colonel tigh and john mccain

yup.

productive procrastination!

For once I procrastinated with something that I would have eventually procrastinated about--I have done my taxes! Now, if I can just finish my 2006 and 2005 taxes...

It's a really, really nice night here in Austin, for those of you not in Austin, and not awake. I'm listening to Tchaikovsky, and the balcony door is open, and really, for someone that just got through several hours of tax code fine print, I'm in a pretty good mood. Wait 5 minutes, though, when I pick up the project I've been putting off. I will need a whole lot more classical music to fix that mood. And like a truckload of burritos. Yeah.

Tonight I had a strange experience: I watched, and enjoyed, the second half of the superbowl. I even threw my hands all in the air and yelled at one part!

But alas, no more procrastination is to be had. It's Russian transportation policy again...

album reviews

look at me updating all the time!

I have to do these album reviews, so I thought maybe I could put a few up here, of the albums that I like (I don't have the heart to put the bad reviews up). As you will see, they are brief and I don't spend much time on making them flow. We'll see how this goes--these might be the only ones I ever put up. Links to Myspace, where you can hear songs.

___
Some Velvet Morning; Silence Will Kill You
Genre: Rock
RhythmBank Entertainment 2007
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Good production quality and straight-ahead rock sound give this debut album a major-label sound. It's actually catchy in a way I never found The Killers or Franz Ferdinand (to whom they compare themselves) to be. One reason I chose it was I thought it might be the namesake of the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood song, but the sound bears no resemblance whatsoever to that style. Despite misled expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole album. It's a London-based band, but the sound is definitely influenced by American rock. All the songs are energetic. The musicians are talented, and I was most impressed with the (male) singer's voice--there's a pitch-perfect passion put behind a lot of the lyrics, remninscient of U2 throughout the years. Similarities to The Police are fleeting and only on a few tracks. There are definitely a few stand-out tracks, but the songs in between aren't just filler.
____

Sibylle Baier ; Colour Green
Genre: Folk
Orange Twin 2006
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Because of its history, I don't know whether "instant classic" or "lost classic" is the most appropriate label for this album. It was recorded in the 70's, but wasn't released until more recently. It was popular with music bloggers, and songs still show up with some regularity on online mixes. The first time I heard "Forget About," it was one of those moments where the rest of the world stopped, and there was nothing but the sadness of the song. And then, when it was over, it was one of those moments of "what was THAT?" And I wondered how I'd lived my life up till then without knowing that song. I also had this feeling at age 14 over Nick Drake, so if that's not your style, it's probably not for you. But I suspect, even though the songs don't have the complexity, or the spot-on lyrics of Drake, that there is a certain universality in the gentleness of her voice, the quality of which I hate to liken to Nico, but it is similar on some tracks (think Nico, if she wrote her own songs and sang on key). I think English is her second language, and some of the lyrics don't quite make sense, but even the most nonsensical still, in tandem with the music, somehow convey the overall intention of the song. The mood of the entire album is pretty sedate, as it's just her soft voice and a sometimes out-of-tune Spanish guitar (except for the strings on "Give Me a Smile"), but some of the songs are more uplifting than others. Like Nick Drake, I think there's an understated hope hidden in even the most dark-sounding tracks. This album, so the story goes, was part of a process of overcoming a deep depression. You can hear the darkness, but if you listen closely, you can hear the coming out of it, too.

sarks, shmoon, and bulats

TV: I realized I could save a lot of time by reading the recaplets of Heroes rather than actually watching the whole episodes. The reviewer has the decency to mention, even in the miniature recaps, when Peter takes his shirt off. The only thing I really miss out on is Hiro being adorable, and seeing Alias's Sark as a bad-guy again. Nothing major. I just kept watching stuff because the Netflix account that I'm using seemed to let me watch infinity hours. It was like a shmoo! I got nothing done! My own personal economy and util-assessments failed horrendously! Anyway, I could write some about how I felt about the show. Basically, I was disappointed because I'd been "saving" it for so long, and I thought it was too scattered to hold together well.

Music: Everyone who blogged about this singer-songwriter seemed to have a crush on her. I scoffed at them! But now I am one of them. How can you watch this video without wanting to put on a skeleton suit and dance around and be her BFF?

basia bulat, "In the Night":

i am legend

they don't make it clear from the promotional materials, but I am Legend suuuucks! Granted, I don't like zombie movies, but this one was particularly bad. A boring zombie movie? Yes, it is possible. A zombie movie that adds even less to the genre than most zombie movies? Also, surprisingly, possible.

all the heroes; all the shakespearos

I just watched the first episode of Heroes, the show that includes people who can fly, teleport, and have a separate, living reflection in the mirror, all genetically. Before this stage of human evolution, I hope the species becomes more resistant to cancer and diabetes, too. Because what's the fun of flying if you can't enjoy a big piece of cake afterwards?

Tomorrow it will finally stop raining, I heard.

Random Doctor Who quote, from the Shakespeare Code:
[after landing in 1599]
Martha Jones: But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?
The Doctor: Of course we can. Why not?
Martha Jones: It's like in those films: If you step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race.
The Doctor: Then, don't step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?

'to get rid of this god-awful feeling'

Psychology is going well, I guess. The readings are interesting (Jung and Freud so far). But I feel sick inside.

cloverfield

Glad to know we weren't the only ones who felt ill afterwards.

my condo

Did anyone ever wonder what my condo looks like? Well, I created a Flickr account because I'm trying to sublet for the summer (ad here, if you know anyone interested).

Here's a link directly to the pictures. They're not great pictures, just thought I'd get some use out of them.

Also, while I'm hawking sublets, my friend in Phoenix is looking to sublet her house during the Superbowl (or has that already happened?). Anyway, if you or anyone you know is interested, here's the link for that.

19: the edge of reason

one thing that makes me never want to write blogs again is reading my old blogs. it's horrendous reading things you wrote when you were 19! it should be banned! this is the same thing with old diaries and things so the fact that other people have read the writing makes it all the worse. what's the point of writing if i never want to re-read it? that's not the point of a diary! at the same time, i want to remember things (note: i've made a new playlist on iTunes, songs of forgetting and remembrance), and my brain cannot be relied on for anything except -that time i dropped the milk in the cafeteria and everyone laughed-. (insert your own humiliating memory that you should long since have forgotten)

but then i thought: what if i'd done something truly terrible when i was 19? i know people do important things when they're 19 (in college, we had a whole list of these people, because we were 18 and gearing up for our big year, but right now all i can remember is that lauren bacall and julia roberts made their big-screen debuts at 19, and that's just okay, but nothing you can really aspire to), but they also do embarassing things. for instance, what if had named myself something silly, like 'the edge,' and was still stuck with that name at the age of 45? now that would be a truly terrible legacy of being a teenager.