Monday, August 29, 2005

Stark, austere and minimal and it means the world

Now listening to: Four Tet

I'm feeling verbose today. I think I'm still awash in the excellence that is Pattern Recognition and it makes me want to try to write something good. Don't know if I'm there yet, but I should be writing more. I have no excuse other than my own lack of discipline.

So I think after I finish here I will make with the buckling down for a bit. Although I may get distracted by the William Gibson forums.

This Four Tet album I procured (!?!) is interesting. Four Tet is described as a laptop artist, meaning all he needs to compose an album or to set up a performance are two laptops. That's what the music is made on from start to finish. It's a deliciously punk concept (although the music is decidely not so). It's mellow electronic noise with a beat. If you like Air, check this out.

Odd that I prattle on so much about loving thick layered music that hits you like a wall and go bananas over these minimalistic sounds. I am nothing if not willing to change my mind.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Suck me raw with a breast pump

Now listening to: Nick Drake

So last night I finished reading what may be the best book I've read this year, William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. What's that? I knew one of you bastards were gonna throw The Half Blood Prince in my face and it's hard to deny the genius of Harry Potter, but Gibson really outdid himself. (Incidently Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down is also a candidate for this year's best read.)

But yeah, Pattern Recognition. It's a departure from Gibson's other stuff that basically invented the whole cyberpunk genre. It's a take on modern culture seen through an austere lens of marketing, the internet, obsessive fanboys, reverence for emergent technology. It's really brilliant and I was saddened when I finished it. It takes a really good book to make me wish it was longer. I say it's undoubtedly Filet Mignon, with potential to move into orgasmic territory. I recommend it to anyone with even a mild technology or pop culture fetish.

Hmm what else? I also read Must Love Dogs, the book they turned into the recent movie. It was ok, +1 chainmail, but nothing exceptional. I watched Surviving Christmas, which was ok (Meh. with shades of +1 chainmail). It seemed like they kinda rushed things plotwise, never really developed anything, just tossed it in your lap. Also I agree with Trip (that just feels odd to type) that casting Ben Affleck was a bad call. He was not good. Despite all that, there were some funny moments and it's worth seeing if you don't have to pay for it.

Just got a call from Nick and he's gonna hook me up with tickets to see the Steelers! Man is that awesome. It's only a preseason game, but it's as close to live NFL action as I've ever been and it's gonna kickass. I'm stoked. Now I can have fantastical dreams about Bill Cowher pulling me from the stands to give me a couple of carries. (Hey! I said fantastical.)

Last note, this Nick Drake is awesome. A nice folk feel with a solid chord of melancholy running through it (no surprise this guy committed suicide).

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

It hurts, but it's worth it

Now listening to: The Hold Steady

So I am now finally recovered from Saturday night. Kevin came over to Trip's and we hung out for a while, doing our thing. He had to go and play with his band, but convinced me to stay at Trip's until he was done. Soo Trip and I watched Sin City, man is that movie awesome. At some point I decided it would be a good idea to pull out the tequila and do a few shots. So five minutes and five shots later we had set the pace way too high. We backed off a bit, but it was too late at that point. I ended up getting slobbery drunk (along with Trip) and it was a good time. When Kev finally made it in, I'm sure he was thrilled to get to deal with two shitfaced assholes. Ehh, whatcha gonna do?

The next morning, however, was substantially less fun. I finally got home around 2 p.m. Sunday and didn't eat any solid food for quite a while. I finally had a club sandwich for dinner and have been slowly improving since then. I'm now back to relative normality. Sucks getting old and paying the real price for an evening of drinking. Used to bounce right back. Part of that may be I'm out of practice, but I don't plan on getting back into a regular drinking situation. I found it wanting overall.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

I feel as if I am looking at the world from the bottom of a well

So last night my first fantasy football experience kicked off with the draft. I think I did ok, my inexperience showed at some points, but I got some solid picks. The big prize I got was Priest Holmes, who I hope has another amazing season. (I also picked his backup Larry Johnson in case he gets injured. I could run for 1,000 yards behind the KC O-Line... well probably not, but you get the point.)

Anyway it was fairly fun and I'm looking forward to all the junk talking that will sprout from this league. The only problem I had was that Mike and Christian weren't there for the draft. That leaves them a nigh-plausible excuse should they fail and I'd rather be able to rag on them unmercifully.

I did the actual draft from Trip's house, as I wanted to hang with him and Corb some. Sadly the draft stole most of my attention and I was mostly aloof. We did manage to play some Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros., which is some nice retro action.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Wait. What is that?

Can you smell that? It's the scent of sweaty men beating the hell out of each other and a pork product being thrown, tossed, dropped and kicked. That's right football season is afoot once again. Football, the pinnacle of all sports and joy to all who worship the divine god of the gridiron.

Tonight I watched the preseason Steelers vs. Eagles game on Monday Night Football and my yearning soul was soothed for that time. It is merely preseason action, which means both diddly and squat, but it symbolizes the changing of the season and that makes it great.

Anyway enough waxing philosophic on the pigskin. Hell I only watched half the game and then Trip and I watched Kenny vs. Spenny reruns. That show rules. The humiliation's are no doubt the height of comedy. Check it out if you can.

This weekend I stayed busy. Jeff and Melissa came in and we hung with them and had a good time. Went to see Wedding Crashers, which was as good as I hoped. Vince Vaughn is a genius. Also really, really hot women. They are always a plus. I'd give it a foot massage rating, pending more watchings. Some of these movies fizzle after seeing them a few times, while some keep getting funnier and funnier.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

They call me Hard Corey

Been keeping a pretty low profile this week, gathering my strength after Gabe's visit. Trip and I did go to G-boro on Monday, in hopes of getting his comp. fixed. Of course, because of some tech. support misreporting that did not go as planned and we stood around in CompUSA for two and a half hours. Man that was fun. I, at least, got to sneak away and watch NFL Countdown at the TV kiosk. Trip was on the phone with Apple for most of the evening and, ultimately we left with nothing done. Huge stunner, even moreso for Trip than me.

Hmm, I've been listening to The Hold Steady's two albums a lot this week. Trip made me copies of their albums and they are very good. It's like a blues band with spoken word lyrics about drugs and parties and weird times in the midwest. Sorta. It comes out being good somehow and I wouldn't have thought so from my own description there. I've also been trying to get some more Finntroll, which is what Swedish pirates would sound like if they played metal. It's kinda cool, in a weird way.

Also football season is afoot and that always makes life a little better. I'm gonna do a fantasy football thing with Nick and the gang, but my only hope of succeeding there is if everyone else is as big a noob as I am, which I doubt. It'll still be fun I suppose. Must not draft all Steeler players...

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Jojo the Idiot Circus Boy

Things are starting to get back to normal around here. Gabe left on Saturday morning and it's been pretty quiet. I had a great time with him in though and I hated to see him go. We hit up Chateau Morrisette and had a good time while he was in. Nice meal, good wine and beautiful scenery. That's a hard combo to beat.

Gabe had to be at the Raleigh airport early Saturday and I ended up not sleeping at all Friday night and riding down with him and mom. Sucked to see him go, but what can ya do? He's got a real life (which is a stunning contrast to my total lack of one). Mom and I rode back and hit K & W Cafeteria for breakfast. I won't be hurrying back for that. I've never been a huge fan of that place and my biscuits and gravy were quite horrid.

In other news, I watched Million Dollar Baby on Friday and it lived up to the hype. Good through and through. It's happy and sad and pretty much everything you could want. Also Morgan Freeman, man does that guy kickass or what. I'm giving it a filet mignon rating, with no reservations.

Saturday (after I had slept for a long while) I hooked up with Corb and Trip and we watched some Kenny vs. Spenny (a show I've only recently discovered) and some Pimp My Ride. We also watched a show that drove home the fact that I have outgrown the MTV demographic. It's called Trailor Fabulous and it's simply atrocious. It's a makeover show for people in trailors, with horrible, horrible people doing the making over. They have a token gay dude who was obnoxious. He's like Queer Eye's Carson if he was born in a trailor, forced to wear Levi's toughskins and molested by his uncle, Bo Duke.

Moving along, today Trip and I went to see March of the Penguins. It was really good. I love penguins anyway (note the name of the site afterall), but this was well done. Morgan Freeman narrated and again, he's the man. While I'm giving this movie a filet mignon rating, I have to note that I think Winged Migration was a little better film overall, it just lacked penguins.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Social interaction levels reaching dangerous levels

Man it's been a busy weekend. My bro rolls into town and EVERYBODY wants to hang. I've been social for the last 4 days and it's wearing thin. I'm tired, but I'm taking a day of rest. Hopefully that means I'll be more social going to the vineyard tomorrow.

But this weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Picked Gabe up on Friday in Raliegh with the fam. Saturday we hooked up with John, Tony, David and Ben and got a little drunk. Hodges showed up a little later. I managed to drop $20 in two poker tournaments. (I so hate the tourney format.) But it was a good time and good to see everyone.

Sunday we went to Trip's for some Halo 2 hijinks and Danny, Corb and Hodges showed up. After some early technical difficulties we got up and running and had a decent time. We finished the evening with some Robot Chicken, which Gabe appreciated.

Monday Hodges, Gabe and myself headed to the 'Noke and hooked up with David and Ben. We also managed to squeeze into Kevin's schedule and have a little Red Palace dinner with him. Mmm Red Palace. We ended up going all nostalgic and playing a booster draft with the new sets of Magic cards. That was fun and made me want to play again, but I really can't afford to get a new habit.

Well my plans of relaxing may have just come to a halt. Corb invited us to the pool, so we may end up doign that. Although at least that's a low pressure situation. Could be fun.