ad hoc.

This move is complete shit. But I love it so. I miss the mid-nineties.

This is also genius. I am kind of mad I didn't write it first.

2 more days to vacay!

My future sister-in-law's wedding shower is next weekend. I really don't understand these things. Wasn't the original purpose for the elderly women and married friends to talk to her about sex? Please. She lives with my brother. I really don't understand these things. I feel like it was explained in that class about life that I apparently missed. Anyway, I hope there is no squealing or anything like that.

THINGS YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT THE PLOT OF THE NEXT HARRY POTTER BOOK JUST BY LOOKING
AT THE COVER ART.

BY MATTHEW A. COHEN
- - - -

Given his prominent placement on the cover, it is unlikely that the first line of the book will be "Harry was surprised and saddened by Dumbledore's sudden death, and he vowed to never think of the old wizard again."

- - - -

Harry is getting older, but he's still not old enough to get bifocals.

- - - -

Harry will learn a powerful new spell that will help him fight off the forces of darkness. Or perhaps somebody just spiked the punch bowl for Hogwart's junior prom.

- - - -

The lady who illustrates the covers ran out of blue paint on The Order of the Phoenix, so she had to switch to green. Will the seventh book be hot pink? I, for one, can't wait to find out.

- - - -

Judging by the way he is wielding his wand, Harry is left-handed. Why did J.K. Rowling leave out this important detail from the first five books? Perhaps Harry has entered a mysterious mirror world. Or maybe that's not the real Harry but a magical doppelgänger. I hope it's a doppelgänger. I'm rather proud of the fact that I can not only define but also spell the word doppelgänger, and, frankly, it doesn't come up a lot in casual conversation. I haven't been able to use it since I read The Brothers Karamazov. See? I've read Dostoyevsky. I told you I was a smart guy.

- - - -

Based on an analysis of the handwriting used to spell out "and the Half-Blood Prince," we can conclusively state that in Book 6 Lucius Malfoy will be killed, Ron and Hermione will begin dating, and Snape will finally get to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.

- - - -

We still can't determine the identity of the half-blood prince, but we can safely assume that this mysterious figure has been supplying Harry with all the fixings for his awesome, glowing bong.

This is all kinds of wrong.

Remember Black Rebel Motorcycle Club? Well, they have a new album coming out soon called Howl and it, well, sounds like poo. It's like a country album or something. There are harminicas involved.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/live/b/black-rebel-motorcycle-club-05/

Somebody (something) is having its first birthday….

Goddam. Can a weekend not go by where I find myself at Target? It's so depressing. Even more depressing is that I get entranced when I am in there and can never just go in for what I need. I really needed a floor lamp for my living/dining area (aka the East Wing) of my apartment becuse all my overhead lights decided to burn out within the last week. So, unless I wanted to live like Laura Ingalls Wilder going to sleep when the sun goes down (minus the banging Almanzo part) I needed some light. Of course, I also pick me up a 7 dollar copy of Little Women. Shit, and it gets me every time. Especially when Beth dies. Fuck.

So, my parents were here this weekend, and we spent a nice afternoon in West Hartford. And then they dropped the bomb: they are selling their house on Long Island and moving to Florida permanently. My Dad tried to play it off that the big news was that my mom was pregnant. Anyway, this is big news that hasn't hit me yet. This means I will no longer have a home base on New York. I'm happy for them, they sold the house for 3 times as much as they bought it for 10 years ago. As soon as I heard the number, I practically jumped up and down and declared them rich. Then they pulled me back down to the adult worls by explaining this little concept called having more than one mortgage to pay off. Whatever.

So, it has really made me jumpstart my thinking about my next steps. I moved to CT because I wanted to be around the northeast, but one of the main reason was to be in driving distance of my parents. Not that I need to jump back into my mother's womb, but so I could have a stress-free time going to visit them. Anyway, with them in the south, a plane ride away, they might as well be across the world (any plane ride to me is going to be hell, so any distance will be the same). Lucky me, I have no family and am not attached to anything in the Northeast (did I mention that was lucky? Uh….) I can really get out and move to a whole new city. I have been quite spoiled being only in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. I don't know what it is like to see a conferderate flag close up or to see more than 5 Bush supporters at once. So to talk the talk, I need to be able to live in other parts of the country to get some persepctive. And change. We are not talking the deep south either. I'd probbly burned at the stake if I moved there. I am looking for quasi-southern cities that are cultural centers, liberal pockets with a good music scene and a somewhat young population. Of course, this all depends on jobs that are available, but that's a minor detail right now. My frontrunners right now are:
Austin, TX
Madison, WI
Ann Arbor, MI
Chapel Hill, NC
What do you guys think? Anyone have any other ideas of cities that would be good fits for me?

My plan is move in summer 2007. I am committed to at least 2 more years at my current job. Unless something awesome comes up. I am very opposed to making a lateral move. There is just so many more years I can do icebreakers with an undergrad RA staff.

The idea of reinventing myself in a new city is very intriguing. Don't ask me what I would reinvent myself as. An archaelogist? A British school marm? Don't know. Whenever I've moved I've made a half-assed attempt to reinvent myself, but it never works. I think the only time I was successful was when I moved from college to DC, I think.

Ew, the shitty thing is now that not only to I have to pack up my mammoth of an apartment here to move to another apartment across campus in August, I also have to help my parents get rid of/sort through my old crap they have at their house. I'm such a pack rat. I have bags of close there that I SWEAR I will one day wear again. Never mind they are all a size 6, and resemble some kind of floral babydoll dress from 1997, I always refuse to throw them out. And like hell my 65 Barbies will go in the trash. Also, I have boxes of books from my tween years. God help whatever son/daughter/niece/nephew/other I have, because as soon as they start reading, I will shove a Babysitter's Club book in their hand, like it or not. I think I am getting half of all the furniture in their house in NY, which is pretty sweet sowhen I finally have to rent my own place again I will have some things to fill it. I may have to arm wrestle my brother for the large tv.

Let's talk about how Radar Magazine is the absolute shit. It is the exact pop culture magazine I have been looking for. Plus, in the recent issue, there is a whiole expose on the WDW College Program aka subversive colonization. I don't really know what that means, but it sounded bad ass.

Among about a thousand other cds I've acquired this week, I discovered a lovely emo-esque band called The Academy Is. Certainly, they are no Velvet Underground, but they do have some catchy, well crafted songs that are a cut above the other shitty emo/punk/Simple Plan crap. Then I check their website for some tour dates and godalmighty, they look like this:

Welcome to every indie/emo cliche known. Fauxhawk? Check. Dirty, shaggy, yet styled for an hour hair? Check? Sullen expressions? Check. Vintage ski jacket? Check. Check Taylors? Check. Grandpa's blazer? Check. Guy with an ironic afro? Check. Band picture taken on a roof? Check. Although that was originally done by none other than the No Andrews Band.

Oh, this is fun. Now that those nasty Jews are out, the right wing is taking back Disney.:
Southern Baptists Return to Disneyland
The removal of Michael Eisner as CEO of the Walt Disney Co., the departure of Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and the decision of the company to release several movies based on Christian-themed books have resulted in a decision by the Southern Baptist Church to end its 8-year boycott of the company. the decision was not without opposition, especially by Southern Baptists who oppose the company's policies toward homosexuals, such as health benefits to the same-sex partners of employees and allowing "gay days" at its theme parks.

Even Rosie O'Donnell is sick of Tom Cruise. p.s. does she write her entire blog in the form of a poem? wtf?

You may be hearing a lot about some band called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Don't believe the hype. They kind of suck. They are like this year's Arcade Fire.

Here's what I am reading now:

Rock Snob's Dictionary
Pop culture: an introductory text
Secimen Days

White Privilege: Essential Readings, my start to contributing to Brandon's project on Uprooting racism. Check it out here:
http://bodhichitta.typepad.com/uprooting_racism/

yea, new format. Deal with it.

I have everything and nothing to say.

The short of it:

Next week I will take my first official vacation from work. On the agenda:
Slumming, reading, and picking up my guitar again.
And some UCB Theater.

One of my favorite artists, Brian Ewing, has some new prints.

Spoon, Q and Not U, Brendan Benson, VHS or Beta, and Mates of State are playing the Siren Festival. I have to figure out how I'm gonna go.

Is that Mad Eye Moody in the background?

Tom Cruise is fucking insane, and I am loving every minute of it.

AFI released its list of top 100 movie quotes. Hmmmph. They seemed to have left some out:
"It's Rex Manning Day!"- Empire Records
"I haven't been fucked like that since grade school." -Fight Club
"If you want to fuck me, you have to love me." - Showgirls
"I'm an idiot. I'm a fucking idiot." -Boogie Nights
"I'm gonna be on television!" - Requiem for a Dream
"ani, something wonderful's happened." - Revenge of the Sith
"I's like to order a pizza, extra anchovies." -Loverboy
"There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone, in fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continuous to allude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing. " - American Psycho
"That's what I'm talking about. Where's the sexy, cool, fun, smart, beautiful Andie that I knew? The one that wanted to be a serious journalist? You're up, you're down, you're here, you're there, you're like a fricken' one woman circus. " -How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days
"How dare you usurp my authority"- Wet Hot American Summer
"I went to camp so long ago fucking Jesus Christ was my counselor" - Wet Hot
and basically every other quote from Wet Hot American Summer.

I watched the Real World Austin after all. It was redonk. I am embarassed to be American. Never again.

It's like a train wreck! I can't look away from… the Rent movie blog.

Tuesday. The big question of the night is: should i watch the Real World Austin tonight? I am getting way to old for this shit. And I am sick of the stupidity and mayhem. I don't want to hear another beefy white frat boy talk about how he's never been around "a gay" and that he doesn't think two men touching is not right. And how he'll meet his first black person and realize "the blacks" are not so bad afterall. Anf the women will get drunk and make out because they know there are cameras on them. Well, on the flipside, it does take place in Austin, TX, my future home, so I should check it out. Although the show will only show the apartment and the restroom of the local Coyote Ugly chain bar. What do you think, Bri?

What. a. douche.

She will be the house outcast. Oh my god! She has weird hair! She wears bright red lipstick! She is over 115 lbs! What a freak!

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I'm about a year late on this, but I finally started reading America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. Also got the new Michael Cunningham.

Finally, an inexpesive and interesting way to decorate: The Rasterbator.

So there is a new, uncut version of American Psycho released today. I wonder what the difference is? An alternative take of "Sabrina, don't stare at it, eat it"?

I'm still very bored. I need a new project.

Good news: I got a copy of Twin Cinema. It's so good I cried.
Good news: Batman Begins was pretty fucking good. My whole world is one hallucinegenic drug sprayed in my face.
Bad news: I wish people would fucking control their children. I want to go up to people and basically tell them to quiet their children or stop them from running into me and stomping on my feet. Would that be rude and innappropriate?

So, I need to make a big announcement: I absolutely adore Keane. The band, I mean. I was a skeptic at first, but Andrew made me realize their amazingness. And now I love them even more after seeing the video for “Everybody’s Changing”. (I’m trying to find a link). And I don’t just like them because they are adorable. Which they are. And British. British and adorable, my favorite combination. I really want to see them in concert, especially because I am pretty sure there would be actual seats at one of their shows.I’d also like to announce that the new Mxpx album sucks ass. I mean, they are pushing 35, why are they still writing songs like they are 16 and singing about being dumped on prom night and such. I’d almost rather have them go back to singing about Jesus shit. (They are a Christian punk band. Yea, I don’t know why I liked them to begin with anyway.)

The New Pornographers’ new album Twin Cinema is out this summer. I MUST have it immediately, and before it is officially released to keep my indie cred. If anyone gets their hands on it, please get it to me immediately, You will be thanked immensely.

As my usual obsessions with mental illness, I’ve been reading on the subject. First up was Bad Girl: Confessions of Teenage Delinquent. I was hoping for a trashy, Valley of the Dolls-esque summer read. What it turned out to be was this narcissistic poor little rich girl who was sent to a high security behavioral modification treatment center. It could have been great except this woman wrote the book as if she was 15. I don’t know if that was part of the affect of the book or if she really is a shitty writer. Next up is Electroboy, a memoir about living with manic depression and living in New Your City. Great, another read about a privileged, rich, white kid. Like I don’t deal with those enough.

So is anyone watching Into the West on TNT? It’s fantab. And by that I mean I cried twice during tonight’s episode alone.

Hmmm, this entry does not really say much really about what is going on with me. I am trying to overcome an immense feeling of boredom. Not the gee, I am staring at the walls with nothing to do at this moment boredom, but more of the I am pretty busy and occupied, yet still bored variety. This is something I need to calculate more before i talk about it through this medium. If I talk about it here at all. I don’t think i want to share my deepest thoughts on the same blog that I post pictures of Harry Potter and half-naked celebrities.

The world is coming to an end. They are remaking Charlotte’s web. WITH JENNIFER FUCKING GARNER!

I just found out that I will be getting a bonus at work. I’ve only ever worked at non-profits, so this is a new concept for me. An amazing concept nonetheless. I’m going to try this new concept called putting it into a savings account, but of course I used a little to help my addiction for material items. Such as:

So here’s what I did…

What’s grosser than gross? Actually owning the Carl’s Jr Paris Hilton bathing suit.

Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels that form the bowels of New York City. This book is about them, the so-called "mole people" living alone and in communities, in the frescoed waiting rooms of long-forgotten subway tunnels and in pick-axed compartments below busway platforms. It is about how and why people move undergraound, who they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the treacherous "topside" world they've left behind. There are even the voices of young children taken down to the tunnels by parents who are determined to keep their families together, although as one tunnel dweller explains, "once you go down there, you can't be a child anymore." Though they maintain an existence hidden from the world aboveground, tunnel dwellers form a large and growing sector of the homeless population. They are a diverse group, and they choose to live underground for many reasonssome rejecting society and its values, others reaffirming those values in what they view as purer terms, and still others seeking shelter from the harsh conditions on the streets. Their enemies include government agencies and homeless organizations as well as wandering crack addicts and marauding gangs. In communities underground, however, many homeless people find not only a place but also an identity. On these pages Jennifer Toth visits underground New York with various straight-talking guides, from outreach workers and transit police to vetern tunnel dwellers, graffiti artists, and even the "mayor" of a large, highly structured community several levels down. In addition to chilling and poignant firsthand accounts of tunnel life, she describes the fascinating and labryrinthine physical world beneath the city and discusses the literary allusions and historical points of view that prejudice our culture against those who "go underground".

I'm not sure if a lot of the stuff is fabricated or not, but otherwise, it is captivating.

What else is taking up my time lately?

For New Yorkers:

NYC Record Store Mondo Kim's Raided by RIAA
Rob Kleckner & Ryan Schreiber report:
The rumors are true: Mondo Kim's, one of New York's best and highest regarded independent music and video stores, was raided by New York police Wednesday at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST for allegedly selling unsanctioned hip-hop DJ mixes featuring bootlegged tracks by RIAA artists.

Employees of Mondo Kim's and fellow NYC record store Other Music, speaking to Pitchfork on conditions of anonymity, confirmed yesterday that five of Mondo Kim's employees were arrested and taken to Manhattan Central Booking, where they spent the night of June 8. When asked why these five employees were singled out for arrest, the Kim's source told us that an undercover agent was allegedly sold a bootleg, and the arrests followed. After the sale, police produced a search warrant, fingered the arrestees, shut down the store for roughly five hours, and confiscated, according to the RIAA, "500 CD-Rs, 27 Music DVDs, Nine DVD burners, and a scanner," among other items, which include the computer containing the store's database and recent sales records.

The five employees who were arrested– all of whom were charged with trademark counterfeiting in the second degree– are Charles Bettis, 29; store manager Theo Frimpong, 39; Diana Kinscherf, 19; Donald Stahl, 26; and music manager Craig Willingham, 32.

"What I'm told actually brought them down," said a source at Other Music, "was that there was a CD DJ mix that a guy from Sony saw in the store, and it had a bunch of big-time Sony hip-hop artists on it. So he alerted the feds, and they showed up and arrested a bunch of clerks– not anyone who does any actual bootlegging."

The big question, of course, is what this means for the future of the mixtape industry– in which most of today's major-label hip-hop artists freely participate– and whether the RIAA will continue to attempt to wage war on it the way it is doing against file-sharing.

As for Mondo Kim's, Other Music dude didn't seem too concerned: "There've been a number of bootlegging busts at New York record stores over the past 10 years. A lot of places around here do live bootlegs and periodically the feds bust these places. It doesn't ever seem to affect the stores long-term, though; they get a fine and they're back in business. The manufacturers are the ones who really get in trouble, but the stores, you'd be amazed how quickly they bounce back, and how quickly they start selling bootlegs again."

And just when I thought I had heard it all:
A mashup of Usher and Requiem for a Dream
(for Mike espesh)

So much to write, so much procrastination. I'm about to leave town again un til Sunday, but I'll leave you with some pressing issues.

Firstly, anyone live in Mount Prospect, Illinois?
http://www.spellbound2005.com/

I need this box set. Toute suite.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-06/07.shtml

Please try not to dry heave while you watch the trailer for Rent, coming out in November.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/a/u/aum141/RentTrailer.mov
Let's just clear something up. Rent is okay, In fact, my freshman year in college was spent with me doing a one woman show of it. Looking back, it is totally cliche and uber-preachy. It also started this era on Broadway, which absolutely sucks. The era in which every musical needed to be a "rock" musical and singers basically scream instead of sing.

I freaking love these t-shirts.

I suddenly hate all my music and have been listening to nothing but At the Drive-In.

Finally, I leave you with this. The gang at the world Quidditch Cup. Look how indie the they are!