Just a short round up today. Sort of a slow one.

1. I went to measure a poster frame today because I couldn’t remember what size poster frame to get for my new Animal Collective poster. The ruler I used? It had all of the Presidents on it… up to Clinton. Tee hee. He’s two presidents away now. Wild!

2. Just got a hold of former musician Ryan Adams’s unreleased record, The Suicide Handbook. It’s actually pretty great. Lots of ‘old’ Ryan Adams voice, which I sort of classify as sounding somewhat more…vulnerable? Either way, it’s good stuff.

3. Rachel Maddow makes me laugh. Her show tackles serious stuff, but she’s funny about it. Yay liberal media!

4. I’m sort of shellshocked that W is gone. Here’s a new classic clip where he declares the very alive Nelson Mandela dead. Those were the days. And by ‘the days’ I mean ‘last week’.

5. I implore you to check out Oklahoma-based Moon Mission Death Squad. Two brothers who put out an album every other year.. and it’s all free to download on their site. Check out Fuck What You Heard. Great stuff. Thanks to Mike Ross for the introduction to these guys.

First things first.

Me, January 2000

Look at that bowl cut! That ‘snowboarding’ jacket was also pretty sweet – despite the fact I never actually snowboarded. I was wearing my trusty grey fleece and Arizona (JCPenny brand) jeans there too. Looking stellar. Don’t those braces just break your heart?

That picture also reminded me of something else: it was taken nine years ago. That’s amazing to me. This year means it’s almost the end of the decade. The year 2000 also also reminds me that I was fourteen that year. What a terrible age. What a terrible haircut. What better way to commemorate it with some of my favorite tracks of the year 2000?

Away we goooo!!!

1. Metallica – Of Wolf And Man – Man oh man, did I love the Black Album. It took me years to realize that it indeed was not Metallica’s masterpiece, in fact, it’s a painfully overproduced record maximized for radio airplay. Regardless in the summer of ’00, this song spoke to me. Need convincing? Look at these lyrics.

I feel a change
Back to a better day
(shape shift)
Hair stands on the back of my neck
(shape shift)
In wildness is the preservation of the world

So seek the wolf in thyself

I was totally was seeking the wolf in thyself. That was a wild summer. Backyard wrestling and all. Powerful shit.

2. The Offspring – Dammit, I Changed Again – If you asked fourteen-year old me where true punk rock came from, I’d probably tell you it was Orange County. These guys played so fast, and with so much EARNESTNESS! So raw. Dexter Holland is hilarious. I want cornrows. I mean, I felt like I was a part of their songs. OMGZZZ.

3. Styx – Renegade

Me, 2009: Hey, fourteen year old me, who is the best guitar player in the world?
Me, 2000: DEFINITELY Tommy Shaw. Haven’t you heard “Renegade”? The intro is THE BOMB! Also, “Too Much Time On My Hands” is like, one of the greatest songs ever.
Me, 2009: You poor, pathetic little boy.

4. Ozzy Osbourne with Primus – N.I.B. – I can tell you with complete sincerity that I actually believed that this version was better than the Sabbath original. No. No. No. No! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

5. Limp Bizkit ft. DMX, Redman and Method Man – Rollin’ (Urban Assault Vehicle) – A tried and true “classic” off of Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, which I bought on the day of it’s release – October 17, 2000. Mike Roeser and I were so excited. I remember freaking out waiting outside of Best Buy for his mom to come and pick us up. All I wanted to do was get home and listen to it.

Best line? Meth’s “When these nuts hang, focus, it’s WU-TANG!” Also, this is a bonus track. I once made a music video using it. No, you may never, ever see it.

without further ado, my best of list. i know i’m leaving out something.

(in chronological order)

1.) driving my car into a ditch on new years day
2.) escaping a brutal chi city winter and vacationing in willemstad, curacao
3.) my three favorite newly discovered websites: creativity-online & arch daily & dime (oh and the arab parrot)
4.) my nextflix fav of the year
5.) podcasting (i promise i haven’t hung up the stream for those of you who don’t care)
6.) this music video directed by wendy morgan
7.) graduating
8.) touring the us of a and some of canada (shouts to hastings street in vancouver!) with these guys
9.) living the entire month of august with the hare krishnas in the east village
10.) moving to brooklyn (btw, there’s some irony in mentioning ‘go hard’ and ‘source code’ in the same sentence)
11.) 3 stacks’ launch of benjamin bixby
12.) attending a game at shea and yankee stadium weeks before both final games
13.) my album of the year: rodriguez’s re-issued album cold fact (listen to “inner city blues“)
14.) voting via absentee ballot for this dude from hyde park
15.) witnessing robert swift play live at msg
16.) ye’s recipe of monk choirs, taiko drums, 808s, faint dolphin noises and of course autotune
17.) summer heights high (ja’mie – “sorry shane”)
18.) ummm…08/09 rookie of the year & eastern conference all-star d rose crossing over andre miller (peep stacey king’s commentary!)
19.) my new gf (in my dreams!)
20.) and as always this guy’s ongoing genius

notables of 08: the app store (especially shazam and the weather channel app) | “window blues” | the rise and fall of muxtape | evr‘s happy medium & authentic shit | filling up for $1.77/gallon over turkey break | lou holtz’s final verdict | oj’s final verdict

p.s. not on the list yet but i’m going to cop these before the end of the year!

looking forward to in 09: cannes, france in january | 12 clips & 12 flips | much, much more

onward & upward!

A lot of the times, I’ll refrain from writing what I feel because I don’t want to come off as too self-righteous and cloying but I really think this is important.

This election. This election. This election. That’s all that’s going through my head right now. I’ve followed elections before, but never in my life have I felt so emotionally vested in one. It’s epic. The stakes are incredible. I feel for the first time in my life I’m experiencing history, not just some insignificant events that are just footnotes in time. That’s kind of how I see the nineties. Not a lot actually really went on seismically, or had the immediacy of what we experience today. Maybe it’s just the changing times. I don’t know.

Barack Obama. I worry about this man. Not in the way that a significant percentage worry about him. I worry for his safety, for the safety of his family, and the incredible weight of history that is on his shoulders. I don’t know if he’ll win, despite what the polls say, but I sure hope he does. I wonder how he manages it all. Has a family. Deals with zealous supporters and annoying reporters. Attends these enormous rallies (some totaling over 100,000 people!) and consistently has done this over and over. Because of him and his campaign people are motivated. They’ve campaigned in ways and using technology to a degree that I personally never thought would be touched by a major political candidate. Blogs. YouTube. Grassroots Campaigning. Social Networking. It’s phenomenal. Most important, it’s made people proud to be Americans. Proud to be invested in the future of their country, and at long last, proud to exercise their right to vote.

That’s not to say McCain supporters don’t have their reasons either. Senator McCain is a fine man, but at this juncture in time, not the right man. I feel he’s been a more than capable senator for the 21 years he’s been in the Senate, but it’s time the country’s politics evolve into a new era. I feel we need to wipe the slate clean. Start over. Try something different for once. That’s not scary. That’s why the United States of America exists today. A group of people took a chance.

This candidate makes me feel compassionate. I care about what happens with him. I don’t know if that’s weird or I’ve been reading political blogs too long, but there’s an absolute sincerity to what he says. He’s a politician yes, but he’s never lost his human element. He’s one of us. He paid college loans. He came up from nothing to be something. It’s remarkable to see this Illinois State Senator show up at the DNC in 2004, and then four years later be it’s nominee. Kids, that doesn’t happen, ever.

Tomorrow’s the biggest day of our young century, no doubt about it. It’s going to set the tone for the next decade and beyond. For myself personally, the election 2004 was hurtful and soul crushing. it was the first election I was eligible to vote in. When the final results rolled in, I was angry and frustrated, felt cheated, and didn’t want to get out of the bed the next morning. I can still remember the helplessness of that morning. I have a fear that on the eve of this 2008 election, I may wake up Wednesday morning an experience that heartbreak again. This time, however, I can rely on a buzz word that’s been played throughout this whole election season, and it’s something I have now that I didn’t have then.

Hope.

1. Welcome to another edition of my brain splatter. How nice of you to join us.

2. Four Weddings and a Funeral is on OnDemand. Never seen it. But I just spotted BEAN! Silly Rowan Atkinson and his funny faces.

3. I’m broke, but still want to go see The Hold Steady either here or here. Does anyone realize how impossible it is to get to Nashville without flying or taking your car? Public transit to such a huge city is virtually nil. Gross.

4. So, I didn’t find this record particularly arresting when I first heard it, but after sitting on it a bit, I too, think that the new Five Thirty Eight is a great website for analysis, brought to you by the dude who created Baseball Prospectus. I’m interested to see how close this guy gets to the actual results – or if he’s even on the ball at all.

7. Mint is the site I’m banking on this site to rescue me.

8. Haha. Bank, get it!?

9. Currently reading a wiki article about Detroit. Worth going to?

10. I tried to listen to the abhorrent Weezer album from this year again, but it just got me too upset to continue. Never again.

11. Remember when the Red Sox weren’t like the Yankees?

12. This is one really nice guy.

1. So I’m lazy. Oh, hello there.

2. MetallicaWatch 2008 continues. Looks like “Cyanide” has been put up on iTunes. The new Metallica stuff is something I like a lot, but it’s weird. The stuff kind of has it’s peaks and valleys, and meanders a little bit, but turns out just to be pretty solid metal.

3. I want to eat this right now. So good.

4. I am completely fascinated by Sarah Palin. Her rise is just the most bizzare thing I’ve ever seen. All the stuff about Troopergate and Bristol Palin’s baby news, this just gets juicer and juicer. We’ll see what happens.

5. It’s September, which means our Flickr page is eligible for new photo postings. (I’m cheap and can’t pay for a ‘paid’ account.) The real question is when I’ll actually get around to doing it.

6. I just started listening to the band “Fucked Up”. Yes, that’s in quotation marks to discern from the phrase “Fucked Up”.. Dammit, did it again.

7. Oh, they’re really good, by the way.

8. Hillaryarious.

9. AWESOME.

10. Peter King is picking New England over Dallas in the Super Bowl this year with the score 30-20. Come on now, really? Pick someone interesting and different. Pats dynasty is on it’s last legs methinks. Or close to it.

11. Anyone know an EXCELLENT sandwich place?