Change We Can Believe In

Sometimes when I head out of work during mid-day, I can't be bothered to fire up the old iPod, so I'll turn the dial to The Buddy Cianci Show on 630 WPRO. I'm a huge fan of Buddy, and while I disagree with him often, his no-holds-barred, shoot-from-the-hip style appeals to me greatly. Plus, he's Buddy, which rules.

So today I had to run some errands, so I dialed Buddy up while I did so. To my dismay, Buddy was not on air. Turns out he's winging his way back from Minneapolis, where he's been reporting from all week. In his stead was a gentleman named Moe (I can't seem to find what his last name is, but as soon as I do, I'll edit), who was taking calls. Buddy is usually pretty moderate and non-partisan towards both issues and his callers - if he disagrees, he'll let it be known - but after listening for a few minutes, it became clear that this Moe character had a clear lean to the right. "Whatever," I thought. I figured I could deal with it for the duration of my short drive.

A few calls in, an older gentleman who lived in "the most liberal city in a very liberal state" came on the air. He proceeded to state that he had several "normally liberal" friends who all refuse to vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming election. When asked why, he proceeded to claim that they had no idea who Barack Obama was. They "didn't know his qualifications, where he came from, or what he stands for," but they know John McCain. He's an American hero. They were going to vote for him. And our friend Moe nodded along in agreement.

And here's where I started shouting at my radio.

First of all, how is it possibly, in this day and age with the internet and 24-hour news cycles and the Daily Show for someone to not understand a candidate? You don't know where Barack Obama comes from? He wrote two fucking books about his background and the experiences that helped to shape him. Don't feel like thumbing through all those pages? Okay, well Newsweek has you covered. Last week's issue contained an extensive feature that gave a great crash course history of Obama's past. Or, you know, you could just Google it. You don't know Obama's stance on the issues? Try this. You don't understand Obama's voting record? Try this.

I know why I'm voting for Barack Obama. But I also know why I'm not voting for John McCain. I know what John McCain stands for. And I don't agree with it. A McCain presidency would be an absolute disaster. And I feel confident in saying that. Why? Because I've done my research. I've made an informed decision. I didn't just sit back and allow myself to be overcome with hype as so many potential voters have. I did my homework. I wish I could say the same for many of these people. I am all for bipartisanship and differences of opinion. I think you should vote for who you think is the best candidate. But that vote should be an informed decision. There should be substance behind it. It's said that "knowledge is power," and it scares me that so many will be casting votes in November without that knowledge.

Your unelectable, OH!

This Sarah Palin nonsense gets better and better each day, to the point where it is now utterly face-palm inducing. With each story that hits the media, my confidence in a Democratic victory grows a little more, especially after reading the following nugget on The Daily Dish. I really didn't know much about Palin's record previous to her governorship, but now that I do, I'm in disbelief that the GOP selection committee could pick someone so absolutely atrocious and disgustingly evil.

Here's a sampling:

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

The rest of the article is here: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/an-wasillan-on.html#more

Google Chrome

Get in to it.

Here's the explanatory webcomic.

You Know You Make Me Want To Say So Long...

...You know you make me want to say goodbye...

I love Around The Horn. It's a great show for sports fans (such as myself) who want to hear all the news of the day from a couple different viewpoints, but don't have time to root through ESPN.com, SI.com, The Boston Herald, etc. searching for pointed opinions. There are two things I hate about ATH, though: Woody Paige and his dumbass chalkboard, and Jay Mariotti.

Mariotti always has something to say, yet never says anything. He is constantly lambasting players, coaches, and owners, yet it is rarely constructive. I think his commentary is mostly to hear himself talk, and I, along with all the other panelists quickly tire of it. In fact, I usually don't watch if he's on.

"What's the point of all this?" you ask. Well, after 17 years, Mariotti resigned from his position at the Chicago Sun-Times. Upon his departure, the Times issued this gem, perhaps the funniest press release I've ever read:

"The Chicago Sun-Times had the best sports section in the city before Jay Mariotti came to town -- that's why he signed up with us -- and his departure does not change that.

We still have the stars -- respected veterans such as Rick Telander, fiery newcomers such as Greg Couch, quirky voices like Carol Slezak, not to mention seasoned beat reporters tracking the Cubs and White Sox toward their eventual collision in the World Series, plus the Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, and all the other teams that make Chicago the sports center of the nation. We could have a World Series in Chicago in a couple of months ... talk about excitement!

The Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com will continue to have the scores and the stories before anyone else, anywhere, and the deepest and most comprehensive stats and standings. We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days.

A paper, like a sports franchise, is something that moves into the future. Stars come and stars go, but the Sun-Times sports section was, is and will continue to be the best in the city."

Original Source - Poynter

Lost.fm

I just logged in to my last.fm to install the scrobblah on my new MacBook. Apparently, I was on hiatus.

Your New Favorite Blog

http://renz-o.blogspot.com/

Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pantsuit

I lol'd. But it really was a helluva speech.

All I Wanna Do Is Drink Beer For Breakfast

A few months ago, I submitted out electronic press kit to a contest Harpoon Brewery was sponsoring. It's called the "UFO Unfiltered Band Search," and it's basically a competition to fine the top unsigned band in the northeast that best exemplifies the Harpoon brand. The initial reason I submitted for it was because every band who signed up, provided that all members were over the age of 21, received a free case of UFO Hefeweizen, which I happen to be a huge, huge fan of. It cost $10 to submit, and a case of UFO costs, oh $22.99, so I determined that it was a pretty good deal regardless of the outcome.

But that was months ago. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it until last Thursday. That's when I received an e-mail in my inbox from Sonicbids saying that my submission status for this event had been updated. So I logged in and checked our status. Lo and behold, we had been selected as a finalist for the competition! So that was pretty exciting. I browsed my way over to the competition website to see what the grand prizes were: a slot playing at the Harpoon's Summer Session 2009, a day in a recording studio, a one year feature on the UFO site, and a free mp3 download hosted on the Harpoon site. Pretty cool stuff.

Then, I scrolled down to read the paragraph below the grand prizes. It read as follows:

Each of the 10 finalists will be featured for one month on www.UFOHefeweizen.com as a UFO “Band of the Month” and will receive a UFO gift package, and a one-year supply of UFO Hefeweizen.

Wait, what? Yep. We done won ourselves a year's worth of free beer. For someone who loves beer as much as I do, that's like a fat kid winning free cheeseburgers for a year. I am stoked x100!

Voting opened yesterday at noon and runs through September 12th. Go to www.harpoon.com and click on the big yellow button halfway down the page on the right. 

I'm a Maine-iac!

We're on the road this weekend.

We played in Plaistow, NH last night with a bunch of bands from Rhode Island. After the show we and about 12 other people stormed the local Taco Bell for fourthmeal, which the folks behind the counter didn't seem too happy about. I got what is more than likely the greatest fast food meal available: two Cheesy Gordita Crunches, sub rice instead of meat. HEAVENLY...

After that we drove to Old Orchard Beach for sweet hangs and copious Miller Lites. 

We're playing in Portland today, which has quickly become our home-away-from-home. The kids up here are absolutely stellar, and we've never been disappointed. Plus, Maine is gorgeous in the summer. I love Rhode Island and all, but I certainly don't mind spending my weekends up here.

For The First Time In A Long Time...

I can say that I want to try... to get back in to shape.

YESTERDAY'S RUNNING RECORD: Even If It Kills Me

I ran 5 miles yesterday. I haven't had the motivation to run in a few weeks. But I hate feeling indolent. I did 1.5 miles up the bike path, then a mile in to Colt State Park. Then back. It felt really good. My quadriceps are killing me today. But it's a good hurt. I eat well 95% of the time, but I've never had that whole "desire to get in to shape" or "motivation to exercise" thing going for me. But it feels good. I'm going to try to keep it up even though I almost always fall back on the excuse "I don't have enough time." Malarkey. I ran for 45 minutes and still had time to do everything I wanted to last night.

In fact, after I got finished, I went back out to my "front yard" and messed around with Jen's camera for a while. I'm trying to learn all about shutter speeds and apertures and exposure times... It's kind of a process, but it's something I'd like to improve upon. We'll see how it goes - one picture at a time.

full photostream on my FLICKR

You Said This Time Would Be The Last...

THEREFORE I AM SIGNS TO EQUAL VISION RECORDS!

I'd be hard pressed to find a band who has worked harder over the past few years than the guys in Therefore I Am. These guys have spent innumerable amounts of their own time and money to keep bringing music to their fans throughout the country, and I can't think of anyone who deserves to be signed more than these guys do. Their live show is absolutely electrifying, their songs are incredibly crafted, and they are super nice guys to boot.

We first met them while we were in the studio with Mike Poorman last September recording our EP. They had just finished tracking the instruments for Escape, and had come in to hear some of the rough mixes Mike had done before they began vocal tracking. We all instantly formed a bond with them, and now a year and several shows later, they are some of our closest friends.

Congrats guys, you've more than earned it.

Better Be Prepared...

I start school in two weeks. Well, two weeks and a day. I can't say I'm nervous or excited... it's a feeling I can't really find an appropriate adjective for. I've thought about going back for years now, but I've always found an excuse to put it off. But now here I am, two weeks away, and I kind of feel the way I did before I took the stage at Warped Tour or Lupo's for the first time - a sorted mix of excitement, confidence, and happiness with a touch of unwarranted insecurity.

Let's chalk it up to nerves.

I bought a MacBook this weekend. I love it. At the same time, I bought Jen an iPod touch. SUPER JEALZ. It makes my iPod look lame. I'll deal.

Next up is the purchasing of the books. NOT looking forward to it. Nor is my wallet.

The new Valencia record is streaming on their MySpace. I'm on my second listen this morning. There shall be several more. It's been a long time since I've been excited about a new record. (Probably since Chase This Light last fall.) Music has sucked so bad lately. It feels good to be psyched about something new.

How To Start Your Own Clothing Company

Yes, I haven't written in a while. Since December, in fact. I am aware of this. Most people stopped checking in months ago. I respect that. But I'm going to try to start writing in this fairly often, so add me/re-add me to your Google Reader and roll with the punches.

So a few weeks ago, my band was selected to play the July 23rd stop on Warped Tour, which despite a small monsoon and tornado warnings, was a blast. As several people are aware, I am very critical of the music industry, especially as it stands right now. Talent is severely watered down, and most of the "it" scene bands sound exactly the fucking same. (I'm looking at you, Alltimemetrodangerousmaineforeverthesickestsummerstationiswhatweaimfor.) Warped did nothing to to prove me wrong. It was, for the most part, an amalgamation of shitty sugar-pop punk bands and cookie-cutter screametal bands. Sure, there were several standouts - mainly the three bands in total that I actually wanted to see (Anberlin/SOTY/FYS), but for the most part, I could have stayed home watching a Spongebob marathon, and I would have been more entertained.

One thing did catch my attention while I was there, though. Not only does every band share the exact same formula, but so does every clothing company. Apparently, if you want to start your own clothing line, all you have to do is follow there simple steps:

1. Pirate a copy of Photoshop.
2. Download a bunch of free brush sets from the intarwebs.
   
3. Create designs that consist of a) a brush of an object (anchors, birds, and guns are all can't fail designs) and a splatter brush behind it (paint or blood - either works), or b) simple block type (must be left-aligned and font must be sans-serif).
   
4. Colors that can be used: black, white, raspberry blue, hot pink, anything fluorescent. These are the only colors to be used. (Note: you can also use metallic gold or silver ink)
   
5. Send your shitty design to a t-shirt/merch company for mass production.
6. PROFIT!

Yes, kids is is that easy! You too can become the DO WANT t-shirt company of the bustling "scene" scene!

That being said, I do much of the design for my band. I design all of our t-shirts, stickers, etc., but I would never call myself a designer. I'm just relatively proficient at Photoshop and Illustrator, and I have a semblance of artistic aptitude. But that doesn't make me a fucking fashion designer, and in no way does it license me to start my own clothing line. Yeah, I sometimes use brushes that I've found on the world wide nets and incorporate them in to my designs. But I don't call it my own original artwork, and I certainly don't use it as the only design on the fucking article of clothing. But I know some people who do:

Whilst walking by the tent of a certain merch company at Warped Tour, I noticed a t-shirt that had an anchor on it. And nothing else. Just the anchor. I thought "Man, that anchor looks familiar!" Know why? Because I used it in a sticker design I was messing around with:

But it was the only fucking thing on the t-shirt. That's it. Just a fucking free brush. No effort or thought or skill or anything. And it was being passed off as "fashion design"? Fucking please.

THE SHIRT IN QUESTION (Six Barrel Hooliguns):

See? The same exact brush. Ok, fine, so someone who calls themselves a fashion designer happened to find the same set of brushes as I did and used on one a t-shirt. Fucking lame? Yes. Coincidence? Perhaps. Only, I found two other clothing companies with the same exact anchor design (with nothing else on the shirt besides the anchor in question):

SHIRT IN QUESTION #2 (Heroine Clothing)
SHIRT IN QUESTION #3 (found on a website, "designer" unknown)

LAME. So not only is the music scene chock full of watered-down no-talent assclowns, but so is the fashion scene that goes right along with it. Nice.

Walk Hard

So Tim called me on Tuesday and asked if I wanted to go see a screening of the new Judd Apatow movie, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. I guess they were giving away passes at the mall, he grabbed a handful and invited a bunch of us to go.

First of all, I was a bit hesitant to venture in to the Providence Place Mall during the height of the Christmas shopping season. There's something about navigating the stormy sea of shoppers, bustling here and there in their frenzies without regard for any other fellow human that is a bit off-putting to me, but I concluded that I'd rather deal with that than pay the $10.50 (!) to see a movie I had planned on seeing anyway. So we met at the Food Court, got our tickets, and ventured in to the heart of the cinema to find the theater where the movie was being shown.

As we meandered the corridors on the Providence Place 16, we noticed a throng of people standing in line, the waiting area demarcated with purple velvet ropes. "What the fuck is this shit?" I announced eloquently as we fell in to the back of the queue. Apparently, since this was an advanced screening, there were no cameras or cell phones allowed in the theater. But that was okay - I really didn't mind turning my Sidekick off for the duration of the film (even though my compulsion to obsessively check the time would be severely stifled for the two hours I was sitting in the theater, I told myself I could make it through and went ahead and powered her down). But no, cell phones were not even allowed in the theater. Instead, you had to place your devices inside a brown paper lunch bag, which we initially thought might be bags of goodies they were handing out (sooo bummed that wasn't the case). Then they gave you a little raffle ticket which you would use to reclaim your belongings upon the conclusion of the film. Buhhh, fine.

The movie started a little late, but that was okay because there were no previews (! again). All in all, it was a really funny flick. John C. Reilly played his character extremely well - very convincing as the ridiculous bard Dewey Cox. There were also tons of cameos: Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Jack White, Jason Schwartzmann, Justin Long, Ghostface Killah, the guy who plays Darryl in The Office, Lyle Lovett, Jonah Hill, etc. A prevalent theme throughout the movie was the rampant nudity (hey, dude was a rock star, right?). And not just boobies, either. Disturbingly enough, there were three instances of full frontal male nudity. That's right. I saw full-on peen. Thrice. The frat boys sitting in the row in front of us were desperately trying to shield their eyes from the on-screen genitals, although I'm unsure as to why. It's my understanding that 85% of fraternity hazing rituals not involving beer somehow include the showing and placing of testicles upon another. Hmm. Oh well.

The best part of the movie, though, the absolute highlight at least for me, was this:


No, not John C. Reilly's inexplicably shorn belly - Jenna Fischer. On several occasions, Tim had to remind me to settle down. (I'm a huge Jenna Fischer fan. Like huge. Like I love her. Not in the creepy stalker way [although some think that my attraction to her borders on it] but in the "she is so funny and cute and if she asked me to marry her I would in a heartbeat" kinda way. Just sayin'.)

All in all, I give the movie a B. It was good overall, and the comedy was relatively high. Some aspects were completely ridiculous, even for a Judd Apatow flick, and a bit over the top. I mean I didn't really need to see dudemeat. But it's definitely worth a watch. At least once.