see you soon

so this guy is coming to boston next staurday.
we are going to see him and jonny and will and guy.
if the europe gigs are any clue, their set list will be something like this:

Square One
Politik
Yellow
God put a smile upon your face
Speed of sound
Low
Warning sign
Everything's not lost
White shadows
The Scientist
Don't panic
'Til Kingdom come
Clocks
Talk
-----
Swallowed in the sea
In my place
Fix you

seems like about 10 songs shorter and 10 times whimpier than these guys:




but really, chris, we're not pre-judging you.
we totally can't wait for you to change our lives on saturday night.
i'm being serious, yo. don't laugh.

peace

some mornings...

i like to wake up when i am no longer tired, have a nice cup of coffee (that some dear person has already made for me), stumble slowly out of the house in whatever comfortable clothes are around, lazily walk out the door right onto the beach, put my toes in the cold water and stare out at the ocean.

that's what i did this morning. wouldn't it rule if you could do this every day? if you could travel around and find the world's most ideal places to do this?

if my sister ever wins the lottery (she is cool and will share the money), i will become a global morning beach goer.

peace.

c

bono är kung

um, apparently in swedish this means bono is king.

be afraid. be very afraid.

a man takes a rocket ship into the sky.....

this is straight outta the NASA space log yesterday: "Discovery's crew was awakened at 10:39 p.m. CDT by the song "Vertigo" by U2 played for Pilot Jim Kelly."

nasty girls

i am sorta anti bitchy-blogging, but i got this link and had to post it. i will never post a photo of tara reid or paris hilton here, but this link is too awful to pass up.

oh to be so rich and trashy.

getting hot & sweaty with a-rod

yeah, last night sucked. i was at the yankee game in box seats. for free. but let me tell you, it was wicked hot in new york. if it wasn't for some cool bevvies, i may not have survived.





minus the beer, i may have managed to at least get some photos in focus, but whatever. a-rod hit a homer, randy johnson gave up one hit, and on the packed and steamy subway ride home the man next to me was dripping sweat off his yamaka onto my neck. he was also in such nirvana from the game that every few minutes he leaned over to his 10 or 11-year old son and kissed the top of the kid's yankee hat.

it was all good in an nyc sorta way.

peace.

we steal because we love

there's a short article on the bbc website right now about music downloaders. it points out that the people most likely to illegally download music online are also the most likely to LEGALLY buy music. it's amazing how many people do not grasp that fact.

it is hysterical to me when people turn their nose up at me for illegally downloading music.

you think i am robbing the music industry? fuck off. i have spent well over $1,000 this year on music-related items.

people who download music are the people keeping the music industry alive. we go online everyday to find new stuff because the joy of discovering a new sound that can change the molecular structure of our day is a hopelessly romantic possibility that we actually believe exists. in other words, people like me are over the borderline obsessive. the music industry should love us, not loathe us.

we buy your overpriced concert tickets, your books, your music mags, and yes, even your ipods. do you need to be a 45-year old irish man to understand how easy we are to be taken advantage of? in the end, it is really you who can steal from us. it's easy. just make us love you. give us the music.

feeling good

here's a song by muse called feeling good. it's apparently a nina simone cover. do you like muse? i won't say you should necessarily. they are quite overly dramatic and over the top.

they are kinda, sorta like queen, but way more metal. and not gay.

i don't know, its hard to explain why, but i like 'em.

a lot.

peace.

jane, are you crazy?

so the daily news is reporting that jane fonda is set to go on an anti-iraq war cross-country bus tour. just in case this makes you mad, rest assured, her bus will be vegetable-oil fueled, so, really it's all good....

oh dear.

unc = #1

oh you know i have the inside scoop on what college sells the most athletic licensed apparel. thankfully it is NOT notre dame.

where oh where is bucknell?

(these rankings represent royalties reported July 1, '04 through June 30, '05 on collegiate merchandise sold.)

(1.) University of North Carolina (2.) The University of Michigan (3.) The University of Texas at Austin (4.) University of Georgia (5.) The University of Oklahoma (6.) University of Notre Dame (7.) University of Tennessee Knoxville (8.) University of Florida (9.) Louisiana State University (10.) The University of Alabama (11.) Auburn University (12.) University of Kentucky (13.) Florida State University (14.) The Pennsylvania State University (15.) University of Illinois (16.) University of Wisconsin (17.) University of Nebraska (18.) University of Miami (19.) University of Arkansas Fayetteville (20.) Oklahoma State University (21.) University of South Carolina (22.) University of Maryland (23.) University of Kansas (24.) Clemson University (25.) Purdue University (26.) The University of Arizona (27.) Kansas State University (28.) Syracuse University (29.) University of Missouri (30.) Duke University (31.) University of Connecticut (32.) The University of Virginia (33.) Texas Tech University (34.) University of Pittsburgh (35.) University of Louisville (36.) Georgia Institute of Technology (37.) University of Washington (38.) Washington State University (39.) University of Mississippi (40.) University of Colorado (41.) Stanford University (42.) University of Cincinnati (43.) University of Utah (44.) Marshall University (45.) Brigham Young University (46.) The University of Montana (47.) Colorado State University (48.) U.S. Military Academy (49.) Georgetown University (50.) U.S. Air Force

look who's back

ricky williams is back with the dolphins and he says he no longer smokes pot. his first press conference already provided a glimpse of what one can only hope will be a season full of ridiculous answers from the RB to reporters' questions.

shockingly enough, spending a whole year baking his head off did not exactly prepare williams to answer the one question you'd think he might have been prepared to answer. "why did he return?"

"why? why? i don't know. i don't know."

if i were there, my question would have been "if you do not smoke pot, what's up with your beard looking like that, yo?"

but i kinda, sorta like ricky. he is unique, and that's cool.

win's fantasies

ny times music critic jon pareles has taken a break from his anti-coldplay crusade to laud the arcade fire's recent gig at lollapalooza. though he did laughably take credit for being the first to bash coldplay, he shockingly has not taken credit for discovering the arcade fire.

pareles describes the arcade fire's musical motif as an exploration of private realms--those are "the childhood reminiscences and fantasies of lead singer Win Butler. Sung in a quavery voice, carried on surges of rock guitar, and orchestrated with fiddles, French horn and plinking, tinkling instruments, the songs become anthems that still sound homespun."

well said.

sweet

these look particularly yummy.

spend more, save less: new advice!

hey, if it's on the internet, it must be true. you are saving too much for retirement.

"Forget the idea that you need millions to retire comfortably, as some would have you believe. One expert says you'll need less money than you thought. What if you could bail out of your job years earlier than you thought? Or spend thousands of dollars more in retirement than you'd planned? What if you're actually saving too much for retirement, instead of not enough?

Traditional retirement planning assumes retirees' income needs will increase as they age, thanks to inflation. But most people actually spend less as they age. This is borne out by the U.S. Department of Labor's Consumer Expenditure Surveys, which show significant spending declines in every major category except health care as people age."

as long as bono retires before me, i would have to agree that my spending habits will in fact decrease when i get old.

peace.

na na na na naaa

that's 4 na's and 1 naaa. those brits are so particular

the kaiser chiefs are a particularly energetic little band of english boys. they kind of rock. plus, ricky, the lead singer, is reportedly on a mission to find out exactly what is underneath the edge's beanie. that's cool, yo.

na na na na naaa.

the edge tastes like....

really expensive chicken.

you know he kind of dances like one, too, but that's a whole other story.

take your cocoa puffs and shove 'em

a snippet from chuck klosterman's new book: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.


"Ten minutes later, I found it necessary to mention that Journey was rock's version of the TV show Dynasty. This prompted a spirited debate we dubbed "Monkees = Monkees." The goal is to figure out which television show is the closest philosophical analogy to a specific rock 'n' roll band, and the critiera is mind-blowingly complex: It's a combination of longevity, era, critical acclaim, commercial success, and -- most important -- the aesthetic soul of each artistic entry. For example, the Rolling Stones are Gunsmoke. The Strokes are Keifer Sutherland's 24. Jimi Hendrix was The Twilight Zone. Devo was Fernwood 2-Night. Lynyrd Skynyrd was The Beverly Hillbillies, which makes Molly Hatchet Petticoat Junction. The Black Crowes are That '70s Show. Hall & Oates were Bosom Buddies. U2 is M*A*S*H (both got preachy at the end). Dokken was Jason Bateman's short-lived sitcom It's Your Move. Eurythmics were Mork & Mindy..."

thriller

don't look now michael jackson, but i think B just stole your jacket, circa 1984.

you can fight him for it if you want, but i don't think you'll win.

at all.

Celebrity Psychos

new york magazine has a trashily superb cover story this week on how ridiculous celebrity behavior has gotten. but is it really the celebs going crazy, or us going crazy over them, causing them to go crazy?

"It seems the craziness might be happening because the increase in watching is the very thing creating the craziness. Then it seems that the beginning, middle, and end of the celebrity life story is finding a way to get people to keep watching and loving the star forever, so at a time when they are more watched and more loved than at any other point in history, they should not be going so crazy.

But they are."

ha ha.

go see this movie NOW

immediately, be off to see this. i highly recommend it.

vince vaughn=funniest mofo alive.

after you spend $10-$15, however many bucks seeing it, please let me know how it is.

but i'm sure it's good, yo, VV is in it and all.

what's up with the swinging entrance?

i can't quite tell if the acc conference is making fun of BC here (link above). or is this commercial supposed to be, like, hi-culture or something?

very bizaare.

wake up!

guess the arcade fire is not as hot as i thought.

at noon today i bought two GA tickets for their september show at summer stage, but there are still tix available on ticketmaster 6 hours after the on-sale. and there i was right at the stroke of 12 noon in such a hurry at my computer screen, probably buying the first tickets that got sold!

u2 fandom creates paranoid ticket buying behavior i guess. it also makes $30 tix look very tasty, though.

another reason to hate the red sox

somebody told brandon arroyo that making a record would be a good idea. maybe johnny damon had that genius plan?

this new album he has coming out is a poor man's creed. (is that an oxymoron?)

and yeah, i know his name is bronson, okay, but i kinda like it how a-rod calls him brandon.

**sorry, link removed**

square one remix

click on the title link for an mp3 of team 9's remix of coldplay's square one.

chris martin, i love you, but i speak for u2 fans everywhere when i wish many more disco remixes upon your ass.

peace.

another evil thing from texas

i really am afraid of sharks. to a ridiculous degree. i used to be afraid one would eat me up even when i was swimming in deep creek lake. in case you are stupid, you should know, sharks do not exist in deep creek lake.

apparently they do exist in texas. a girl's foot got bitten up by one yesterday (story link above). it was only a five footer. (which is in fairness, a lot smaller than the shark pictured here. but if US Weekly can photoshop brad and angelina into photos together, i think i can get away with using fake shark photo scare tactics on my blog).

thankfully, it seems the ever-so sharp texas lawmen have cracked the texas shark attack case:

According to cnn.com, The Galveston County Sheriff's Office said "the shark may have been feeding when the attack occurred."

you think?

flying with one hand, part two

just got the audio for the previous flying bono post

click on the title link above to hear yer man in fine form (he arrives about two minutes into the clip).

fire in the park

the arcade fire are playing central park, rumsey playhouse, on september 15. tickets go on sale tomorrow.

i know they are the indie band du jour, and i am so over indie BS, but still, these guys have some kind of ecstatic, yet slightly off kilter quality about their music, that is unique from anything else out there. should be a tough ticket to score.

tickets for the killers' september 30 show at jones beach also go on sale tomorrow, and will likely be equally hard to get. but i think i'll skip it. i'm not really embarassed that i like the killers. i swear. but i am just not convinced that brandon flowers is a breathing human and not a mannequin.

flying with one hand

bono arrived in the netherland's for today's amsterdam arena show with an on-air radio conversation with Ann, oddly enough, an Irish born air traffic controller guiding Vertigo Air into Holland. yer man not only claimed to be flying the plane, but one-handed at that. god bless, indeed!

(broadcast live on Dutch radio from the control tower)


Ann (controller): If we could talk to Bono, that would be great.

Captain: Bono’s on board, we’ll get him to say hi.

Bono: Vertigo 2005 I’m ready and waiting

Ann: Hi Bono, welcome to Amsterdam.

Bono: I’m very happy, it’s been a long time I’ve been waiting for this.

Ann: Are you looking forward to the concert in Amsterdam tonight?

Bono: Yeah, we haven’t played here for, gosh, probably maybe fifteen years, so can’t wait. I’m gonna be on the radio in a few minutes, is that right?

Ann: You’re on the radio live right now.

Bono: Wow, oh dear, how am I gonna fly the plane and do an interview…



and later on...........



Bono: And what’s an Irish girl like you doing…eh…having a vertigo experience at the top of a control tower?

Ann: They’re having a slight problem getting people in the Netherlands to be controllers, so there’s two Irish controllers here, there’s one right next to me.

Bono: Wow, yes, it’s strange, we Irish people love the fear of heights. I wish you luck, can’t wait to see everybody tonight. And I have done lots of strange interviews; I’ve done interviews naked, I’ve done interviews in odd places; I’ve spoken to people sitting on the john, but I have never done an interview whilst trying to fly an airplane. Thank you for the experience. I’m going down now, there’s a scene from Baywatch apparently on one of the beaches. We’re going to see if we can find some U2 people on the beaches. So…eh…if we are over your head, I’m flying with one hand. God bless.

rock star inxs, the end

okay, i am definitely done watching this show.
at least tonight they made the contestants sing actual inxs songs, but with a backing band.
just seems odd to me.
the farris brothers really seem to be enjoying this show a lot.
nausea is setting in for me, so i'll just let this show fade into the ether.
inxs peaked in around 1983 or so, i think.
shabooh shabooh and all that.
can't wait to see what size venues they will fill with their new singer in 2005.
good luck mates!

another day at the office

so when i showed up at my little suburban train station this morning, guys with guns like these were walking around the platform.

rock star inxs part deux, rip hutch

WTF?
someone please explain why the contestants on this show are singing everything BUT inxs tunes.
if the show is meant to find a replacement for hutch, why the F are these people NOT singing his songs?

maybe because he is irreplaceable?

gallagher brothers' quote of the day

"i know the answer to life. tulips have a spiritual quality, the answer to life is a four-door tulip." --liam

"i have to say that in the strangest way i know exactly what the mad little fuck means." --noel

q magazine, august 2005

still charging

"now I'm not leading the charge, but I'm still charging, you know?" -- mike piazza, july 11, 2005

okay, okay, it's not quite as emphatic as:

"i'm not gay. i'm heterosexual," -- mike piazza, may, 2002

but honestly, the yankees should be so lucky to have a player this gay.

unos, dos, tres, louis quatorze

yer man's spittin' image in paris, july 10

rock star inxs

this show is so wrong on so many levels.
which means i couldn't help but watch it.
the biggest surprise?
the croc hunter, yo.
who knew tim farris and steve irwin were the same dude?
not i.