I Would Totally Vote for Them

Spotted on Facebook this week: Some t-shirts that cleverly straddle the intersection of art and politics.

I did order the Sharon Jones one, because the Daptone Records site was having a half-off sale.

The TMBG shirt reminds me of another viable slate of officers:

Speaking of Colbert: I wish that I could watch CBS shows on Hulu, or that the cable company was faster about uploading episodes of The Late Show to their On Demand channel, because I'm not a big fan of watching the little clips that get posted to YouTube. I have this (probably irrational) fear that I'm missing part of the show, or seeing it out of order or something.

Summer Update

So, we've passed the unofficial midpoint of summer 2012: The Fourth of July. I took a few days off of work and went down to my parents' house to hang out in their air conditioning, because it was super-ultra hot and icky outside.

Now that things have cooled off slightly, I've been trying to make myself get outdoors a little bit each week. I've been taking one of those collapsible camp chairs and a library book up to the lake a few days a week after work. It's nice to catch a breeze up there and enjoy looking out over the water. 

As a result, I've been plowing through my reading list. I finished Rolling Thunder and   The Year of the Gadfly yesterday. Thunder is part of the John Ceepak mystery series that I've been reading for a while. Gadfly is something I picked up at random from a display in a CCPL branch I don't usually go to and then turned out to be really good. I'm also working my way through the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books by Laurie R. King. 

What else have I been up to? Oh, I figured out how to sync my iPod & iPad over wifi. Last night I was unreasonably excited to be able to transfer a playlist from the laptop in the bedroom to my iPod without having to go to the living room to dig it out of my tote bag and then rummage around for a cable.

I'm listening to said playlist now -- it was just a "recently added" playlist that included two albums I downloaded via Noisetrade: live sets from Rhett Miller of the Old 97s and Red Wanting Blue, a band that started in Athens about three months after I left town. I'd heard of them, but never really heard them. They sound okay so far — I haven't skipped any songs yet, but I haven't been impressed enough to hit "repeat" on one either. I have a hunch these are the kinds of songs that grow on you as opposed to being immediately catchy and hummable.

Conversely, I can't stop humming after I've been in the car, because I'm listening to Carole King read her autobiography, A Natural Woman. I'm at the point where she's in California, recording Tapestry and hanging out with James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, so as she mentions the different songs she was working on, I start singing them to myself. I need to load them (and the songs she wrote that were recorded by others) onto my iPod so I can listen to better singers than me. Maybe I'll start working on that playlist this weekend.

Wednesday Timewaster: Cover Smart

I could have called this "Miércoles Timewaster" or "Mercredi Timewaster," because one of the handful of things that I remember from my high school Spanish and French classes is the days of the week.*

COVERSMART

Anyhow: I found Cover Smart a week or two ago via the Woot blog because I was reading some other entry about Ken Jennings and a BOC.

I prefer to play the past quizzes because I get the instant gratification of knowing all the answers — as opposed to today's quiz, which I will have to wait until tomorrow to read the correct responses. Although I know some of the groups, I don't remember the album names. For example:

The others... pfft. No clue. Although I have some guesses for a few of them. And I could waste even more time by doing some Google Image searching to figure out the answers. But someone just dropped an incredibly complicated reprint on my desk, so I suppose I will devote my puzzle-solving energy to that instead.

* And the words for colors. And for pieces of clothing. Okay, maybe just the word zapato, which I mostly mumble to myself in the phrase "Donde esta mi otro zapato?!" when I'm rummaging through the pile by the front door at 8:05, searching for the mate to whatever I just put on one of my feet so I can get out the door and only be about a half hour "late" for work. (Laying everything out neatly the night before is for suckers.)

Annoyed Grunt

Damn you, auto-fill . . . and my oversize fingers!

I was sending an e-mail to myself about some songs I want to download* and/or put together on a playlist, and I started typing in my other e-mail address . . . and then the auto-fill options popped up.

Being my usual lazy self, I decided to tap what I thought was the address I wanted and then hit send. Instead, I tapped the address next to my address and hit send.  Cue annoyed grunt . . .

I'm not even positive I know who that person is, or how I know her. I'm hoping it goes directly into her spam folder and she never sees it, because it makes totally no sense to anybody besides me. I don't compare anyone to Hitler, though, so I guess I have that going for me, which is nice.





* I finally got around to watching Outrageous Fortune last night  —after it sat around my apartment in its soon-to-be-vintage** Netflix envelope for at least a month*** — and a Bob Seger song I've managed to never hear before popped up on the soundtrack. It sounds like a Chuck Berry song, actually, which reminds me of another song, so I wanted to get the Seger song and put all three of them in this other playlist I'm building, but I assume that I will promptly forget about this so I wanted to send myself an e-mail about it . . . which I will probably leave in my inbox and never look at again, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I documented my great idea and can access it again at some point in the future.



**My mom made that joke last weekend about a Borders bag she was using to schlep presents to my cousin's birthday party. She told her brother he should keep it, because it may be a collector's item. She's a laugh riot, that woman.



*** I'm keeping the streaming video and one-disc-at-a-time DVD-by-mail plan, although the rates at which I've been watching either lately may call this decision into question. This is partly because I've been gorging on Hulu+, what with all the new fall shows.

I'm dropping some of those, though. I can't get in to New Girl — it's just getting on my nerves. I'm also refusing to watch any more of  2 Broke Girls, even though it is sandwiched between shows that I'm still watching. I didn't think the pilot was all that hi-larious, and after seeing the promos for the second episode, I decided not to bother. I'd rather have more episodes of  . . . well, I forget the name of it, exactly, except that I liked everybody in it: the American Pie guy, the second Becky from Roseanne, chubby sidekick on Reaper, and what'shername from a bunch of shows, including Arrested Development.**** I can't stand anybody in this Broke Girls nonsense. I thought I liked Kat Dennings because I liked Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, but that must have been the material and not her.



**** I'm trying to not let myself get too excited about Arrested Development coming back for a short season and a movie, but I'm totally watching it if and when it happens.

The Breaks

History of Rap Part 2 with Justin Timberlake — Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Between this and discovering how much I heart  BackSpin on Sirius Radio in my! new! car! </Rod Roddy>, I've been having quite the week in hip-hop.

Last night on my way home from Around the Corner, I heard Monie Love's "It's a Shame (My Sister)" ... something I had on cassingle back in the day. (Ok, full disclosure: There's a hundred percent chance that said item is in a shoebox in the hall closet at my apartment right now.)  Apparently I still know all the words to it, too.

Anyhow, I was singing along at a stop light, and when I looked in the rearview mirror at the people in the car behind me, it seemed as though they were singing along to the exact same song. So weird!

Today in Earworms: Friday

Gah. I watched Stephen Colbert perform "Friday" on Jimmy Fallon, uh, several times over the weekend, and now I can't get that damn song out of my head.

Friday, Friday . . .  Partyin', yeah! . . . Partyin', yeah! Cue the Taylor Hicks harmonica solo!

Click the link to get infected.

Stephen Colbert Sings ‘Friday’ with The Roots!

Click it! You know you want to. It's quite the spectacle. Stephen in a tux . . . pyrotechnics . . . the Knicks City Dancers (Whaa?!) Just watch it already.

U Can't Not Hum This

My new desktop wallpaper, while hi-larious, has gifted me with an earworm.

In fact, I want to listen to my entire playlist of late '80s/early '90s hip-hop/rap/R&B/new jack swing, but I think I took it off my iPod yesterday when I synced it. Guh.

I could go to the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon site to watch Bell Biv Devoe perform the only two songs most people know, but it wouldn't be the same.

ETA:

I could also watch this, but it still wouldn't be the same.

Hump This

Ugh, Wednesday. I'm redirecting the hatred I usually have for Mondays to Wednesdays, with Tuesdays a close second.

Wednesday is now the date of an 8 a.m. weekly meeting which I am not invited to attend but which I get to overhear snippets of unless I turn my iPod up to "Operation Just Cause Serenades Noriega" levels. (Kids, ask your parents.) Guh.

Also, and as a direct result of the aforementioned 8 a.m. meeting, Wednesday is now breakfast buffet day in the office kitchen. However, I forgot about that this morning and got my own breakfast. Dang. One of the few perks, and I ruined it!

I decided to get some coffee, but my groggy butterfingersness resulted in dropping my snazzy OU pawprint mug. Pro: It was empty. Con: The handle broke off. Result: I'm super-pissed.

Thankfully, I have a handy backup mug, shown here on a festive snowflake napkin.

Did I mention that it was snowing this morning and I had to wear my winter coat — which I have neglected to take to the dry cleaners at any point in the last six months, so it smells kind of ... odd? No? Well, all of that just ratcheted up my petty-annoyance level to, like, Def Con 2.

Minor bright spot: When I was looking up some details for my twenty-year-old Noreiga joke earlier, I came across a 1996 entry in the National Security Archives' "Document of the Month Club" that contains the playlist of requested songs: starting here and continuing here and here, in case you're inspired to make a mix tape. I totally am.

The Document of the Month club site seems to have only a few entries from the mid-1990s, but the National Security Archives' current site has all kinds of nifty stuff — it's kind of like WikiLeaks, but, you know, vintage. We're quoting from some of the documents about Nixon's trip to China in the revised U.S. history units, but there are electronic briefing books on a variety of topics, at least one of which has a title that makes me laugh: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea?" Other winners, based on titles alone: Nuclear Noh Drama and "Why Is 'Poodle Blanket' Classified?"  Snerk. "Poodle Blanket." Ha! That wacky Kennedy administration!

Speaking of the history units: I need to get cracking on the final check of the last volume if I'm to have any hope of getting it printed before the end of the year.

Confession Time

I finally got around to watching the episode of Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey and Justin Bieber, and I think I'm totally coming down with Bieber fever, you guys. Srsly. I haven't been this ashamed since I liked that one NKOTB song in 1990.

Coolin' at the Playground

You know what song I have not thought about in years? "Iesha." But the Television without Pity recap of Tuesday's American Idol mentioned it, and all of a sudden I had an instant recall of the entire chorus (which, admittedly, is not that complicated, but still: To go from 0 to 60 in seconds after almost twenty years was semi-surprising).


Watch the video if you dare: The fashions! The haircuts! The dancing!  

Parmageddon It

Guess what I'm having for dinner tonight?

(With a PBR, natch, because I'm all about suburban Cleveland stereotypes.) 

Thus, guess what I've been humming to myself all day? 

Pop-Up Video: Def Leppard - Armageddon It

Heaven IS Too Far Away

Ugh. The music round at last night's Pub Quiz was Power Ballads, and now I have Warrant stuck in my head.

Here, I'll share the pain. (If you only want to hear a snippet of "Heaven," fast-forward to about the nine-minute mark.)

What's worse, nobody on the Flying Monkeys knows Power Ballads from Polka, so they pretty much handed the answer sheet to me and said have at it. I could come up with the majority of the titles, but amazingly enough couldn't remember musical juggernauts like Europe, Mr. Big, and White Lion to save my life. There should have been some Bon Jovi or Def Leppard or Van Halen in there, damn it; I knew the Poison, Motley Crue, Skid Row, and Whitesnake songs. Grr!

Anyhow, it was totally frustrating because I'm sure that I heard all of these songs a jillion times during junior high/high school but I got only four points. I think it's high time to institute a half-point option if you can name the song title but not necessarily the artist.

Despite the fact that the Monkeys probably wouldn't have gotten any points in that round without me, I still feel as though I dragged them down to at least fifth place, if not worse. Luckily for them, I have something else to do next Monday night.

Hitting Rock Bottom

Are you a fan of books? 

What about music?

What about music played by people who write books?

If you answered yes, yes, or yes, you probably already know about this best-selling band of authors who will be appearing on Good Morning America at the end of the month.










Since I won't be in NYC next month to check out the next stop on their tour

I'll have to content myself with checking out the blog.

Sounds Like (2 Words)

So, I like that Airborne Toxic Event song "Sometime After Midnight." 

I was listening to it this morning, and it occurred to me that I've heard that melody somewhere before, but I couldn't place where. Needless to say, that drove me nuts all day.

I think it reminds me of the Edie Brickell song from a few summers ago, "Stranger Things," but I'm not entirely sure if that's the song I'm thinking of or if it's something else. I'm going to log on to Lala and listen to them both, even though the Internet connection at work is really slow and streaming music will probably totally kill it.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Jazz Hands Like a Man

Just got back from the Frankie Valli concert, which was pretty great, actually.


The backup singers/dancers were a hoot — check them out in this performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The second from the right was putting a little extra jazz in his hands tonight, although the guy on the far right was the one who got most of the catcalls, courtesy of some super-swively hip thrusts in another routine.



Swearin' to God





Besides that, the band was terrific. I couldn't help thinking of Bob Ross and happy trees when I saw the guitarist pogoing . . .








Am I right?

ETA
Not only does the dude have an awesome sense of personal style — he's kinda funny, too. Check it out: Leaf Blowers Suck... I Mean Blow.

Meme Week: Monday > Icky Thump Whole Lotta Funk

A friend of mine from the high school newspaper staff tagged me with this on Facebook . . . It's one of your standard music-related memes — Put your iPod on shuffle, press "next" for the song title that is the answer to each question. I am still in the percentage of the Internet population that finds those amusing, so I am perpetuating it here. (You're welcome!)



1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Power of My Love

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Ignition (Remix)

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me

4. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Conjunction Junction

5. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Southbound

6. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Sad but Superstitious (Stevie Wonder vs. Metallica)

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
It Don't Matter

8. WHAT IS 2+2?
Moody Blue

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Through the Wire

10. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Beyond the Sea

11. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

12. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
I'm a Midnight Mover

13. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Bump and Grind

14. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty)

15. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Business with My Baby Tonight

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Fighting in a Sack

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Matchbox

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Funny How Time Slips Away


19. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
I Created a Monster

20. WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Satan Is My Motor

21. HOW WILL YOU DIE?
If You Gonna Leave (Just Leave)

22.WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Heart and Soul

23. WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Car Song

24. WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
If I Can't Have You

25. WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
You May Be Right

26. WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Your Heart's in Good Hands

27. DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Time Will Tell

28. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
You Could Have It So Much Better

29. WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)

30. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Icky Thump Whole Lotta Funk (White Stripes vs. Led Zeppelin vs. DJ Zebra)








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Now playing on iTunes: The Evolution Control Committee - Pwn Monkey (Jonathan Coulton vs. ... well, everyone)
via FoxyTunes

I Totally Want This: RIAA T-Shirt

Need I say more?

You can get one here: thesixtyone.spreadshirt.com

Giddiness Ensued

I succumbed to the siren song of the Apple store last night, and blew the bulk of my Christmas money on an iPod Touch. Squee!

The giddiness may in fact have turned to punchiness, since I stayed up until 5 a.m. puttering around iTunes and the app store, tweaking playlists and ratings in my library and deciding which radio station tuner and eBook reader I wanted, etc. and so on. After a brief nap, I managed to make it to the office almost on time. Bonus!

Hmm. I probably could have used it to post this entry, but pecking away at a handheld makes it totally obvious that I'm not doing actual work.

Anyhow, I'm also totally stoked that I can leave my old iPod in the dock of my clock radio pretty much permanently. Double squee!



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Now playing on iTunes: Tina Turner - A Fool In Love
via FoxyTunes

Radio Daze

I'm bored with all of my CDs and it's a pain to set up my iPod for quick trips around town, so lately I've been flipping on the FM and hitting scan. It's kind of fun to play "Name that Tune" and I get to hear little snippets of NPR to balance out my no-television-news policy. (There are two NPR affiliates relatively close to each other on the dial, and the second one is about fifteen seconds behind the first, so I'll actually hear the same snippet twice.)

Besides my standard Cleveland/Akron favorites, which are already programmed into the presets, I've been enjoying some of the college stations in the area. I also noticed that I can pick up some stations to the south, west, and north.

I must have still been in an O Canada! mood from the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother, which I just watched last night, because this morning I stopped the scan on "London's Best Rock," FM 96, where Tucker & Taz were explaining that the online game where you can throw shoes at George W. Bush was not down due to a bandwith issue; they had inadvertently given the wrong URL.

They revealed that it was not "Shock and Awe dot com" but "Sock and Awe dot com," which is not only infinitely funnier but also brings you this:




Heh. On my first time out, I only got five.

I also find it interesting that the site contains a list of the countries that are throwing said shoes. Number one? USA! USA! USA! Number two? France. I sense that a return to "freedom fries" is imminent.





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Now playing on iTunes: Golden Smog - Can't Even Tie Your Own Shoes
via FoxyTunes

Damn Fine Day [Rhino Records]

My latest newsletter from Rhino Records contained a link to the company's newest online venture: Damn Fine Day. It highlights a different song from Rhino's archives, with links to purchase it from Amazon or iTunes. You can check the blog each day, or have a link e-mailed to you.

I haven't found anything really startling and awesome yet, but then again it hasn't been boring me with stuff I already know by heart, either. It's people I know and like (R.E.M. or Don Covay), or people I've heard of but have never heard (Graham Parsons), or people I've never heard of in any way, shape, or form (Montrose) — and that's just in the last week or so.

So, it's worth checking out.


P.S.

I especially enjoy the tag line on their sidebar ad:





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Now playing: Heart - Straight On
via FoxyTunes