9-20-07
Dalai on Ice

9-13-07
An angel gets their wings

8-22-07
Boston wind-down

They take a Polaroid and let you go

Last night I went to see Ladytron at a large venue called Terminal 5. I've been there a couple times before, for Band of Horses and Nick Cave, and always hated it. The setup is very strange, standing-room only, with a large pit on the bottom and three stories ringing the stage. I fear the pit, so I always stand on an upper level, which is kind of like the poor section in old English theater.

There was something unsettling about the darkly silhouetted rockers and their hard-edged synth music being pumped into the writhing audience straight out of Blade Runner (stark pageboys, vinyl corsets, blank eyes, etc.) I can picture Ladytron as the house band for deadly gladiator battles in Tokyo in 2030. I bet the band members are made of binary computer code.

Ladytron epilogue- when I got home, I noticed someone had thoughtfully added a VCR and a bag of poo to our struggling urban flower bed.

7-27-07
Is it really OK Matt?

7-23-07
Cambridge, BETH MULLIN and Griff

ba donk

Though "Cameraphone Closeout" is a wildly popular feature, I'm gonna mix it up a skosh and give you some text.

Is it weird that I loved this book but was indifferent to this one?

I have too many roommates for my ideal August 3-bedroom:

Choice 1- My friends Tom and Joel, married couple from Western Mass. Awesome fellas, though sometimes they may get grumpy, like when New York is different from Greenfield (I actually love Greenfield, but T & J do have a tendency to grouch out.)

Choice 2- Morgan and Sebastian, two friend-of-friends with the whitest names ever (just add Jesse). A good egg recommends them, and apparently Morgan does a great Russian rave chick impression. I'll find out Thursday night.

Threw a very good party this weekend, saw my first firefly. Also the BBQ mini-burgers were effing incredible. No hyperbole whatsoever.

I live in New York but you'd still have to wrestle Taco Bell and Papa John's from my cold dead hands.

I'm trying to decide whether to sue my midtown dentist. This morning I apologized to his tall transgender billing specialist for being so mean on my last visit. I'm still mad as an ocelot though.

I also got angry at the organic grocer today when the guy wouldn't accept my $3.79 bonus card. New York is conducive to rapid intense flare-ups of anger, followed by mandatory doses of soothing balm.

Ah, summer.

7-21-07
Twig and Berries, Somerville (re-posted)

7-15-07
Leaving Cape Cod

7-10-07
A razz

6-30-07
Near Charles River

4-29-07
Across from Palm Springs Motel 6

advent calendar

3-22-07M. Lady and Grayskull, last footage together

Andiamo!

This just in- Coinstar has a "brand watcher" that is scrutinizing my blog. Hi there, want me to be the new Coinstar spokesman? I can speak 8 languages, dance like Usher and I smell delightful. Shoot me an email!

no pop no style

I left you guys with a big cliffhanger, for this I apologize. Saturday night I partied hard, mostly to forget Coinstar.

But after a night of slurping booze and a slow day of watching pretentious rock interviews, I decided it was time for Take 2. I would use coinstar.com's handy store locater and go to the second-closest machine!

This ended up being Western Beef Supermarket in Ridgewood, Queens. It's only 1.5 miles from my house, but New York neighborhoods change a lot in a mile and a half. Instead of walking, I rode my bike. Following is a pictorial essay.



Brooklyn not Burger King. Doy.

Enlarge this one, doesn't it sound grody?

Speaking of grody, it will be a small tragedy when I become desensitized to the large amount of disgusting shit all over New York City streets.

"Flushing and Woodward, but where's Western Beef?" thinks our hero.

Oh.



I disagree with Western Beef's simplistic economics.









Forty dollar lap dance!

No lap dance at all. :(

Epilogue: I dropped my camera taking photos while biking across this bridge. Say a prayer, it is in critical condition.

liquids, perishables

I just wandered deep into Bushwick with a plastic bag full of change, looking for a Coinstar machine supposedly at a local drugstore. It was hot when I started walking, raining heavily by trip's end. The Coinstar wasn't working, I still have my coins. Now the coins are sticky because I bought a bottle of homemade Mavi champagne from a little abuelita on the sidewalk which subsequently spilled everywhere as I walked and talked on my cell phone. I had a sip from the lady's Mavi bottle before I bought my own, I can't tell if there was booze inside. I digress. I really needed that change to buy kitty litter is the problem, now I have a beer-versus-litter dilemma that no man should ever have.

The Mavi only cost $1.50, by the way.

If this doesn't become the summer jam, then I don't know what.

Melt Show

I'm sitting shirtless on my bed, eating salted avocado slices and drinking beer. I just spent 2 hours transplanting the air conditioner and sealing all the doors with insulation tape.

If you haven't heard, we're having a bit of a heat wave in the Northeast. The kind where old people and dogs die. It's early for this kind of sledgehumid but our world is changing, what can you do? (Don't say "stop using hairspray" or "make the cows stop gassing" because that's stupid. We're Americans.)

I am dissatisfied with my wee air conditioner and its asthmatic bursts of wispy coolness. I keep calling it a p*ssy, which is a word I never use in any other context. I'm not really complaining though. At least I have beer and the ability to take my shirt off, which is better than if I was a girl in Utah. Right?

Let's look at how some other New Yorkers are coping with the heat, shall we?

El Toro- Slept on kitchen floor last night after soaking all her clothes in water, will buy air conditioner if any exist in New York. Otherwise, will die.

Princess Hammer- Mentioned she hates summer, reneged statement after installing behemoth freeze station, now lording it over the rest of us suckers.

J.Hynes- Just returned from adventure travel in Israel, says desert was cooler than New York City.

Mert- Slept at girlfriend's un-airconditioned house in Park Slope, now hates girlfriend, may burn special rug.

*marlo*- Came to horrible realization that misshapen Queens window fits no air conditioner, abandoned all clothes and other bourgeois trappings.

The 6 train- Usually sure and steady, now showing signs of wear and unreliability, forced Jesse to wait 12 minutes today!

Our flower patch- This spring, El Toro and I reclaimed a patch of ugly Bushwick earth by planting wildflowers (see right), I'll tell that story another day. For today, just know that the flowers are dying.

Puerto Ricans- Partying like it's their job, best parade ever.

Benetton

Friday night at Water Taxi Beach, surreal Fort Lauderdale meets Queens. This photo has sitcom teaser potential.

24

Before ten o'clock this morning I had already thrown a tantrum, yelling "F*ck this!" in my dentist's office and slamming out the door. By this afternoon I was eating pork bellies and getting foot massages (Sign on door: "No hankypanky!") in Chinatown. This day is odd, I'm going home. Here are some photos from the last 24 hours.

saying some things

Check out jomilkman's new music blog when you get a free moment, it's premium quality stuff.

unfolding a bit at a time

Daphne Bananas Yang is the actual name of a person. They delivered her Spin magazine to our mailbox, I'm gonna bring it to her tonight. (artist's rendering of DBY at left)

The First Family of Cool is in the city this week: aprildawn, her wean and her hubby! I am family friendly.

How old is Dana Carvey today? 53! That means in Wayne's World, he was much older than the mid-twenties wastoid he was pretending to be. Oh that's depressing.

Yesterday I had brunch with an old friend, Sara LaBonte and her easygoing boyf Ben. We went to Denny's in Holyoke, a new find, and all three of us ordered the Heartland Scramble with strawberries on our pancakes.

Highlighted Dialogue-

Sara (just goofing): You can just bring us a big vat of strawberries and we'll dip out of it!
Confused young waitress smiles politely. After she's gone-
Jesse: You know she's actually going to bring us a vat of strawberries, right? She doesn't get your "jokes."
Sara: Now who's being naive?
(epilogue- The waitress totally brought us a vat of strawberries, we dipped.)

Jesse: So who came to your party that I know?
Sara: Wellll let's see...oh, Mira and Hanuman* showed up together!
Jesse: Oooh, are they dating now?
Sara: No Jesse, they're brother and sister.

* two people I knew in high school