From Pleased to Blown Away

Recently, I have been extremely pleased all the way to blown away. But not like this. Here are the things that made me feel this way. But I'm not faking it.

(1) The new Peter Bjorn and John album, called Living Thing. I love it! I just love it.


(2) A memoir called Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander. It's hilarious to me on several different levels. The first level is just the plain humor of the book. It's obvious that it's funny. The second level is how I especially relate to his paranoia of God's wrath and punishment. In my sorta New Age-y way, I've labeled it "karma" (see prior post) but in reality, it's the same Christian God-wrath thing I've dealt with since the first day I went to Sunday school. The third level is that...okay, there are only two hilarious levels. But another aspect of the book that I love is that sometimes the depth of sympathy Auslander feels for his father and family are so intense, short, and emotional that one brief paragraph later, you feel like you're on the verge of tears. The book is also thoroughly entertaining. I also completely relate to his desire to run away from where he comes from...and feeling almost embarassed by feeling so different from the people who raised you. Go buy it! Here, I'll even give you the link.

(3) The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, called It's Blitz. It's fantastic! At first I was a little like, "Huh? Who is this? Where is YYYs?" But the more I listen to it, the more I love it. Do y'all love this woman as much as I do? She is so badass! And half-Korean. Whoot-hoo.

(4) Tiny Masters of Today. The two baddest 13 and 15 year olds to come out of Brooklyn.

This is their song about President Bush.



WTF!! They're 13 and 15! You know what I was doing at that age? Picking my nose and prank calling boys. Definitely not making amazing music with a point!

And here's their video featuring all the members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Mike D from the Beastie Boys.



Here's what David Bowie had to say about them:

“This 2:43 minute slice of detached cool comes across like Suicide crashing a Shaggs rehearsal. How can you resist: "You say yes, I say no. You say stop, I say go. You say up, I say down. You say smile, I say frown. Stickin' it to The Man, stickin' it cos I can, stickin it to The Man, every day." Genius."

Did David Bowie call you a genius when you were 13? 15? Does he know your name now? No? Yeah, that's right. These kids truly blew me away! And apparently they've been doing this since at least 2007.

Reviews of Stuff

Here is a brief recap and/or thoughts on some stuff I've done/seen/been at recently.

(1) The Faint and Ladytron at Webster Hall.

How do guys wiggle around in pants like this:

Maybe we should start with another question, which is, how do they get those pants on in the first place? Have you ever tried to put pants on after you've put on lotion?

(2) Topshop in NYC.

Some good stuff but not really good generally. Sizes run small, which is such a blast when you grab your "regular" size and it doesn't fit. I am also definitely too old to wear some of the stuff there, which is a sad realization that I'm starting to out-old trendy things. Soon I'll be exclusively limited to dinner parties and networking events.

(3) City Center, Hive Dwellers, and Chain & the Gang at the Tribeca Y.

Such a cool show! "So I had dinner with her famah-ly." Highly recommend all three, although I wasn't the biggest fan of the lead singer of Chain & the Gang. Or the mostly mute tamborine-playing girl singer who wore a weird hippie rug thing. It didn't help that for about three of the songs, the lead singer's zipper was down and I couldn't stop laughing about it.

I really like the Tribeca Y. They always have interesting things going on. I went to this thing at the Tribeca Y and although the event itself was sorta weird and not as interesting as they were trying to make it, I am mentioning it because I am in one of those photos. Look closely! And it had an open bar.

(4) The Blue Note 7 at the Birdland.

Read about the event in the New Yorker and didn't hesitate to buy a couple of tickets. And MAN, I don't know squat about jazz but these guys were amazing musicians. I mean, it's gotta take an incredible group to bring out the 70s+ crowd at 11 PM on a Wednesday night, right?!?!

Stealing the Internet

Yeah, that's what I'm resorting to - stealing the internet.

So what's happened since the last update? Well, let's see...

(1) I was told my job was safe...at least right now. Whoo-hoo~!!! At this point, I'll take anything.

(2) We had a party at my house. Here are some photos.

This is Zack and his girlfriend. Zack can't drink anymore so he drinks soda at parties. He is a bucket of fun when he's high on that sugar.

This is Luke, Andrew, and Cecilia. They are all Canadians hiding out in New York City.

This is Rob (?), Aaron, and Maryam. I was so drunk I don't remember taking this photo.

We're obviously sober.

I'm sure George is telling a fascinating story...look at the expression on Andrew's face!

I have many more photos that were taken later in the evening but unfortunately, drunken photography does not equal good photos. In fact, it equals photos of random places around my apartment. Speaking of my apartment, here's the view from my bedroom window! It's one of my favorite things living in New York.


(3) I recently returned from vacation. My friend Cecilia and I went to St. Maarten/St. Martin. The slash indicates that the island is divided into two parts - the south part Dutch, the north part French. The Dutch part is shady, the French part is quaint. I have lots of photos but I'll save it for another post. I mean, I can't give it all up in the beginning, you know? I have to string you along to keep you interested.