if i could be who you wanted*

radiohead show redux:

1. picnicked on zankou chicken beforehand - always amazing.



2. the light show was crazy good.



3. i screamed like a 60's era beatles fan when the opening chords of *fake plastic trees was played.
4. and we all sang along.
5. also played no surprises, which was magical.

and concensus has it that this was one of the best radiohead shows ever.

here's the neil young cover they did.


also got re-connected with wilco as a result of the show and have been listening to them alot since.

favorite wilco song of all time:

bring down the government, they don't speak for us*

radiohead played the hollywood bowl last night. i was there.

here's a clip of them playing in 2001. i wish i had been at that show instead of this one.



they only played two songs from OK computer.

*radiohead - no surprises

i'm a man*

keep getting my surfboard dinged up. but that means i get to do manly things like repair it with fiberglass and resin. it requires sandpaper.

i read that brancusi used to fetishize the polish and smoothness of his metal sculptures. i felt the same way as i was sanding down my board.



on a brighter note, my bodysurfing is amazing. i got barreled two weeks ago in carlsbad. it was like this:



* muddy waters - mannish boy

we are the olympics! III

sport by sport gut reaction:

syncrhonized diving - utterly pointless
diving - no one should be this good at jumping into water (at a bar friday night really drunk dude was flipping out like, "HOW ARE THEY DOING THAAAT??")
swimming - why does this sport need so many different events?
synchronized swimming - i thought this was an SNL skit; obsolete since busby berkeley
water polo - needs more camera angles
archery - needs live targets
track and field - they're all on drugs
badminton - 200 mph coming off the raquet.
baseball - even MLB is boring, this more so
basketball - dream team!
boxing, judo, tae kwon do, wrestling - MMA makes these guys look like pussies.
canoeing - huh?
cycling - tour de france
equestrian - rich people
fencing - hello, my name is inigo montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.
field hockey - they need bigger sticks.
football - world cup is better
gymnastics - i feel gay. my girlfriend won the gold.
handball - this sport should be more popular in the U.S.
modern pentathlon - is this real?
rowing - better with viking ships
sailing - pointless
softball - fat chicks
table tennis - darts. pool. no difference.
tennis - wimbledon, u.s. open, french open.
triathlon - yawn.
beach volleyball - kind of gay
volleyball - really gay
weightlifting - whoa, he just lifted a car above his head.

we are the olympics! II

if you had to be married to an olympic athlete what event would they do?

considerations: most track and swimmers would make you feel like a loser for sitting around and drinking beer on a saturday.

we are the olympics!*

special olympics edition. question of the day all week:

1. what is more likely: the olympics being hosted in a country in the middle east (meaning they would get terrorist threats handled and allow israel to participate) OR inter-species communication (as in we learn to speak in dolphin, whale, or elephant--mammals with the biggest brains).

2. if you could win any event at the olympics what would it be?



*dave eggers - heartbreaking work of staggering genius

looks like the end of history as we know it*

seriously nytimes? she wins a gold medal and you splash her on the frontpage like this?



and then when you click the article, it's this:



then again, wikipedia is all:



technically she's 18, but still...

i guess it's a popular photo op. these guys are definitely going to knock off the beach volleyball butts as the most emailed photos on yahoo by tomorrow morning.



i saw stepbrothers recently. it was better than SEMI PRO. not as good as BLADES OF GLORY. definitely not as good as ANCHORMAN, etc... it's not a classic.

this is a spoof of the movie done by baron davis and steve nash. love baron, but the dude should stick to b-ball. unlike nash, who is indie rock, plays soccer, did elizabeth hurley, hates george w. (look up nytimes article) and is clearly hilarious.



this was done by baron's production company that he runs w/ jessy alba's husband cash. this is what happens when you live in LA. no one tells you you're dumb. they're all too stupid to figure it out.

*panic at the disco-nine in the afternoon



for no other reason than the fact that i think it's a song that i would really like if i was in college. it's definitely hummable. i like it when it comes on at the gym.

i'm seeing stars*

dude, conor oberst might be my favorite musical artist right now.

i know i felt that way when pavement was around (about pavement). i felt this way about bright eyes after I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING came out (which i listened to non-stop). similar feelings about weezer for the green album. also for belle and sebastian after i saw them in concert for this last album.

but conor really brought it to the troubadour tuesday night. check him out in his faux-elliott smith bowl cut, rocking out.


more amazing pix at losanjealous props to them.

his new band and record are sort of like this 70's country rock jam. he's got nate from bright eyes, plus 2 guitarists, a bass, and the drummer from rilo kiley. all new stuff, plus covers (which were all in the encore, and which was also the best part).

did sundown by gordon lightfoot.

also, everybody's talking by harry nilson



which i realized is either sampled or ripped off by paul oakenfold and shifty (of crazy town) and featured in my favorite diet coke commercial ever*


plus the blues standard corrine corrina (which was most famously made folky by bob dylan on THE FREEWHEELIN').


conor played it blues-rockin--like john mayer w/ double trouble.

here's a song of the same name on youtube feat. ratdog (ex-dead) and some amazing dancing.


UPDATE!!!

while watching the diet coke commercial again, IMDb'ed the roller girl only to find she starred as a lesbian in some movie and was kissing melonie diaz.



"hello, netflix. yes, please. ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE."

cuz that's my fun day*

i've been going out on monday nights. after i did it 2 weeks in a row i decided to make it a ritual. lots of reasons. great way to start the week. plus the gym is totally crowded on mondays.

dodgers games, comedy nights, DJ parties, etc.

tonight i went to see a band play. namely, titus andronicus. a band that sounds like neutral milk hotel, GBV, bright eyes, with a punk edge.

how do you replicate shitty home recording? distortion + reverb!

it was a great show. if you ever wanted to know what 4 guitars (telecaster, gretsch, gibson SG, and a dipinto) sound like playing the same thing through old amps (vox, fender, ampeg, etc.) you got it!



they're 23 years old. touring the country. they might be huge one day.

there were little college girls fawning over them. i talked to the band later they were giddy with the LA girls funny shit.

mia doi todd played as did war paint (featuring shannyn sossamon, but not tonight).

tomorrow night i'm seeing conor oberst. so stoked.

*dude, you know. it's an LA band. karaoke classic.

why did you have to run your game on me?*

according to my friends' status updates on my facebook account, last tuesday two really important things happened: (1) there was an earthquake in LA (which, btw, did not knock a single thing off the walls or shelves in my apt), and (2) hasbro won a court order leading to the takedown of the scrabulous game application on facebook (basically scrabble).

there was a rampant scrabulous phase in my life where i had no less than 7 games going at once. it passed and the only people i played with anymore were people who were extremely good and were up by about 100 points on me with half the tiles still left.

this was completely annoying AND a total waste of my time, so i decided to use a scrabble cheat application called SCRABULIZER, which shows the highest scoring words to play on any given turn, and saves games as well.

my only rule was that i would only play words that i actually knew.

this was completely awesome especially b/c one particular friend, the nutcake had beaten me 4 games in a row (the only 4 games we ever played against each other) and each time, by at least 50 points.

i crushed her twice, and she whined the whole time.


*mariah carey-hearbreaker: btw, i love this video for so many reasons but mostly for (1) showcasing mariah's inability to dance, (2) the two mariah's, and (3) the animated jay-z bit.