazy I feel, so add me to your RSS reader of choice or just follow along in Facebook notes.

Here it is, the virtual tour of the new apartment if you haven't come by to check it out yet (which is the vast majority of you).

Here would be the corner of ultimate nerdery in the living room, I still need to set up the record player and find speakers for it actually unfortunately.

Other side of the living room, with SS on the tv.  I have more DVD's in another box and I desperately need to find an appropriate shelf for them for the lefthand side of the 'fireplace'.  Soon hopefully.

Kitchen.   Pretty boring but more cupboard space than I will ever need as a single person.

Front closet, front door on the right..... not sure why I took this picture.

One side of the bedroom.  Still have no clue where the bike will go all winter, and all comments regarding cowboy bedsheets are welcome.

Other side of the bedroom.  The corner is currently where everything goes if I have absolutely no clue what to do with at this point.  The lamps are awesome but I honestly just don't have enough electrical outlets in this place to make it worthwhile.

Good thing I've stocked up on all the essentials for my fridge at least? 

Fun times accomplished!