the sticking point

The Grid

I did this a while back, thought I'd give it another whirl...

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, but do...
The Sounds, uncomfortable shoes, Staples (and all stationery stores), Grey Goose & Red Bull, "It's Goin' Down" (), Countdown's substitute anchors Alison Stewart and Amy Robach, Major League Baseball's wild card system, kale, HotChicksWithDouchebags, the bus to Barnstable, the whole idea of Corey Feldman

Stuff I'm supposed to like, and do...
Yukio Mishima, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Gore Vidal, Soupman's turkey chili, Flight of the Conchords, Van Halen's next tour, my 3-year-old climbing into our bed at 3AM, Mary-Louise Parker

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, and don't...
Televised talent competitions, Bob Murray, Dora the Explorer, U.S. military stop-loss policy, flip-flops, Perez Hilton, "the surge," evil clowns

Stuff I'm supposed to like, but don't...
Paste magazine, Talking Heads, high-waisted jeans (and the women who wear them), telephone conversations, The Corrections, sports talk radio, punctuation, iPhone, concerts at Roseland Ballroom, Ethan Hawke, selectively bred hybrid dogs, myspace, Big Love

Stuff I like the idea of, but don't really like...
Yoga, picnics, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Colbert Report, Jay-Z, "massage" parlors, You Tube Presidential Debates

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Here's this week's Friday 10. Made from the best stuff I like.

01 Tomorrow Belongs To Us - Discharge: All the early Discharge singles are perfection. I was a big fan of theirs in the early 80s, then forgot all about them for a long time, until last year when I started putting the vinyl on CDR and gathering up the CD comps. It's great stuff. This track is on the "Decontrol" EP and the Why comp.

02 You Got Too Many Boyfriends - The Equals: I'm ashamed to say that until a few months ago, all I knew about the Equals was: Eddy Grant was in the group, and they were responsible for "Police On My Back." Then my pal SO'C shared the Viva Equals! comp with me and set my head right in regard to this great, great band. I am a fan now, only three decades after the Equals stopped recording. Song after song after song, Viva delivers. I can't believe that "You Got Too Many Boyfriends" was a B-side.

03 Stretcher Case Baby - The Damned: Another great B-side ("Sick of Being Sick" is the A). It was on their second album, Music For Pleasure. I got this version from Skip Off School To See The Damned (The Stiff Singles A's & B's) on Demon.

04 Lose My Freedom - Go Home Productions: I've written it before; I am not a fan of mash-ups. I say, if the songs are great to begin with, who needs DJ Wicki Wicki making a novelty song out of them? But I make two exceptions to the rule. I really like what Eric Kleptone did with all the Queen tracks on Night at the Hip Hopera, and I always check out the Go Home Productions site for new material. Mark Vidler (who is GHP, I guess), created this track, which combines Devo's great "Freedom of Choice" with something by Destiny's Child.

05 Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches: I bet you don't know who is the Moldy Peaches' biggest fan. I'll give you one guess. Go ahead. Wrong! It's this dude Matt, with whom I once shared an office. Strange guy. Nice guy. Matt was entirely into his own thing and that was that. But oh, the memories! The room we shared was larger than most offices, and there were lots of us in there, too. Sometimes as many as six people. It was a quote-Writer's Room-unquote. Which meant that the Powers That Be threw us all in there together, hoping we'd "bounce ideas off each other" and all the ridiculous stuff people who don't write think writers do when they sit shoulder to shoulder. Anyway, Matt, for as well as any of the rest of us could get to know him, had three main interests. First, there was (were) the Moldy Peaches. Twice a week he'd ask the room, "Do you guys want to listen to the Moldy Peaches?" And one of us would invariably say, "No, because they suck." (We liked him, but sometimes treated him as if he was Donny from Big Lebowski. Because he sort of was.) The second of his life's loves was yoga. Not regular yoga. Matt was into the Bikram type, where you go and do your moves and poses in a hellish Saharan hotbox while every liquid in your system exudes from your pores. Sweat? Of course. Salts? Sure. Plus possibly blood, butter, baking grease, K-Y, Gravy Master, crotch jam, old eggnog, and other multiphasic compounds, all settling back onto the skin and into the fibers of one's clothing. Like Matt's. I knew this (we all knew it), because he'd abstain from a post-Bikram shower in order to get back to our writer's room. He'd stride in, his body shining, with a towel hung rakishly from his neck and a hot breeze of moldy ass trailing his steps. By late afternoon, our shared workspace smelled like someone had shit out a book on how to throw up.
The third thing that seemed to make Matt happy was eating smelly lunches. Which he indulged in as soon as he got back from yoga.
But anyway, now there's an actual Moldies song I like. It's this one, from the Murderball soundtrack. Cheers, Matt.

06 Sonny's Burning - The Birthday Party: My favorite Birthday Party song. I can say, without fear of hyperbole, that the first six syllables of this track comprise the best opening lyric in the history of music, in this or any other universe. If you read this site regularly, you're familiar with the Birthday Party -- ancestors of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I come back to their music often, and I usually hear things differently each time. I have to guess that bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Dino Jr probably bumped into their share of BP records during their formative years. "Sonny's Burning" is from the Mutiny EP.

07 Hiromi - Squatweiler: If you've never heard this song, I hope it blows you away when you hear it. This is a great, great North Carolina band that deserves a lot more attention. I hope you track down every last morsel they've ever recorded. Maybe you'll start with New Motherstamper, which contains "Hiromi." Motherstamper is the band's third record, but their first after bassist Stacey Matarrese took over the vocals. Throttled the vocals.

08 Give Up The Funk - Parliament: It was just this past Tuesday when Burning Dervish told us "Give Up The Funk" would be his entrance music as he stepped into the batter's box at Yankee Stadium. And here it is on the very next F10.
How cool it was to grow up hearing Parliament, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, and Rufus on the radio all the time. I didn't realize how blessed I was. "Give Up The Funk" aka "Tear the Roof Off The Sucker" is from the classic Mothership Connection record. The Parliament/Funkadelic collective released 19 or 20 albums -- high-quality albums -- between 1970 and 1981. Think about that for a second. You think Ryan Adams is prolific? You think Steven Tyler did a lot of coke? In the 70s, George Clinton could fuel a 747 with a cup of his urine.

09 What Makes You Happy (L) - Liz Phair: I burned this off television program I'd recorded called Sessions at West 54th Street. I've forgotten most of the details about the series, but I copped some good performances from the show onto CDR. I have Phair, Sinéad O'Connor, Ben Folds Five, Beck, and a couple others. I like this song a lot. The version on whitechocolatespaceegg is one of my favorites of hers. It's got the great lines "I feel the sun on my neck / I smell the earth in my skin / I see the sky above me like a full recovery."

10 King's Lead Hat - Eno: The title is an anagram for "Talking Heads." The story that gets passed down through generations of Eno fans and scholars is that he hoped to record it with DByrne and the rest, but it never came to be. Soon after this album, Before and After Science, was released, the Man Himself collaborated with Talking Heads on a few albums. I don't know all of them, but the one TH album I actually like is among them. Getting back to Eno -- the Man Himself -- for a second, I think his reputation as an experimentalist might turn some people away. I'm sure plenty of folks hear "art rock" or "ambient music" and think, "Fuck that! Where are my Stooges records?!" Luckily, TMH's recorded output is as varied as the day is long, the summer is hot, and Dick Cheney is evil. There's plenty in his rewarding canon for everybody; dig in! October is just around the corner, and for me that means lots of Here Come The Warm Jets. His music is good for anytime, but there's something carried on a crisp fall breeze that tells me it's time listen to more Eno. (I have "October music;" I'll explain another time.)

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Tag, you're it. Set your mp3 player, digital jukebox, or Roomba to "shuffle all songs." Hear 10 songs randomly selected for you by the machine. Share them with us in the comments section below.

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Hear it for yourself. CLINK THIS LINK to download this week's Sticking Point Friday 10.

[posted with ecto]

Advanced Placement (November)

A random gathering of stuff I'm digging on lately.








* * *

Prior to this month, everything I knew about Christopher Titus could be summed up thusly: "Comedian... Looks like Bryan Adams had a kid with Nick Nolte... Didn't he have a TV show that I never watched?" But I've seen some of his work recently because I'm working on a Titus-related "thing," and now I'm a fan. (I'd say his material is not what I expected, if only I had preconceived notions.) Heavy backstory, heavy comedy; Titus is more storyteller than joke-slinger.

* * *

Even though the John Locke and people-at-the-beach plotlines were wrongfully, painfully absent from the first few episodes of Lost's new season, I'm still loving it. Separating the cast was inventive, and it is allowing for some nice new permutations of partnerships. I also appreciate the diminished reliance upon Jack to carry the action. (However, what's the story behind this week's "Fall Season Finale"? Don't bullshit me. The show is going on hold for a couple months. Calling this batch of shows a "Fall Season" is just a load of marketing crap.)

* * *

Last Monday, I went alone and was overwhelmed. On Tuesday, SO'C was my valet. On Wednesday, I went with SO'C again, but I had it mastered. I even knew

where to find the plasticware on my way out. The Whole Foods at the Time Warner Center has become my lunchtime "thing" lately. The food is good but costly. And it's always crowded. And it is unnervingly confusing among the aisles and paths and people clusters. And the food is costly, but it's good.

* * *

Months ago, Micken gifted me with a copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I picked it up a few weeks before the Korea trip and was immediately deep in it. I love Bryson's style and how easily he handles the involved, deep science of the subject is as fascinating as the topic itself. But, now... with the new baby home... it seems as though I'll still be ambling through this book for months to come.

* * *

The Huffington Post. The Huffer's been at it for a year and a half, but I've only just discovered this site. (Thanks to a lower third on the Bill Maher show.) It is one of only a very few sites I have to visit every day.

* * *

Between naps and babies and other books, I've been squeezing in reading a tiny book by Mark Polizzotti* on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, so I've been listening to that record a lot. What an amazing piece of work it is. It's always been a favorite of mine, but the Polizzotti book ongs' phrasings, arrangements, backstories, and allusions. H61R might be the greatest album of the rock era.
*Polizzotti, the director of publications at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is a weblogger.

* * *

Just as I was relieved to hear that NBC took Studio 60 off its kill list (because I love the show), Sorkin unfurls S60's two worst episodes. Don't know why they took a storyline out of the studio and to Pahrump, Nevada, but they did -- and the show became a big snore. For my money, you can't do any better than having the Matt Albie character in his office, writing sketches for the show-within-a-show. Maybe it's just my personal preference, because I can relate. If this show doesn't get fun and interesting again, and fast, it will hemorrhage its (already thin) viewership.

* * *

The Seth Rogan / Paul Rudd "Do you know how I know you're gay?" dialogues from 40 Year Old Virgin are all I want to hear these days. (If you close your eyes, you can enjoy them, here.)

* * *

Wire’s “Three-Girl Rhumba”; I'm particularly grooving on it's cool high-hat sound.

* * *

Daniel J. Levitin has written a book that I haven't read and don't own, but articles he's written for various magazines and the book's accompanying website, Your Brain On Music, is endlessly fascinating. Levitin is a producer, audio engineer, musician, and neuroscientist whose work explains what makes music appeal to the human brain. I've seen passages on how musicians violate listeners' expectations regargding pitch, such as in The Beatles' "Something," where the melody plays the same note - the tonic - for the song's first six notes. Says Levitin, when George Harrison comes off the tonic, he hits the least likely note in the scale, the leading note. This turns upside down a listener's usual frame of reference, wherein melodies are composed of different notes. (McCartney holds a single pitch for the first seven notes of "You Never Give Me Your Money," and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba" is well... the ultimate example of this violation of standards.) This stuff is a music geek's (read: Tommy Himself) dream.

* * *

"I've got something for you to hear" my wife said one morning. She started the show Weeds on the DVR, and Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice's version of “Little Boxes” started playing. Within an hour, I'd burned it to disk and put it on the iTunes. Great song, and their version in particular is amazing.

* * *

Like cologne, valentines, or a heart-lung machine, I'm pretty sure the "What Would Henry Rollins Do?" T-shirt is NOT something one buys for oneself, so I’m waiting for a package to surprise me in the mail. In the meantime, I'll just keep looking at that graphic and chuckling.

I'm still waiting.

* * *

Why am I such a sucker to the allure of any website that generates something? Following on the heels of Fake Name Generator, Church Sign Generator, Band Name Generator, Shakespearean Insult Generator and the like, is Cassette Generator, the most useless of them all, and yet… I was at it like Shaq to a lavender suit. (Thanks to pal Tim for sending me the link.)

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Stop, I'm Already Dead from the album We Are Night Sky by Deadboy & the Elephantmen

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

Seoul II Seoul

1945 Hrs. Seoul, Korea

We landed here on Wednesday at around 1610 hrs. It’s been like a wave of eating and sleeping, hard to keep track of the time as it passes. I think we are finally getting caught up on rest, but I’m still feeling disoriented at times. Today, we were standing on a corner waiting to cross the street and I had to look up at the buildings because the moving traffic was making me nauseated. Finally, I just had to cover my eyes for a second. I don’t know what this is about, as I don’t think I’m jet-lagged exactly; that would be more of an effect of going in the other direction, west to east, wouldn’t it?

I’m grooving on the Circle Jerks right now, playing all the tracks I have on my iTunes.

I found a record store on a small street nearby where we are staying. Although I passed it twice, I didn’t see a cash register. Just one guy, unpacking boxes of vinyl. I told S that it’s probably just that guy’s collection and he rented the space to store it and show it off.

We hit a Starbucks this morning, and I had one of those sausage croissants like I enjoyed our last time here. Ecch. Just not the same.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: World Up My Ass from the album Group Sex by Circle Jerks

“Well Whaddya Know?”

...writes Sticking Point pal SO'C, who has settled a few friendly debates by sending me this link to detailed technical instructions for getting thixotropic liquids, such as ketchup, out of a bottle. He was a firm believer in the “Bang the 57 method.” I have always been the guy who'd try and fail using a few different approaches, until finally saying, “Fuck it. I don't need ketchup.”

Today's Friday 10 is “slooow goood”... 

01 Rock - The Kleptones: Everyone who hears it wants me to burn a copy of Night at the Hip Hopera for them. The Kleptones are one guy, Eric Kleptone, I think. I've forgotten nearly everything I once knew about him/them. But there's a website with a link to downloads. Night at the Hip Hopera is a re-imagining of classic Queen music. People call these “mashups,” but since I don't like those, I've decided to call this a “re-imagining.”

02 Gin and Juice - The Gourds: I don't know anything at all about these guys, but this is a hillbilly-style version of the Snoop song. Guilty pleasure, I guess. I used to work at this place where I shared an office with my wife and three co-worker friends. I was the unofficial office DJ, mixmaster of the RealPlayer Jukebox. Mostly, I kept the volume for my ears only, but whenever this (or the James Brown phone interview) came on, I could raise the volume for the rest of the room to hear.

03 Marcus Has The Evil in Him (L) - Rollins Band: It took me awhile to come around, but in the last year or so I've begun to appreciate the Only Way To Know For Sure album. It's pretty hot. And it's all real live. No studio overdubs. So many of the so-called live CDs that we buy these days hit the shelves pitch-corrected and with solos and vocals re-recorded weeks later in the studio. The whole point behind the title of the record is that the only way to know for sure whether a band is any good is to hear them live. The Mother-Superior version of Rollins Band was solid. (The Marcus referred to in the song title is bassist Marcus Blake.)

04 A Better Son/Daughter (L) - Rilo Kiley: This is off a bootleg I have of their Pomona, California show 01.09.04. Rilo Kiley is still my favorite band of the last 10 years. I listen to them every day. “Better Son/Daughter” is my favorite song of theirs; I remember being blown away the very first time I heard it. I once thanked Jenny Lewis for writing it.

05 Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden: Yeah. Back in the 80s, this song and band was a big favorite of the kids who sat in the back of the bus that took us from the White Plains train station to our high school a few miles away. I was not one of those kids and wanted no part of socializing with them. So I hid my appreciation for Maiden, lest the reprobates from the back of the bus might accept me, and withstood their derisive nicknames “Clash” and “Pistol” with great pride. I'm not a fan of Maiden, but I think their songs -- especially this one -- are great fun. I met lead singer Bruce once. Man, did that cat take himself seriously! “Run To The Hills” is, of course, from the Number of the Beast album.

06 Happy Birthday, Mr Burns - The Ramones: I can't tell you which season or episode of the Simpsons this is from, but Brian Last Stop probably could. I found this track online and downloaded it with great haste. Best line: “Hey, up yours, Springfield!”

07 Moral Majority - Dead Kennedys: I wonder if the dispute between Jello Biafra and the other DK members is what's holding up the full-on box set treatment of this band. I don't have to tell you how important the DKs were to the West Coast hardcore scene, if you're at all interested in great music, you already know. Their concerts were phenomenal. They're touring again, with a guy -- some former fan -- named Jeff Penalty singing. I could never go. Without Jello, it's just not the Dead Kennedys. Biafra's still at it. He still runs the great Alternative Tentacles label. Last time I was there, the website had a lot of free downloads. “Moral Majority” is on the great, must-have In God We Trust album.

08 Get Out of the Car - Richard Berry: Richard Berry is the man who wrote “Louie Louie” and was the first to record it. His original intent for the song is way different from what you hear in the Kingsmen version or any of the Calypso or reggae renditions. It's the pure one. It's the real one. I have been listening to Berry for 15 years, and I'm still into all his stuff. The tunes are great and his vocals have this cool lazy badness to them. He always sounded like he'd be the toughest gangsta around... if he could just get off his ass and out of bed. Check it! There are two really cool Richard Berry CDs that aren't hard to find: Get Out of the Car and Have Louie Will Travel. You can find a lot of information on the man here.

09 Plateau - Meat Puppets: From the classic Meat Puppets II record -- every song is a gem, and too few people own it. Cobain and Nirvana did these Phoenix geniuses a load of help when they performed a trio of MP songs on that Unplugged show. (They were the opening act on the In Utero tour.) The Meat Puppets formed in 1980, and were right there in the thick of all that great music that radio programmers and Rolling Stone called “college rock” at the time. Still, they outlasted almost all their peers. This second album came out in 1984, and held its own against some incredible competition for music fans' attention; you know the story -- some of the best albums of the last thirty years were released that year, including the Replacements' Let It Be, the Huskers'  Zen Arcade, Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen, REM's Reckoning, and Black Flag's My War. Personally, I think this Meat Puppets record is the most consistent in the whole pack. “Plateau” is a great song. But there had to be something a little more synthetic (and less legal) than caffeine or beer coursing through Curt Kirkwood's brain when he wrote lines like “Holy ghost and talk show hosts are planted in the sand.” 

10 The Lines You Amend - Sloan: I have a ton of Sloan on my iPod. They've never made a bad record, and I've never seen them put on a bad show. They come to the U.S. (from Nova Scotia) far too seldomly, so when they play around these parts, it becomes a mad dash for devotees like me and Mrs. Sticking Point to secure ourselves some tickets. Seriously, Sloan concerts are phenomenal; they're one of those bands that make me think: Holy shit -- imagine if some poor band had to follow them onstage tonight?!  This song is from the great One Chord To Another CD. Get it today, it is packed with great songs. It's got one of my all-time favorite Sloan songs on it, “Autobiography.” The pressing I have, which is a little harder to find, but well worth scouring eBay or GEMM for, came with a bonus disk of a live, in-studio “concert.” Sort of like the Beach Boys' Party record. On it, they do some get Sloan songs, some covers, and a fucking psychotic medley of Canned Heat's “On The Road Again” and “Transona 5” by Stereolab. I said medley. Believe it!

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Do It Yourself: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on “shuffle all songs,” and tell us the first 10 tracks you hear.

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“It was for fun shit like [the Sticking Point Friday 10] that I had my crew of geniuses invent the iPod! Kudos, Sticking Point!”
--- Steve Jobs

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Hard To Explain” from the album Is This It? by Strokes, The

My Stuff

This is based on an untitled piece by Curt Cloninger in Paste Magazine (Oct./Nov. 2005). I saw it, liked it, thought I'd give it a try.

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, but do... 
“I Will Always Love You,” Martha Stewart's “Apprentice,” The Strokes, Dogma, Jenny McCarthy, Wikipedia, Jimmy Buffet, Primer, Nick Hornby, LCD Soundsystem, “SNL,” the designated hitter, Angelina Jolie, IKEA, gorillamask.net, Conor Oberst, Shattered Glass, “The Office” (USA)

Stuff I'm supposed to like, and do...
Ramones, Murderball, “The Daily Show,” No Direction Home, iTunes, “Anderson Cooper 360,” Rabbit Fur Coat, bulgogi, Neighborhoodies, Crash, ecto, Pat Kiernan

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, and don't...
Gwen Stefani, drunk drivers, MTV, “Genius Of Love,” poker on TV, “American Idol,” reunion tours, “FACK,” hearing someone say “agreeance” (i.e. “we are in agreeance on that”)

Stuff I'm supposed to like, but don't...
Portobello mushrooms, The Killers, The Beatles, Queens Boulevard, football, Talking Heads, Star Wars, “24,” Kanye West, Ray, Trader Joe's, video iPod

Stuff I like the IDEA of, but don't really like...
Catherine Wheel, Myspace, Chuck Klosterman, “Hollaback Girl,” Dane Cook, Mapquest, Howard Stern, “Lost,” New York City's subway system, anime, Devendra Banhart

[posted with ecto] 

On iTunes right now: “Crepuscule With Nellie” from the album At Carnegie Hall by Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane

Solipsist

I found this questionnaire/template on Incarcerated Uterus. Though things like this are phenomenally narcissistic and scary to me, they're also right in my anal-retentive, OCD wheelhouse, so I'll play.

Warning: the following contains graphic examples of solipsism, unmitigated self-absorption, and unchecked ego. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

Ten Years Ago: I was going back and forth to London, writing promos for western movies* airing on Saudi satellite TV. I was in great leg-shape, racing mountain bikes competitively. (Best finish: 9th at a race called the "Jack Rabbit Run" in Connecticut.) I was a contributing writer for a comedian who had his own weekly live show on cable. I don't remember much about 1995, really, except I wasn't very happy and I began listening to Green Day.

* That's not Westerns, the genre, but western, as in movies made by studios in that hemisphere. Stuff like this.

Five Years Ago: I was a newlywed. My wife and I lived in an enormous apartment in Brooklyn: two floors, one-and-a-half baths, two living rooms, huge master bedroom, office, two wet bars, built-in bookshelves, and a private rooftop deck. Our landlord ran and edited a socialist magazine and (true to his politics) charged us MUCH LESS rent than he could have.

It was from that rooftop deck that I watched the horrifying scene on 9/11. I saw people falling or jumping, watched the facade peel off with a sick sound a split second before the first tower collapsed... and that vantage point still frames my nightmares. For days after, we gathered up victims' personal effects (calendar pages, business cards) that had blown across the East River and onto our deck.

(The socialist landlord came to his capitalist senses in 2002, when his accountant/lawyer told him he was bleeding money and informed him how much he could get for our apartment. When the S.L. proposed an 18% rent hike, Mrs. Sticking Point and I bailed. To Boerum Hell.)

One Year Ago: My wife and I were fresh off the home study portion of the adoption process, and were days away from getting even more fingerprints done for INS. We were working on a project together, and though we watched it get scaled back from a million-dollar-live-from-Vegas-event to a puny ENG clip show, I was having a blast collaborating with her again. I was enjoying the old Pussy Ranch weblog. The Sticking Point itself looked like this.

Yesterday: It was my morning to "sleep in," which means my wife got up with H. I scored an extra 45 minutes before they came in and woke me up. I got to work around my usual time. A pal at the office joked that my hair had "extra body." My man Jake made the awesome recommendation that I put some of the 150-300 less-important CDs in my collection into binders. That way I could regain some much-needed space for the good stuff. As it is right now, our ceiling-to-floor CD shelving system is creeping down our 15-foot hallway and into the bedroom. We had no internet connections when I arrived home; the telephone service tech at Time Warner Cable gave me some bad advice, which I followed, even though I knew it was bad advice. Next, our wireless network was entirely lost. After about a half hour of pissing, moaning, and mild panic as I fiddled with all the settings, it returned. It was one of those freakish computer-related things that sometimes fix themselves. (See also: "TV reception, it fixed itself!")

Today: It was my morning to get up with H. After his bottle, he sat next to me on the couch watching Sesame Street. He sat still for almost eight whole minutes! I loved it when he began laughing at something Ernie was doing; H giggled, then looked up at me, as if to say, "Isn't that funny?" I love when he shares stuff like that with me. I came in to work 20 minutes earlier than usual to find that the celebrity-related project failure I'd been sweating overnight was not as bad as I thought. The star is pissed at his publicist and pissed at his movie studio, but may still consider the project I'm working on. For lunch, I ignored recent blood test results (my "bad" cholesterol is a tad high) and had my usual -- double turkey burger on a kaiser roll -- anyway. Then I found this questionnaire on Incarcerated Uterus.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Cashews and/or pistachios. Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream (but only because they no longer make Concession Obsession). Tuna on a kaiser with extra mayo (it IS a snack!). Chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria at work. Pirate's Booty. That was a struggle. I'm really not a "snacker." I've only had two of those items in the past three months.

I Know Most Lyrics By These Five Bands: The Clash, Replacements, Rolling Stones, Rilo Kiley, Luna.

Five Things I Would Do With $1,000,000: Buy a house in Cooperstown, NY. Set up college funds for my son and my nieces and nephew. Open a small music store. Install a batting cage at the house in Cooperstown. Get these. (I never said these were the first five things I'd do.)

Five Locations I Would Run Away To: Biras Creek, Cooperstown, Cape Cod, San Gimignano, Coolangatta.

Five Bad Habits I Have: Just five? Audible gas. Pausing to acknowledge said gas. Short attention span means I often ask, "Wait, could you start over?" Inflexible when it comes to sticking to a plan. Surliness.

Five Things I Really Like Doing: Staying at home. Listening to music. Working out. Reading. Counting things. (Do I sound like a party or what?!)

Five Things I Would Never Wear: denim shorts, any novelty T-shirt, penny loafers, a vest, underwear.

Five TV Shows I Like: The Office (U.S. version), 30 Days, Scrubs, Newsradio, NY1 News All Morning.

Five Movies I Like: Apocalypse Now, Dog Day Afternoon, Yojimbo, Magnolia, The Good Girl.

Five Famous People I Would Like To Meet: (and hopefully, they Google themselves and will make this happen.) Keith Morris, David Cross, Norman Mailer, David Johansen, Chuck D.

Five Biggest (Current) Joys: Waking up with my family, the look on H's face when I enter his nursery in the morning, walking around my amazing neighborhood, H's laugh, playing with H and his new foamy Yankees ball.

Five Favorite Toys: iPod, FutureSonics EM3s, Audacity software, iBook, the foamy Yankees ball I bought H in Cape Cod.

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Listening: "Insight" from Unknown Pleasures, by Joy Division.

My DJ's got the cuts, and the beats are on

CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATE!! (1.21.04)

Get a MetroCard, get directions, and get off your ass Saturday night. (I'll get a babysitter.)

Stereo Mike (formerly "The White Genius") is DJing at Water Street Bar. You should come down. It's a great bar, with good food, in an amazing neighborhood.

Mike told me he was planning to go rock/ new wave/ indie. I requested a particular song by Garbage. He said, "You got it."

Saturday Jan22 @ 9pm

Water Street Bar

66 Water Street (between Dock & Main)

Brooklyn

718/625.9352