Shit

What is it you most dislike?
Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

Week Five Weigh In

189.0, a one week loss of 1 pound.

Total weight lost so far, 6.4 pounds.

I've corrected an error from last week. The digital scale was wavering between 190 and 188.8, and I foolishly gave myself the benefit of the doubt, knowing damn-good-and-well I had eaten like a pig the previous weekend.

This week I didn't do all that much different (from previous weeks when I was sticking to the plan), which tells me that my metabolism has adjusted to eating less. Put simply, I'm getting to the hard part: the last ten. To reach my goal, I'll be stepping up the weightlifting (four times a week!) starting next Monday. God help me.

Ooh, Trippy

$94.61?!

Ten years ago this month, we released the Subteens first LP, Burn Your Cardigan. If memory serves, we gave away more than we sold, but man, that seems like a lifetime ago. I was jobless and back in graduate school, didn't have kids, and had only been married three years. In fact, my wife and I had just bought our first house the year before, and I was about to turn 31. Sigh ...

As I recall, we originally got started recording with Christine from The Chubbies sometime in 1998. (I refuse to name the studio, because the owner fucked us on a handshake deal. Hey, live and learn ...) It seems like we sat on this stuff for awhile - probably because we were broke - and when we revisited it in 1999, it was clear it didn't measure up to our ... um ... exacting standards.

While listening back to the basic rhythm tracks, somebody jokingly wondered if we could get another band's drummer (John "Bubba" Bonds) to come re-record the songs right then. After everyone stopped laughing, we seriously began to pursue the possibility. Unbelievably, we tracked him down, and in the middle of a fucking monsoon, Bubba brought his drums over to the studio. After accommodations were made to ensure his comfort (Kram and I made a quick trip to Buster's for a fifth of Jack Daniels), we got down to business. Much of what you hear on Burn Your Cardigan is first or second take, which means that those recordings represent the second or third time he had EVER PLAYED THOSE SONGS. I'm still amazed.

The fact that you can still find Burn Your Cardigan for sale for more than 45 cents is extremely flattering. It was genuinely a team effort, and despite all of its flaws, I'm still proud of it today. I just wanted to take a minute to commemorate one of my old band's few accomplishments in some small way.

The Hazards of Love

I found a used copy of The Decemberists CD from last Spring. There's a story developing throughout the album, which is a curious thing to find these days. It's not really grabbing me yet, but that may just be because it's more demanding than, say, a Ramones album. Fight Through Patiently and see what you think.

Where the Wild Things Are

Anyone else seen this? I found it to be quite excellent. Spike Jonze has gone for a sun-dappled, washed out look that manages to illuminate and make you feel cold at the same time. I felt like it really captures the particular melancholy that is present in childhood. In fact, the movie isn't a children's movie at all- it's a movie about children, an important distinction in helping to decide whether or not your little ones will like it. On the con side, it dragged a bit, but the overall look and ideas made up for it for me.

This One's For Andrew

Ida Maria - New Music - More Music Videos

The song, not the sentiment. From Norway, it's Ida Maria (Børli Sivertsen).

On Turning 40

Good God, I've Been Busy

It's good to know I've been missed, Deighve.

After years and years and years of designing Web sites using table-based layouts (hey, that's how everybody did it back in the day), I have taken the plunge and taught myself to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a much more elegant and efficient way of doing things that separates a page's content from its layout. Why was I a hold-out, you may be asking?

1) Even just a couple of years ago, there were many people in my company still using Netscape 4.x, an ancient browser that was incapable of rendering CSS at all. However, a recent glance at our statistics verified that all my current customers are on board with IE6 (ugh), IE7 or Firefox.

2) I had heard some real horror stories about browser rendering differences with CSS and how the same things that rendered beautifully in one browser looked absolutely shitty in another. Weird indents here and there, odd overlaps where there shouldn't be any, who needs that? The only way around, and this is still true with IE6, is to use various CSS hacks to fool the errant browser into doing the right thing. ("* html" has become my new best friend.)

3) I, like most people, tend to stick with what I know.

I've done this completely on my own, with no prodding from anyone else - or hope of monetary compensation - because it's the right thing to do if I want to be regarded as a serious designer. (The look on my non-techie boss's face was priceless when I tried to explain CSS and its benefits to all concerned.) I've worked through a lot of lunches and even made a trip to work last weekend to figure something out that was making me crazy. (Thanks again, IE6!)

I'm still Johnny Newguy, and I'm relatively certain that my CSS will be a source of secret embarrassment in a few months, but to get a real sense of how powerful this stuff is, check out css Zen Garden and select some of the different designs in the right-hand column. Keep in mind as you do that the content for each page is exactly the same, only the CSS is changing.

Mind-blowing stuff.

Book Blog

Hey fellas, I've started a new blog called 28 Books. I'm basically using it as an online reading diary, but feel free to check it out and leave your witty-ass comments and deep thoughts on the books I post. Bring wine and cheese if you're coming over.

Learned Edumacation

So while you bastards have been having babies and spending time with your families, I've been reading. Because of my shame over my low showing on the 1,001 Books You Should Read List and the realization after studying said list that I have read very few 'modern' novels, I decided to pick up a few and edumacate myself this summer. The results:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day, etc.). An interesting narration that wouldn't be out of place next to P.D. James The Children of Men on your bookshelf. Not an apocalyptic view of the future (present?) but an interesting meditation on the moral aspects of cloning. The plot unfolds in such a way that things are made clear at the author's leisurely pace. The novel is relatively short and is one I thought about for a good bit afterwards.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I was no big fan of Roth's early work, but decided to give him another try. The history geek in me loves this alternate history 'what if' novel that deals with Roosevelt's defeat in the 1940 election by the Nazi admiring isolationist Charles Lindbergh. Roth puts forth an extremely plausible alternate reality of life in America for Jews under a government that actively avoids fighting in WW2 and begins usurping the rights of everyday Americans. Excellent.

American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Another winner, this brilliantly written exploration of one 'perfect' family's American Dream turned nightmare is highly recommended by your learned correspondent. A baby boomer's generational navel gazing has never been rendered quite this movingly, in my humble opinion.

And finally, Saturday by Ian McEwan. This is similar in theme if not tone to the Roth book. Only this baby boomer navel gazer is a little too affluent and has a little too much self-awareness going for him to make it very relatable for me.

All in all, a good summer of reading. Up next, I finally tackle The Watchmen and Don DeLillo's Underworld.

364 Days To Go

To celebrate the one year countdown to release, Zack Snyder has posted some first looks at a few Watchmen. And may I just say Gawd-Dayum! This film may well meet or exceed my expectations.

Lurker, you got an opinion?

See the rest here.

This Perfect World

I may have blogged about this album before, but I've never Felt Thoroughly Plastered about it, so here goes:

Freedy Johnston literally sold his family farm in the midwest to move to the big bad NYC and follow his musical aspirations. After a couple of well-reviewed albums on indie labels, he signed to Elektra, got a modest budget, and made this classic album in 1994. I was working at a record store in Jackson, MS, and a couple of my co-workers hipped me to this album. It pretty much didnt' leave the player for 7 or 8 months.

You'll probably recognize 'Bad Reputation' as it and the title track were used in the movie 'Kingpin' (helping to give that slapstick kitchen-sink comedy its dark undertone). All of the songs play out like little Raymond Carver character studies set to some of the most insanely catchy melodies ever. Check out 'Evie's Tears' and its follow-up 'Evie's Garden' and you'll see what I mean. The story tells so much, but leaves so much for you to imagine. Butch Vig of Nirvana, Garbage, and Young Fresh Fellows fame showed that as a producer he could handle clean emotive pop as well as he handled big rawk. Graham Maby from Joe Jackson's classic lineup plays bass and Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Lounge Lizards, Elvis Costello) turns in his usual clean and quirky guitar stylings.

Johnston's commercial fortunes have waned. I'm not sure what he's up to now. The last album I have is 'Right Between the Promises', a good, if not great, release from a few years ago on another indie label. Still, this album holds up as one of the highlights of the 90s for me.

Who Remembers?

Ah, the series that reminded us that most truck drivers are sexy, scantily-clad women and that anyone in America can own a chimpanzee. What a wonderful role those old '70s shows filled, showing us what the world was really like. No wonder we're all so well-adjusted. Or is that the result of our perfect fathers?

Joe Posts A Secret

Blender's Top 100 Indie Albums

Blender takes a stab at the top 100 Indie albums of all time. I guessed what number one would be before I even looked (and no, its not Murmur, but Murmur is in the top 10). What do you think? And how many of these albums do you have (I have or have had twenty)? And what got left out?

The Band You're 'Supposed' to Like

I guess this is the opposite of 'guilty pleasures'. What bands are you supposed to LOVE, but just don't. I have two major entries: the above pictured Led Zep, and the Who. I like the Who a lot more than Zep, but other than Who's Next and a few singles they give me the blahs.

Zeppelin is a whole other story. I don't know why I can't get into the bombast, the faerie-tales, the awesome musicianship, and the primal howling. But I can't. Sure, there are plenty of Zep songs I like (Going to California, The Ocean, D'yer Mak'r, Fool in the Rain, The Crunge), but the majority of them it wouldn't bother me if I never heard them again. Who or what is to blame for this turn of events? A few possibilities:

1) Rock Radio. Constant heavy rotation of 7 or 8 songs from a rich catalog ruins said songs.

2) Punk Rock. Punk rock taught me that stuff like Zeppelin sucks. This doesn't explain my antipathy to the Who, however.

3) I'm an idiot who doesn't get it, man.

What are your thoughts? Which artists are on your list?