When you could build this?



More great Beetle mods here.

Labels: Fun

We watched Godard’s Bande à Part this last week, and I can't get it out of my head.

The Criterion collection has a wonderful feature pointing out the numerous subtle references that Godard makes. Kafka, Billy the Kid, French Série Noire, Chaplin all spread out before Godard as he seems to pick and choose his references at will. It could easily come across with the same tongue-in-cheek quality that appears to drive so much of Tarrantino’s work, but it doesn’t. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something singularly remarkable about this film.

If you haven’t seen it, do.

And if you have, watch it again, and make sure to read Joshua Clover’s fantastic essay from the Criterion Collection website.

An excerpt on the infamous Madison scene.

There’s something of both in the joy and alienation expressed equally in Arthur, Franz, and Odile’s dance, choreographed to bar jukebox and internal monologue. Never have three people been so alone together, a band and apart, in a singular double-exposure of one moment arriving as another passes away.

Indeed.

Also, make sure to check out the Nouvelle Vague Dance with Me / Bande à Part Madison Scene mash-up. L thinks it’s a fantastic example of the 21st century consumer's proclivity for referential media and the internet as a tool for that process as a band named after both the French New Wave movement and the New Wave punk movement of the late 1970s covers a song from Dead Can Dance who were prominent in the latter, and it gets superimposed on one of the premiere films of the earlier (after which, said band named their album). I agree.

Labels: Film

File under: Another Reason to Love the Internet.

No matter what the Whalewatcher has to say about how the internet will never surpass books, this has got to put a little smile on our faces.

Check out the entire published collection of JD Salinger including 21 uncollected stories. There's some great stuff in there including tons of stories featuring various other members of the Caufield family.

Light a fire, pour a cup of tea, and spend the evening with the computer on your lap, reading some new favorites.

Labels: Books

On Wednesday, the dmh picked me up at work on the way to Ash Wednesday service. He commented on the building, and I jokingly said, "Yup. There's my home."

As soon as I said, it realized it was true. In the last year I have spent more of my conscious hours in that building than anywhere else. Why? Every day I wake up earlier than I would like, to drive on a freeway I can't stand, to sit in a room with no windows that I would rather not be in. And my job isn't even that bad! But still, it seems the majority of our lives is filled with things we don't want to do.

Well, not today!

Today I'm taking full advantage of the glorious brisk sunny day. I woke up early, put on some Dexter Gordon, started cooking up a pot of cajun red beans over rice, and am currently doing the crossword puzzle.

Take that cruel world! You can't get me down!

Labels: Life, Rants

The Sasquatch.
Legend?
Fact?

I know at least one person who believes. Make that two. Joan Ocean, dolphin communicator, has spent some time studying the Sasquatch and has some theories of her own.

Here's a pop quiz. The Sasquatch can do which of the following:

1. Read
2. Write
3. Shape-shift
4. Voice Project
5. Create Infrasound that affects the environment
6. De-materialize at will, or cause you to have an experience of lost time so you think they de-materialized.
7. Travel 300 miles a day on foot.
8. Live in well-lighted underground facilities
9. Contact and live with Star People
10. Tell us about our past and our future.
11. Have lived here longer than the human race.

If you answered "All of the Above" then you've obviously visited Joan Ocean's web site, which is fascinating and should be read in its entirety.

Labels: Fun, Quiz

"Remember, man, that you are dust
And unto dust you shall return."

Learn more. Interesting note: in 2096 Ash Wednesday will be on leap day.

Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday mp3

Labels: Religion

The Rio Bravo spent all of Saturday in the studio making music.

The Beatles spent all of the 60's in the studio making history, and the new book Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums is testament to the fact.

For $100, it's one of those books that I will forever drool over and never bring myself to buy. (Along with this and this). With full chapters dedicated to EMI Abbey Road, the personnel who made it happen, mixers, outboard gear, microphones, tape machines, speakers and amps, effects, studio instruments, and more, it is guaranteed to be a dream for any music gear lover.

The book's website has some sample pages, and they are just beautiful. There's something forever magical about pictures of the Beatles in the studio, specifically the black & whites from the early years, with their high contrast black suits and ties, in stark cavernous rooms, surrounded by gorgeous equipment, often laughing.

This weekend felt like that. Without the suits, ties, or cavernous rooms, but filled with gorgeous equipment and a lot of smiles. In 50 years I'd probably pay a whole lot more than $100 for a few of those pictures.

Thanks guys.

Labels: Music

Labels: Fun, Music

Labels: Fun, Religion

I know it’s sappy. I know it’s overrated. I know that it’s a holiday based on a saint that had nothing to do with love, except perhaps losing his head (literally). I know it’s very origin is shady and it has been taken over by the companies that make gamble chocolates and greeting cards.

But we can take it back. Let’s tell someone we love them. Let’s feel good about the fact that we are loved. Let’s get to know each other a little bit better. And what better way to do that than through a little mixtape, made from me to you.

Mouse & the Billionaire Valentine’s Day Mixtape Or Fourteen for the 14th

1. Time After Time - Chet Baker mp3

This is, hands down, my favorite Chet Baker song, and probably one of my favorite songs of all time. If I could have anyone's voice it would be his. I would walk in to a club, grab a glass of scotch and the nearest microphone, and bring the entire place to tears with my smoky effortlessness.

2. Naked as We Came - Iron & Wine mp3

Sam Beam’s morbidly perfect little song about rainy mornings laying in bed and finishing off your life with the one you love gets me every time

3. You Go to My Head - Billy Holliday mp3

The idea that love intoxicates, hits you "like the kicker in a julep or two." Yeah, I buy it.

4. Steadier Footing - Death Cab for Cutie mp3

I first heard this simple, brief song a few weeks after this very thing happened to me.

5. Sea of Love - Cat Power mp3

Oh sweet Chan. Like the pied piper with an autoharp, enticing us to jump headfirst into the next relationship we find. Thanks for not letting us down.

6. La La Love You - Pixies mp3

Shake your butt, but not too hard. Indeed. This song captures the overwhelming first months of romance, where all you manage is a little whistle and maybe an "I love you" or 10.

7. Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits - Magnetic Fields mp3

Err..

8. Sweetalk - Billy Collins mp3

Comparing your lover to the sunlight of Edward Hopper might seem like a bad idea, but it isn’t.

9. Words of Love - Buddy Holly mp3

Buddy's songs of new love make sense when you realize he was only 22 when he died. Imagine if he had been around to write a few more.

10. In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel mp3

One of the most enduring images in modern cinema is trenchcoat-wearing Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding up that boom-box in the rain (though I prefer Mark Ruffalo's mustachioed attempt from Safe Men).

11. Aspidistra Files - Stars mp3

"All the umbrellas in London couldn't hide my love for you." It took me three months to find this song that L. would sing throughout the day. It was worth it.

12. Save the Last Dance for Me (Demo) - Harry Nilsson mp3

I know this isn’t actually the song Jesse and Robyn had their first dance to, but it always makes me think about it. It reminds me of Robyn in a Dodger's jacket, Jesse awkwardly swaying, the oblivious smile on both of their faces, and the happy tears in my eyes.

13. I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever) - Stevie Wonder mp3

While this song played in the closing credits of High Fidelity (I know another John Cusack movie, I'm sorry), I realized she was not the girl for me, but that there was one out there, and I would find her.

14. More Pretty Girls Than One - Woody Guthrie mp3

And, lastly, for those who may not have someone to spend the day with today, fear not. Woody knows how you’re feeling, but he insists "There’s more pretty gals than one. More pretty gals than one. Every town I ramble ’round, more pretty gals than one."

Download the album art - pdf.

Labels: Life, Mixtapes, Music, We {Heart}...

The more Anthony Bourdain I see, the more I love.

6 years ago I picked up a copy of Kitchen Confidential (mainly because I was on a big David Fincher kick, and he was supposed to be directing the film adaptation - with Benicio del Torro in the starring role I might add, too bad it never happened) and didn't put it down until it was finished. It is simultaneously informative, frightening, and funny as hell.

Last year, I bought his Les Halles Cookbook and it has quickly become one of our favorite go-to place for recipes and stories. He loves food. And he loves food culture. And any chef who uses the f-word so much when describing food has got to be doing something right.

This week, however, I saw two things that surpass all of this.

1. Anthony Bourdain eats a still-beating Cobra heart in Vietnam

and


2. Anthony Bourdain's opinion on the current Food Network chefs

Rachel Ray: Complain all you want. It’s like railing against the pounding surf. She only grows stronger and more powerful. Her ear-shattering tones louder and louder. We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So...what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that "Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!" Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, "Hell…I could do that. I ain’t gonna…but I could--if I wanted! Now where’s my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?" Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better--teach us--and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. "You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit…Sleep….sleep…."

Oh, Anthony. You sweet sweet man. You never cease to amaze me.

Labels: Food, Rants, We {Heart}...

Let me just say that the Pools are two top-notch people. If they were a Vodka, they would be Diaka Vodka. Top Shelf.

Everyone should take a Monday off and go hang out with them in Big Bear. I wish we could do it every Monday. In fact, I wish that we could do it every day. We would wake up late, eat some of Mr. Pool's Famous Apricot Cream Cheese French Toast™, take a walk around the lake, try to find bald eagles, eat ice cream, play Police Trainer for 4 hours, and play cards and drink wine all through the night.

It hardly seems fair they they get to hang out with themselves all the time.

I think they're cheating.

Labels: Life

I can't believe J didn't find this one! The ever sensitive and loving lovegodsway.com with the apparently popular title God Hates Fag has a list of bands that parents should not let their kids listen to because, obviously, listening to music can make you gay.

The list includes: Rufus Wainwright, Wilco, Cole Porter, Polyphonic Spree, The Grateful Dead, Sufjan Stevens, The Arcade Fire, Frank Sinatra, Metallica and so so so many more.

The best thing is the little notes they have on the side of some of the artists. My favorites being a) Morrissey ("Questionable") and b) Elton John (really gay).

See the full list of Gay Bands, but be careful: even one second of Fly Me to the Moon (mp3) can lead to wearing tight pink jeans and talking with a lisp.

You've been warned.

Labels: Music, Rants

When I was in Junior High, my friends and I thought it was really funny to pretend that one of us was being abused whenever telemarketers called my house. We would slam the phone around a little bit and fake-cry to someone in the background - who would try in their best puberty-infused cracking voice to have a deep, gruff, man-voice. Then we would just hang up the phone and laugh, laugh, laugh. Looking back on it, I'm really glad Child Services never showed up.

This guy has basically the same idea, only he's a lot funnier than I ever was. And he involves murder. And insinuates the telemarketer is a homosexual. All in all, pretty successful if you ask me.

Labels: Fun

- Huh?
- Football.
- Wait? What? Football?
- Yeah, the Superbowl.
- Superbowl? Already? Didn't we just do that?
- No, that was a year ago.
- Oh. Well, good. I love the Superbowl!
- You do?
- Yeah. Well, the commercials anyway.
- Yeah, those are funny. Did you see the one last year with the wolves?
- The wolves?
- Yeah, the one where the guy let out the wolves and they attacked that school band? That was hilarious.
- That was, like, 5 years ago.
- Really?
- Yeah. It was part of the dot-com Superbowl.
- Dot-Com Superbowl?
- Yeah, the one where Pets.com and Kforce.com had commercials.
- Oh yeah. Hey, wasn't that one for Outpost.com?
- What?
- The commercial.
- What's Oupost.com, and why do you have to always bring everything back to computers?
- Why do you have to criticize me so much? I like computers. I can't help it.
- Well at least you could try to be less of a nerd.
- You're the nerd!

- Hey.
- Yeah?
- Are you ready for some football?
- Nah, let's just go watch all the commercials at BowlSpots.com.
- Ooh, good idea. I'll bring the nachos.

Labels: Rants