Yeah, it’s been over a month since we posted. We’ve been super busy. We’ll tell you all about it someday. But for now, how’s about you head on over to The Catalyst and browse their extensive collection of famous people and their cats. Hopefully it’ll make you feel a bit better about our absence.

It does make the heart grow fonder they say…

Today we remember the death of a king

And the birth of a saint

Pour one out for the dead, but keep two more for the living. Here’s to you.

Austin!

Texas!

Gosses!

We awoke this morning a little foggy and slow from a full night of revelry. Queso. Beers. Margs. Breakfast Tacos. Shnozenberg. Then we spent the rest of the morning walking the lake and talking of things that do and do not matter. If we weren’t on a full-fledged imperial march towards the East Coast we might be persuaded to stick around here for a few years more. We heart Family Goss. They have a nice town, a wonderful house, and incredible class.

And tomorrow? Off to New Orleans. Jambalaya!

Why is there so much focus on the negative on the internet? This person sends hate mail. Myspace makes kids crazy. That guy is flaming some movie he just saw. Everyone is ganging up on a band of kids who’re just trying to make music.

Let’s take the internet back.

I am filled with affection. That affection is fueled by coffee. I love all of you, all my friends, both met and never met. In person and on the computer. In our same town, and across the country. Thank you all for your friendship. You are all awesome. See you soon.

I downloaded the Photoshop CS3 Beta a few days back and have been trying it out.

Let me just say, flat out fantastic. Great job Adobe; it looks beautiful. I was skeptical about losing the floating tool bars (I may be one of the only people in the world who actually liked them), but the new anchored dock tool bars are amazing. you can easily tab between all the old favorites, resulting in tons more screen real estate for designs.

I could keep going on and on about the great new changes, but I’ll try to save my reputation a bit and say this: If you use Photoshop, download the CS3 Beta and see what wonders the world will hold for you in the future. If you don’t use Photoshop, let’s pretend you never read this. How about we go talk about non-nerdy things..

Like beer.

And trains.

Bye.

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.

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.