Scott, this one's for you

I was browsing some Netflix recommendations tonight and came across this:



It's part three in the series. I didn't even know there was a part 2!

What Are You Reading?

What are you reading right now? I've personally got three books going right now, but I'm always interested in what the Country A-K crowd is reading. I learned about Skipped Parts, Youth in Revolt, and several other of my favorite books from suggestions on this blog.

In case you were wondering, my "in progresses" are The Ten Cent Plague by David Hajdu, New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Of the three, Nick and Norah's is the most fun. It's sort of a high school High Fidelity. I haven't seen the movie, but the book is entertaining. New Moon is what it is. The sequel to Twilight. I'm having some difficulty getting through it, but I'm almost done. I hear its the worst of the four. I got the other two for Christmas, so I have some reading to do. The Ten Cent Plague is a look back on the role the comic books played in American Culture. It is the true story that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is based and is an almost parallel book to Men of Tomorrow.

Up next is The Coffee Trader by Davis Liss and then maybe Heavier than Heaven by Charles Cross. Then I'm open for suggestions.

Still wondering about the release of Black Tooth Grin though. That's been on the Amazon wish list for a while now. ;)

I hope you all had a good holiday.

Everyone left.....Merry Christmas!

Hey guys......so I hope you guys are still checking this....since it seems to be kinda slow these days! Well it's -4 with a windchill of -30 here, sounds warm and lovely......anyone wanna come to Chicago???? :)

Merry Christmas everyone.....I'm sure this blog will pick up after the new year!!! Lots of top 5 lists to come and music, TV, movies to chat about! See ya!

Chinese Democracy?

Who has listened to Chinese Democracy? I gave it another whirl today and I have to say that I actually like it a whole lot. My expectations were about zero to begin with, but I think it is a pretty damn good album.

My hesitation obviously lay with the absence of Slash. Izzy left during the Use Your Illusion days and I'm not sure Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were ever the heart of the band anyway. The only members from back in the day are Dizzy Reed and, of course, Axl Rose. The title track was the first I heard quite a while ago and it did nothing to excite me about the pending release.

But, since I pretty much still hold Appetite and Use Your Illusion I and II in high standing, I felt I owed it to myself to listen to the new offering. My conclusion... Axl is GnR. I've never been a huge fan of Velvet Revolver. They are OK, but just not my thing. But, Axl proved that he is still able to rock on without Slash.

Other stuff in the last year I think is pretty much fantastic... Alkaline Trio's Agony & Irony. Honorable mentions on that CD are Calling All Skeletons, Help, and I Found Away. Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. I won't even begin to pick my favorite song on this album, but I will say that Keep the Car Running and Intervention got me hooked. I like the new Rise Against and was pretty excited to see the Toadies reunite. Plus, Rise Against got Zach Blair and the Toadies got Doni Blair. I guess I won't hope for a Hagfish reunion anytime soon.

The Blog's Not Dead

No!!! I just got here. The Blog can't be dead. However, I do read the blog through an RSS reader, so its harder to see comments than posts.

No responses to the Youth in Revolt post huh? I figured someone would have something to say about that.

As for presents, I'd say this year has been tough. I haven't come up with good ideas for anyone. I think part of the problem is that I haven't seen anyone in forever since I was out of the country for the better part of the year. Also, times are just tough on everyone right now. DIY projects are always a good idea, but they take time. Check out CRAFTzine and Instructables for some neat ideas.

Hiccups are aweful!!! I'm always afraid that they will last forever too. I don't like them to begin with, but anything over a minute is down right annoying. And they always comes at the most inopportune time right?

Who likes Bacon Salt? Anyone here other than me think this is one of the greatest discoveries of the year. Zac, remember when we lived off of 45th street? I think I ate bacon at least once a meal and sometimes in between. Not the most healthy way of living, but I sure did enjoy it.

Did I kill the blog?

where is everyone!?

Good Christmas presents????

Anyone getting their parents, wife, boyfriend, husband, brother, sister - something cool for Christmas? Something you are really excited about? I love shopping for others for the holidays, but i'm a little stumped and having a creative block...So thought I'd ask ya'll.....

Little things that really annoy you...

So i think i have decided that the hiccups are the worst thing ever!!!! I hate them.....sometimes i've had them last only a few minutes, other times for a long time, either way i can't wait for them to stop and fear that they will last forever. (anyone see that girl that had the hicupps for a year???? ugh!) Just sharing.....anyone else have little things like this???

Good Movies?

Anyone seen any good movies lately? These days I don't get out to see much that doesn't have animated characters, but most of those are pretty entertaining. Sadly, I'm looking forward to The Tale of Despereaux.

I'm generally a fan of seeing movies of books I've read because I like to see how close my vision was with what is put on the screen. Almost invariably, the book is better than the movie. There are the rare exceptions.

So I finally got out to see Twilight last night. I read the book a while back and my first impression when I heard about the movie was "How will any actors live up to those descriptions of the vampires?" Easy enough... They played the "god-like appearance" thing down in the movie. I thought they did a pretty good job with the casting. The acting was okay and the transition from book to film was faithful. I thought the girl who played Alice Cullen was absolutely perfect.

I liked that most of the actors and actresses were relatively unknown. I knew Kristen Stewert (Bella) from Into the Wild and Robert Pattinson (Edward) as Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter movies. The only other person I recognized at all was Anna Kendrick (Jessica) from Rocket Science (which is, incidentally, one of my favorite movies of last year. Thank you Netflix for the suggestion).

Has anyone else seen this movie? Especially anyone who read the book? If that doesn't peak your interest, then how about the pending release of Youth in Revolt? I know a few of us read that a while back.

Epic!

Say You...Say Me

Lionel came by one of the stations today

Wow... Clowned before I even got here. Awesome!

This is awesome. I've missed this blog since its demise. Facebook is kinda OK for keeping in touch, but this is much better if you ask me.

Cruiserweight is awesome. They haven't swung up through the northwest, so I haven't seen them yet. Colleen likes to rock out to Balboa though. I like the new album, but I'm still not sure I like it better than Sweet Weaponry.

If only I had big news to report now... The best I got is that I'm moving to Monterey, CA in March. Closer to Josh and still far from everyone else.

We're Gonna Go Down To...

Speaking of Huchton, I saw Cruiserweight a couple of weeks ago. I was never that big of a fan, but that's changed. They totally KILLED. They have a new album that is really pretty great. Huchton, where the hell are you?

Not Much To Report

I traded a few emails with Huchton today so he should be on here soon hopefully.

In other news, I met Doug's man over the weekend. We all went out to eat pizza. Good guy.

Things I saw this weekend....

Saw this - it's so funny.....check it out! It's on Comedy Central a lot....

and not so much funny, but a really good movie is Slumdob Millionaire.....


Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We cooked for friends, it was fun and yummy! I can't believe it's December already, and it snowed today!

We Have Hit A Lull In The Conversation

Hope you all have a good holiday off work. I think I'm gonna watch Attack Of The Clones. I may also listen to Disintegration.

TOP 5

1. "The Ice Storm" by Rick Moody















2. Seeing both Adam and I thanked in here (Wally World by Wally Pleasant)














3. Hearing Chase say to a kid at the park today "Hi, I'm Chase...this is my friend Dad."



4. Longpigs - "On and On"






5. Making fun of these morons (except Deshawn who seems like a decent person in a sea of bitches)....The Real Housewives Of Atlanta.

Top 5 (11/19/08)

1. Black Cab Sessions


2. Ninjas!


3. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

4. Getting ready for the new season of Lost


5. Coverage, my new half-formed Descendents cover band

Now is the Time

This week I found out: one of my friends is separated, another one is getting a divorce, my pay is getting cut, some people I like here were laid off, and (apparently) my hair looks ridiculous. Oh, and Josh lives on the edge of Mordor.

So if anyone has any potentially troubling news to report, give it to me now. I can take it.

And if anyone still talks to Scott, tell him to break the news in the first paragraph, not after a review of Friday Night Lights the TV series, a report on his new tandem unicycle, and his take on the new Fall Out Boy.

This State Blows

So we took these over the weekend. One of the three fires burning now is really pretty close to us.

May I Come In?

A-ha!  Looks like I've successfully logged on.  Thanks for the Google advice, Adam.  

How about a Top 5 Top 5 list?  Meaning, what are the Top 5 lists you would most like to compile?  Actually, never mind.  That's kinda screwy and lame.

Since we're reminiscing about The Shamen, which is better?  "L.S.I." or "Move Any Mountain"?  

I think I have to go with "Move Any Mountain."

The Old Days

Adam called to today to tell me he had an old favorite of our's stuck in his head. This little gem by The Shamen.





That got me thinking about old alternative songs/videos. It also gave me an excuse to post some of my favorites.

I Like Food, Food Tastes Good

One thing that Katie and I have become more aware of this year is eating locally. For a while we've been concerned about what is in our food (pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc.) but we've recently become aware of where food is grown and how much it costs (the cost of travel and the loss of local, independent farmers) to get food to the grocery store.

One of my favorite things we've done is to join a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is basically a group of people who buy into a local farm, or in our case, a group of farms. We commit to a subscription fee and every week we get to go to the farm and pick up a supply of fruits, vegetables, and occasionally dairy products. All of it is grown locally without the use of chemical fertilizers. A lot of it is grown on this one particular farm, but they have also joined with other local farmers to add variety to our pick up.

The season began in May with asparagus, strawberries, and other early harvest vegetables and ended this week with squash, apples, pears, etc. We've had 26 weeks of local, organic produce filling our kitchen and it's awesome. It's basically a surprise each week when we go to the farm and an unexpected benefit is that it is forcing us to cook many things we may never have bought on our own. This year saw the first time that I have ever eaten beets, turnips, parsnips, and a few others that I can't remember.

Here's a picture of this week's pick-up:


From left to right: fresh milled bread, tomatoes, beets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, pears, red apples, green apples, Romanesco broccoli, carrots, turnips, and red cabbage. (the onions and butternut squash are left over from last week)

This is pretty typical of the amount of food we get each week, and we're pretty good about using it all just in time for the next weeks' pick-up. I'm going to miss it for the next few months. I'll miss going to the farm every Wednesday and I'll definitely miss the fresh produce. I'm very excited to be a part of this CSA, though. I'm proud to support local, independent farmers and I love eating healthy foods grown in a responsible, sustainable way. I can't wait for next spring.

Hey strangers!

Hey guys - Top 5 songs your listening to on your ipod lately

right now (changes every moment)

1. High School Never Ends - Bowling for Soup
2. The Killers - Are We Human?
3. Cheer - The Descendents
4. Tomorrow Wendy - (acoustic version) Concrete Blonde
5. American Idiot - Greenday

I need some new free music......send CD's!!!!!!

Did you see this about Prop 8?

Check out his special comment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVUecPhQPqY

Pixies and Law & Order

Did anyone see the most recent Law & Order?

One of the bad guys is "always wearing a pink Pixies shirt" and her email is Surferrosa@gmail.com or something. They then explain how that ties in. The world has come a long way since I got excited about Morrissey being on Saturday Night Live.

The episode is called Rumble for those with tivo.


In other news we just got let back into the building after a two hour anthrax scare. Super.

Top 5 things....

1. Obama's win in Grant Park.....

2. RadioLab

3. Hulu

4. Ghost Hunters video (this is for Adam)

5. Top five lists from friends.....

My Top Five (as of 11/6/08)

1. Descendents


2. Dallas Mavericks basketball


3. Severance Package, by Duane Swierczynski

4. The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac


5. The bad-ass kid in the center of this photo

My Current Top 5

My Current Top 5:

1. Pizza


2. Ralph Nader


3. A Graphic Adaptation of the Constitution


4. Faunts


5. Karmella


p.s. I've been blogging over here lateley, Talking Sweet About Nothing

My New Top 5

1. No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2. Editors-"The Weight of The World"



3. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

4. The new Smiths cd set













5. "We Both Go Down Together (acoustic)"-The Decemberists

Where's Doug??? C'mon

Doug - we need you to join the blog!

The Original Incarnation of This Blog, Summed Up

1. Random Top 5 Post
2. Random Top 5 Post
3. Random Top 5 Post
4. Long Post By Scott Talking About Varsity Blues, Pop Punk, and -- oh yeah -- His Engagement
5. Random Top 5 Post
6. Random Top 5 Post
7. Random Top 5 Post
8. Adam Goes Somewhere Scary
9. Random Top 5 Post
10. Random Top 5 Post
11. Long Post by Scott Talking About Empire Records, Pop Punk, and -- oh yeah -- His Wife is Pregnant
12. Random Top 5 Post

And so on.

Back To Business....

Yay! I think we mainly used this for things like top 5 lists....so everyone start thinking of lists!

I have to look around here and figure out what changes they have made and what we can do now...it's better than it was back in the day. Is all of this public, on the internet?

For those not on Facebook, here is a picture....I donated my hair this weekend...chopped off 14 inches.....it was really long...to my waist!

Awesome!

I wonder what happened to the archives. I'd love to go back and read some of those. I bet there's some ridiculous stuff there.

Chase Video

There is a farmer's market every week a few towns over. She always wants to go and ride the same pony...Spirit.

So...Here We Are

So we are starting this up again.

Josh