Fractionals

I'm in a spectacularly pissy mood tonight. I've also been listening to Aphex Twin's great ...I Care Because You Do LP a lot recently, but those two things have nothing to do with each other.

Actually, I've been listening to it a lot because more and more of the techno albums I've gotten from Stylus as promos have seemed like sad shadows of it. Many of the ingredients are the same, but it seems like Richard D. James just puts them together better. Is it because I've owned it for so long (bought itin high school)? I only started appreciating it recently, so maybe this sort of music takes longer to gestate before I love it.

In any case, got home and sealed myself in my room; lots of stuff to get done still tonight, and K. and I are having a wee spat. Nothing big or particularly enduring, believe me (we're a couple; we argue occasionally), but I don't really want to talk to people right now.

And all the way home, an Aphex Twin song was stuck in my head. Do you have any idea how weird that is? It wasn't one of the ones I instantly recognize from this album, not 'Come On You Slags!' or 'Ventolin' or even 'Next Heap With' or 'Icct Hedral'.

Careful playlist perusal once I sat down to get some work done revealed it was instead 'The Waxen Pith'. Fairly standard in construction; alternately blobby and crisply staticky beats, a Nyman-esque string melody haunting the next room over, and those lovely keyboards Aphex has always been so good at.

I think it's those airless strings that may have gotten caught in my head. Lovely, but such a small melody repeated endlessly comes off as tense, and their distance back in the mix doesn't help things.

I put on the album and instantly I feel... not better per se, but as if this is the music to perfectly match my mood right now. Tension, aggression, and melancholy.

Still, at least my papers are done, eh?

-----

Stylus now has a blog for our movie stuff; one of the first posts links to this excellent, in-depth commentary on Mystic River. Severe spoiler warning, though.

And made a nation: Behold the Commonwealth of Scientia Intuitiva. The name comes from Spinoza, as does my motto, and my currency, the ousia.

I adopted a cute lil' ninja fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

The first wave of international lawsuits were launched against 247 alleged illegal downloaders in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada this morning.

You've got to be kidding me. This time it's not the RIAA (bunch of cocks) it's something called the IFPI - "representing the recording industry worldwide". Great. While I'm not claiming downloading music to be anything less than illegal by the letter of the law, do they really think this solves the problem?

Still writing my paper. Started around 12:30 this morning. Almost done. Am I an idiot or what? Still, another review up at Stylus today.

A review of mine is our album of the week, which is a nice surprise.

But there's a journal entry up, nonetheless.

Arguably, though, this is an even better essay by Lethem on superheroes.

It's weird that Jer just linked to this; I got The Fortress Of Solitude for christmas this year, and I just started reading it last night.

This sounds like a damn good idea.

It's the third anniversary of Samuel Pepys successfully living through surgery for a kidney stone. Given surgical conditions at the time: Lucky bastard.

You know, even Bush should have known he was making a mistake.

You know, I normally quite like Brent DiCrescenzo, but I have to wonder if he was listening to the same record I was.

New review up from yours truly.

I miss old school zombies.

This is worth it for the punchline at the end alone.

10:34 pm.

Jim Putnam has such a sweet voice. The ex-Medicine guitarist isn't mentioned at all in their bio, which most Medicine fans I'm sure don't notice or care about. But I'm not a Medicine fan - I've never heard their stuff, and what I've read of them doesn't make me want to. No, I'm a Radar Brothers fan. There's no real website for them online, just the same potted record label biography. The AMG does a pretty good job, although they keep calling them "Radar Bros." and the copy of And The Surrounding Mountains I grabbed in NYC has the full "Brothers".

Back to Putnam. He has a high, fragile voice of great beauty, and he writes desert-baked songs of incomparable menace. In both of their albums that I've heard, the one I own now and the on-order The Singing Hatchet, he's telling a story. Well, not quite that literally. There are characters, yes, and events, but they are obliquely tagged, never named and explained. And in each case, something horrible has happened.

Putnam is smart enough to leave the details to your imagination, but death and injury and colonization and ostracism and family weirdness lay thick over And The Surrounding Mountains like heat haze. Radar Brothers' Low-meets-Pink-Floyd sound, rich with slow motion guitars and warm analogue keyboards, has some of the least dynamic variation from song to song of any band I've ever loved, but the effect isn't boredom; it's to lure you deeper into Putnam's spell, entrancing you into the story he hints at.

I'm pretty sure And The Surrounding Mountains takes place in a weird, timeless void; 'Still Evil' mentions that "I'll motor over there/the car will be dirty and hot", and a few other songs mention similar recent developments, there's a feeling of wilderness and pioneer spirit to the characters here that's just not true of The Singing Hatchet and its gas stations. I am, of course, speculating wildly about what Putnam and the Brothers are up to; but he's silent, except for these records, and although I can't tell you what's going on here, I can feel it.

'Still Evil', with its backwards intro, might be the most purely terrifying song I've heard in a while. I can't tell you much about what happens in the wilderness on And The Surrounding Mountains, but I can tell you that there are sides. And one, or both, of those sides are monstrous, or else there is a third side. Not literally monstrous, of course, but Putnam seems likely to subscribe to the theory that the worst monsters are human.

'Still Evil' could be sung from any side. After the slow, plucked opening refrain backed by a cello, Putnam softly intones the verses before coming to the refrain:

"For you are still evil
In my sword you'll be caught"

On the one hand, as I said, there is clearly evil in the world the Radar Brothers limn so expertly. So this song could be the sound of one person's resolve, doomed (in context of the album), to ferret out and destroy the infection.

But The Singing Hatchet is redolent of intolerant small frontier towns, running strangers out of the district. And And The Surrounding Mountains is heavy with the scent of inflexible missionaries, well-meaning but savage colonists, residence schools, the clash of cultures red in tooth and claw.

So the interpretation I have of 'Still Evil', no matter how hard I try is even more terrifying that the portrait of a good person's futile stand against evil. It's of a fanatic, hanging their conception of 'evil' from the highest tree. I can neither adequately explain nor justify the images songs sometimes give me, but when Putnam sings those lines with quiet fervor and a Beatlesque plucked guitar echoes him, I see a rider, blank-faced in his conviction, thundering in slow motion towards the camera. There is a sword in one hand - not upraised to slash, but held out, blade parallel to the horizon. There is another figure, the details not important, running away, even in slow motion their desperation apparant. The mounted figure continues to accelerate and in his sword we'll be caught, guilty or innocent.

-----

Hey, I wrote this week's WES last night, and posted it in the journal, but forgot to put it here. I'll remedy that momentarily.

George Michael has mixed feelings about a Wham! musical.

Well, guess we don't have to do a review of the new Streets album, Carlin's already given it a damn thorough going-over. I really want to hear it now, though.

The Onion just lost a potential headline.

No disrespect for the actors involved, but this is just not going to end well.

K. has her own take on the NYC trip, in case any of you were dying of curiosity.

And yes, I know she's using her full name on her site, but I'm so used to referring to her as "K." I've grown to like it. So there.

Nice interview with Ryan Adams up at Pitchfork. Went much better than it could have.

New, massive, took-an-hour-to-write entry finally up at the journal. Enjoy.

We've really hit a roll on these feature articles at Stylus, in my opinion. And check out this while you're at it, probably the oddest review we've put out recently, but actually good.

I like Doctor Who - I like Christopher Eccleston. The two together? Fucking great.

NYC was great. Update tomorrow.

Fuck Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks, David Frum, et al. The Spanish were right.

But you can on the internet.

[editor's note: This was posted on my journal at 1:47 am this morning, but I forgot to put it here too.]

So, as you may have gathered, I've been running around like the proverbial chicken with no head getting everything in line for the trip to NYC tomorrow (technically). For example, I'm doing this late Tuesday night instead of sometime later today because I don't think I'll have time later.

As I was frantically rushing around the office and so on today trying to get things done (mostly successfully, I should add), only one song was stuck in my head: The magnificently frenetic 'Too Late', by Wire.

The official lyrics (or at least, the ones on The Wire Page) go as follows:

"Oh you should miss her, she says she's my sister
She's never hard to find
She's tender-trusting, she's everlasting
Can I change my mind?

Is it too late to change my mind?

Mirror, mirror, icy sister
Love is never blind
She's slowly turning, mouth gently burning
Can I change my mind?

She pisses icy water on poetic mornings
Got to be cruel to be kind
Is this real life, is it for life?
Can I change my mind?"

The song is a relatively typical Wire song of the period (Chairs Missing); it doesn't pogo so much as spasm, it's very definitively post-punk (just like Sam says) in that if Wire were dumber it would just be another punk song, albeit with slightly more interesting lyrics.

But Wire are smarter than that. So not only is the part listed above my very definition of nervous tension, relying mostly on a guitar part that skips from note to note like it's trying to make up its mind, but there's the bit after the lyrics above:

Colin Newman sings "Is it too late to change my mind?" again, and again, and again, and again, and then just starts singing "Too late! Too late! Too late! Too late! Too late!" and then he's just stuttering "t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t" and then the guitar breaks in louder than ever, playing that queasy, seasick riff over and over again, the song reaching the very peack of indecision.

To say it didn't improve my feelings of mild panic as I rushed around today would be an understatement, but that just points to how great a song it is.

-----

"Here’s a film that could have knocked “Gigli” off the worst-flicks lists: Michael Jackson wanted to star in a movie about a man who turns into a car that’s driven around by a little boy."

It was going to be called "Hot Rod". You can't make this stuff up.

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

And here I thought I picked all uncool answers ('cuz they were true). But I'm...


super-cool local band. 34-39 scene points. your
band is the talk of the scene, you are the
rock.


how many scene points do you have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Go here: Looks like Rove was, indeed, the plame leaker. The FBI apparantly knows this. And what's being done?

But it's a quick one; stolen from Nat. If there's not an X next to it, I've done it.

(_) I’VE NEVER BEEN DRUNK
(_) I’VE NEVER SMOKED POT
(_) I’VE NEVER KISSED A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
(_) I’VE NEVER KISSED A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
(X) I’VE NEVER CRASHED A FRIEND’S CAR
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN TO JAPAN
(_) I’VE NEVER RIDDEN IN A TAXI
(X) I’VE NEVER HAD ANAL SEX
(_) I’VE NEVER BEEN IN LOVE
(_) I’VE NEVER HAD SEX
(_) I’VE NEVER HAD SEX IN PUBLIC
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN DUMPED
(_) I’VE NEVER SHOPLIFTED
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN FIRED
(_) I’VE NEVER BEEN IN A FIST FIGHT
(X) I’VE NEVER HAD A THREESOME
(_) I’VE NEVER SNUCK OUT OF MY PARENTS' HOUSE
(_) I’VE NEVER BEEN TIED UP (SEXUALLY)
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN CAUGHT MASTURBATING
(_) I'VE NEVER PISSED ON MYSELF
(X) I’VE NEVER HAD SEX WITH A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
(_) I’VE NEVER HAD SEX WITH A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN ARRESTED
(X) I’VE NEVER MADE OUT WITH A STRANGER
(_) I’VE NEVER STOLEN ANYTHING FROM MY JOB
(X) I’VE NEVER CELEBRATED NEW YEARS IN TIMES SQUARE
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN ON A BLIND DATE
(_) I’VE NEVER LIED TO A FRIEND
(_) I’VE NEVER HAD A CRUSH ON A TEACHER
(X) I’VE NEVER CELEBRATED MARDI-GRAS IN NEW ORLEANS
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN TO EUROPE
(_) I’VE NEVER SKIPPED SCHOOL
(_) I’VE NEVER SLEPT WITH A CO-WORKER
(_) I’VE NEVER BEEN FISTED AND/OR HAVE NEVER FISTED ANYONE
(_) I’VE NEVER THROWN UP IN A BAR
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN TO A PRO FOOTBALL GAME
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN PAID FOR SEX
(X) I’VE NEVER PAID FOR SEX
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN TO A BATH HOUSE
(X) I’VE NEVER BEEN ON A HUNTING TRIP
(X) I’VE NEVER PERFORMED AN UNASSISTED BACKFLIP

Today Aaron was asking me why I wanted to see this film after we stumbled upon a trailer (not that he doesn't, he wasjust curious). Well, go here, scroll down three entries to the one with "Dogville" in the title, and read. And tell me you're not intrigued. Severe, severe spoiler warning, though.

"Turnout for the elections, for many a personal show of faith in democracy and their right to vote, was 77.2%, around 9% higher than in 2000."

And I'm not exactly crying my eyes out over the fact that they elected a Socialist government committed to pulling out of Iraq unless the US lets the UN take over, either.

MTV gets greedy, might lose access to 20 percent of new releases. I hope Sanctuary joins in.

Journal entry has been up for a while. I've been listening to a bunch of old MP3s, and you know what? This is absolutely, 100% right. I think I'd better stop living off of my memories of the albums from when Ben and I were living in the same house and buy my own goddamned copies of their entire discography.

I've been enjoying Questionable Content for a while now, but today he mentions The Wrens (scroll down to the bottom). Awesome.

Go here, and then this will make sense:

Economic Left/Right: -8.00 (left)
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.77 (libertarian)

I wanted to wait until all five parts were up, but now I can link to it: this is the most fun Stylus article I've read in a while.

I forgot to link to my review that was up yesterday, and then today we have another one and my Playing God article on Teenage Fanclub.

It's good that Aaron's looking to Lex Luthor for inspiration, but not the wussy Smallville guy. You need to read Grant Morrison's run on JLA, and you also need to check this out. The last comment on page two alone makes my day better.

I've seen the footage of Todd Bertuzzi ambushing Steve Moore; Moore was clearly unconscious after the first punch and it's completely repellant that Bertuzzi still felt the need to power him into the ice hard enough to fracture his neck. If the disciplinary hearing doesn't end with Bertuzzi banned from the game for life, I hope criminal charges are pressed, and maybe even if he is banned they should be.

You Should Wear Boxers! Boxers are a good choice for you. They are always funny, and they keep your genitalia hidden from view. Find out which No Pants Day outfit YOU should wear! No Pants Day is May 7th, 2004. To find out more about No Pants Day, visit www.NoPantsDay.com

Today's comedy goldmine is worth it for this page and the Sleater-Kinney album alone.

(Edit: further on, they have a Spiritualized parody! Awesome!)

(Edit edit: And on the last page, they have an Andrew WK album called "Let's Not Party For A While"! With tracklisting! Even more awesome!)

This would bug me in any case, but the fact that K. is planning to go to law school doesn't make me feel better about it.

FOR US ALL.

(You might have to scroll down to find it, though)

For some reason I've had 'Joe The Lion' on repeat in my head today. Not that I'm complaining.

In this case, of Nellie McKay.

In regards to this, as soon as you're asking us to update because you're actually worried something bad may have happened to us, I'll stop making fun of you.

Until then, though, I'm not.

The go check out Goya vs. Swanwick. Very entertaining.

Well, I have just one thing to say: Jacklin is a whiny bitch.

New journal entry up.

1: None of this was really all that shocking, although maybe that's because this Brian guy and I were the two to point it out already.

2: Aaron really needs to make some molotovs some time - I'd love to see what they look like.

3: My own personal credo for villainy is simple: WWDDD, or What Would Doctor Doom Do?

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

You are: R'AS AL GHUL!


Which Batman Villain Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's almost bizarre how popular Vladimir Putin is.

It rained this morning, but today was beautiful. So I scrapped my plans to do something productive this afternoon, put The Dramatic Balanced By into my Minidisc player and went for a walk. Overcast and windy but slightly warm. Gorgeous.

Y'know, something that's been bugging me for a while just coalesced. Bush keeps going on about how "activist judges" are the ones allowing gay marriage. Basically his argument here is that these "activist judges" are doing this against the will of most Americans.

As if that mattered! I don't care if 80% of Americans were homophobic, that doesn't suddenly make it alright to deny them their rights. What Bush is doing is very, very directly a parallel of a political leader in the South during or before the Civil War continuing the allow slavery simply because it's popular: that doesn't make it right.

Not that I suddenly decided that I didn't care what homophobes think re: gay rights (I never have), but since Bush has never explicitly stated that he's relying on the fact that the majority of his constituents (which does not equal all constituents, remember) are homophobic this was the first time it struck me in full force. Which is a really low thing to use as a defence.

[thanks to Dan for pointing out that my rage made me illegible in the last post - should make more sense now]

Is anyone really shocked that the families of 9/11 victims are offended Bush is using them to try to win an election?

Oh, well, that's a relief.

Our new rating system at Stylus hasn't been fully explained to the readers yet, but rest assured that my 7 for this album still means I love it.

Try the new Nietzschean diet today!

I remember thinking, "jeeze, this is awfully negative" while reading this review. And lo and behold, it's the one, the only, Chris Ott!

Still, it was pretty fair... let's see if he ever gets the hatchet out again, eh?

You're a Post-Punk. You know 70s punk was cool, but
it was mostly just a stepping stone for the
greater intellectualism of what would come
after. The 80s were amazing. You quite possibly
have huge hair, and may wear lots of black.
Snare drums need reverb. Lots and lots of
reverb.


You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm deeply sceptical of this, and will be until it's properly duplicated, etc, etc, but man! What a cool idea! Fusion by sound!

"and you, you can be mean, and i, i'll drink all the time"

quiz created by neondisease

Which David Bowie single are you?


you wish you could swim, like dolphins can swim. you're "Heroes".
in an attempt to cleanse yourself, you isolate yourself away with iggy pop in berlin, and along with tony visconti, brian eno, and friends produce a few of your finest works to date. you're a song of desperation, that has grown in time into a work of inspiration and strength.

Oh, look, they've designed a "car for women".

I don't care if females designed it, the fact that you can't open the hood because apparantly the only time females open it normally is to replace the windshield wiper fluid is deeply insulting.

2:11 pm.

So today I finally found an affordable copy of Superchunk's Incidental Music 1991-95, which despite the title is an excellent, essential collection of singles, b-sides, compilation appearances, etc, etc. The only other Superchunk I own is Indoor Living, which is an album that apparantly only I think is sheer genius.

Incidental Music 1991-95 was the first thing I ever heard by Superchunk; I was working at the call centre at the time, and a coworker of mine by the name of Meghla (you pronounce the g) and I had been exchanging CDs (the traditional form of greeting for music geeks). I got the Smiths, Neil Finn's first album (which I bought from her for $5, and she near-immediately regretted it) and some old Sunny Day Real Estate, and I can't remember what I lent her. I remember she taped most of it, though.

The other thing she lent me was, of course, Incidental Music 1991-95, which I almost didn't listen to because I knew of Superchunk and 19 seemed like a few too many tracks of indie garage rock to put up with at one time. I immediately found out I was wrong once I popped it in, though; there are so many highlights here, their cover of the Magnetic Fields' '100,000 Fireflies', 'Ribbon', 'Baxter', 'Cadmium', 'Home At Dawn', etc, etc. And, of course, 'On The Mouth'.

The reason I loved the CD, and the reason I love Indoor Living, is because singer/songwriter/guitarist Mac McCaughan is one of the great romantics of rock and roll. I'm not going to attempt to justify that claim, and if all you've heard by the Chunk is 'Slack Motherfucker' you're likely to disagree. But go listen to the later stuff, or (from what I hear) his Portastatic side project, and see if you still feel that way.

'On The Mouth' is not further evidence for my claim, though (for one of those, go listen to the acoustic version of 'Throwing Things', it's gorgeous); it's another unrequited love song sung from the point of view of an immature (teenage?) male; it's, of course, about being unappreciated etc etc. Songs like that can get tiresome quickly, but luckily the band also has the chops to make the chorus joyous rather than resentful. When McCaughan sings,

I've never even been to your new house
But I bet I know exactly what it's like
And when we're both asleep I kiss you on the mouth
And later on your couch I spend the night

It doesn't sound creepy as you might expect - you kind of find yourself sympathizing with the guy. More important, you find yourself singing along. And really, what we want from our rock is not necessarily sympathetic protagonists, it's that lift the music gives you. 'On The Mouth' is more than sufficient for that.

So, anyway, today I went to the university bookstore to pick up my last textbook for the semester, before they get sent back. As I walk in, I see the carousel that holds their used CDs. I stopped looking through them in third year, as it always took me too long and I bought too many CDs from them. But this time I'd just been paid and so figured as long as I really didn't buy any CDs I didn't need to buy, it'd be okay.

And lo and behold, Incidental Music 1991-95 was sitting right there. I combed the rest of the rack, but nothing else I needed showed up, so I only bought one CD. One I've been looking for for about three years but have only seen in record stores, new, for close to $30. I paid $10.99 plus tax.

-----

To distract you from my shitty post: a music survey!

1. Your favourite song with the name of a city in the title or text.
'Hamburg' by Readymade. Should surprise approximately no-one.

2. A song you've listened to repeatedly when you were depressed at some point in your life.
'Broken Heart' by Spiritualized. Maudlin and obvious, but isn't that the point?

3. Ever bought an entire album just for one song and winded up disliking everything but that song? Gimme that song.
'One Armed Scissor' by At The Drive-In.

4. A song whose lyrics you thought you knew in the past, but about which you later learned you were incorrect.
'Open Ocean Sailing' by Radar Bros.: I thought it was "you don't owe me/so you won't pay me anymore" when in fact it's "you don't own me/so you won't pay me anymore".

5. Your least favourite song on one of your favourite albums of all time.
'Friction', from Marquee Moon

6. A song you like by someone you find physically unattractive or otherwise repellent.
'Heroin' - Lou Reed is definitely "otherwise repellent".

7. Your favorite song that has expletives in it that's not by Liz Phair.
Either 'Pills' by Primal Scream or 'We Don't Care' by Audio Bullys (sic).

8. A song that sounds as if it's by someone British but isn't.
'We Can Have It' by the Dears

9. A song you like (possibly from your past) that took you forever to finally locate a copy of.
'Slow Grafitti' by Belle & Sebastian

10. A song that reminds you of spring but doesn't mention spring at all.
'Imitation Of Life' by REM

11. A song that sounds to you like being happy feels.
'Aye Today' or 'No Danger', the Delgados.

12. Your favourite song from a non-soundtrack compilation album.
'Hugh Dallas' by Mogwai from here.

13. A song from your past that would be considered politically incorrect now (and possibly was then).
Probably 'Orgasm Addict', sadly.

14. A song sung by an overweight person.
'Fields Of Marigold', Frank Black & The Catholics

15. A song you actually like by an artist you otherwise hate.
'Ignition (Remix)' by R Kelly.

16. A song by a band that features three or more female members.
'The Game's Over' by Plumtree

17. One of the earliest songs that you can remember listening to.
'Fixing A Hole' from Sgt. Pepper's.

18. A song you've been mocked by friends for liking.
'White Flag' by Dido

19. A really good cover version you think no one else has heard.
Belle & Sebastian's live rendition of 'I Want You Back', originally by the Jackson 5.

20. A song that has helped cheer you up (or empowered you somehow) after a break-up or otherwise difficult situation.
'John The Revelator' by Son House.

New journal entry up... barely.

Alright, back to the fray; Go here first if you haven't already. If that was all there was, then we'd be just about done. Which we basically are, but a few points:

Yeah, it makes sense that "you don't need" would come across (unavoidably, and I'm sure to more people than just Aaron) as more of a personal directive than the slightly more accurate "anyone can". I'm sure one of the reasons it naturally occurs to me to state it initially in the first form is because I want people to question their beliefs on the subject; not Aaron, necessarily, because he's a hell of a lot more self-aware than most people I know, but people in general.

Aaron's point #3 is one of the most important things that Western society (and Eastern society as well, for all I know; typically, I specify Western society not because the other half of the world is different, but because I don't know enough about it to say whether it is) continually ignores. To its detriment.

So, that's all she wrote, right? Nope. Jer threw his hat in the ring as well, right here. I mostly agree with him, but just to add my two cents:

re: the paragraph that starts "I think that defining and knowing real romantic love...": This is definitely something I believe. The only way I could tell you the love of my life would be if I knew I was about to die.

I'm not sure if the terminology we use is always the same, but I can definitely agree that in my opinion the best relationships don't have a sustained state of what Jer's dubbed romantic love as the goal; mostly because the people in those good relationships know enough to know that's a doubly foolhardy goal (first because it is impossible, second because if it was possible you wouldn't actually want it once you'd gotten it).

And lastly, as far as the greater type of relationship being godly: you should definitely read Spinoza's Ethic. He'd agree, and although my definition of godly is probably different from Jer's, other than that I'd probably agree as well.

You know, initially I was sceptical about these rumours of the US capturing Aristide to provoke a coup, but as soon Scott "Fuckhead" McClellan started denying that in his completely pompous way of his, I kind of started believing them. Maybe because McClellan has blatantly lied to reporters before (about Plame, about the National Guard, etc etc ad nauseam)?

I Dr. David Thorpe, writer of "Your Band Sucks" at Something Awful is mainly there to be hilariously hateful of shitty music, but go to the second bullet point here and you get a pretty close approximation of why I hate Orgy's cover of 'Blue Monday'. Pity so many friends of mine like it.

Scott Walker signs to 4AD. Considering what a work of genius Tilt is, it's good to hear he's now working on new material.

Is this, at least according to me, and this week Stylus is validating my choice. Go and buy it.

Yes, I'll be responding to Aaron. Once I get some time. Same with the journal entry - our internet went down for part of today.

Lord of the fucking rings deserved maybe 5-6 Oscars. Not all of them. And I'm sure Sean Penn was good, but Bill Murray was better. He gave the performance of a fucking lifetime, and you talentless, tasteless, ignorant, lickspittle little bastards shat all over him. He should have left. Fuck you all.