500 Top Songs

Posted on January 31, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

I’m a sucker for music lists to begin with, but when I read of a "socially retarded computer programmer"* the deal was sealed. Not to mention I am still trying to figure if "You smell like baloney!" is a literal or figurative insult? Perhaps the World** Will Never Know. So I present to you The [...]

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The Dumb Set

Posted on January 31, 2005 - Filed Under Books, Film | Comments Off

Monday – Jan 31Samina Ali discussing Madras on Rainy Days 7:30 PM Cody’s (Berkeley) Tuesday – Feb 01 Dinner with Samina Ali (Madras on Rainy Days) 7 PM Rakestraw Books (Danville) $15 Reservations required. (925)837-7337 Martin Jay discussing Songs of Experience 7:30 PM Cody’s (Berkeley) [Possible interest for fellow Prousters] Wednesday – Feb 02Bird & [...]

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And I Thought It Was All The Gay Sex

Posted on January 31, 2005 - Filed Under Books | Comments Off

But apparently San Francisco is most known for its literary and culinary offerings: This is the third monthly Canteen Literary Banquet — a sweet blend of excellent food by chef Dennis Leary, formerly of Rubicon (at his spanking-new restaurant next door to the Commodore), and readings by some of the Bay Area’s finest writers: tonight, [...]

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Tilly and The Wall / CocieRosie Live Concert Stream*

Posted on January 28, 2005 - Filed Under Music | 1 Comment

NPR will broadcast a live**  stream of their Saturday concert from Washington DC. Tune in around 9:30 (ET) . * Oh – Yeah some band called Bright Eyes will also be performing.** Not accounting for time to encode the audio stream along with latencies inherent in internet transmission.

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Dave Barry’s Spirit Lives On

Posted on January 28, 2005 - Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off

"No one is sure how the fire started, but a common theory is that heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile eventually ignited the manure."

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Lift to the Scaffold!

Posted on January 28, 2005 - Filed Under Film | Comments Off

It’s all very subjective of course (with my own favorites consistently falling in the 90′s) but here is a nice resource of movie soundtracks.  Now to find a DVD of the Harry Bellafonte gangster flick!

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Recommended Reading: Night by Elie Wiesel

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Books, Look Away! It's My Brain | Comments Off

As today marks the 60th anniversary of Soviet troops liberating the camps at Auschwitz, I plan on dusting off my copy of Night by Elie Wiesel — has it been 10 years since my last read? If you haven’t read this book, I urge you to. If you have, now is a good a time [...]

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I mean, think if only MLK were more like Mel Gibson?

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Religion | Comments Off

I can’t think of a better premise* than citing a quote that is attributed to Jesus (with no context to boot). That sounds like primary source to me. Forget the beatitudes, I guess it’s time to get all medieval on them heathen asses. Not to let reasoned thought or nuanced theology get in the way [...]

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New Pornographers Back In Business

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

My favorite Canadian export The New Ponographers are set to wrap their next album in March, for a summer or fall release. The former singer for Zumpano [Carl "AC" Newman] says that the album will feature the return of Neko Case and Nora O’Connor on vocals. He adds that Dan Bejar (also known as Destroyer) [...]

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MSG Good, ASG Better

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Books | Comments Off

Via Everywhere, David Weich at Powells interviews Andrew Sean Greer, author of the fantastic The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Among other things, in the interview it is revealed that some translations of the novel changed the title from" Confessions" to "Adventures", or the like to avoid confusing "more Catholic" nations from expecting something along the [...]

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Peter Carey Tonight

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Books | Comments Off

Just a reminder – Peter Carey will be reading at A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books tonight at 7:00.

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Bright Eyes Media Frenzy

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

I"m too lazy to link to all the articles* surrounding the release of the latest (excellent) Bright Eyes albums. So here’s the most recent.The NY Times writes up Tuesday’s Bright Eyes show at Town Hall. (See also the Brooklyn Vegan). It’s getting to the point where I may have to write my own Bright Eyes [...]

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Rogue Wave Interview

Posted on January 27, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

The reliably excellent Tim McMahan at Lazy-I talks to Zach Rogue of Rogue Wave as they head to Omaha. Apparently, Zach put out his first call for band mates on craigslist and … get this … initially got responses from "freaks". It has worked out so far, as the Rogue Wave have since signed to [...]

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I Ain’t Fucking No Chickens!

Posted on January 26, 2005 - Filed Under Robot Brains | 1 Comment

Interesting developments in the never boring world of genetic & biologic research. What’s caused the uproar is the mixing of human stem cells with embryonic animals to create new species. Biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin is opposed to crossing species boundaries, because he believes animals have the right to exist without being tampered with or crossed [...]

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Music Videos Galore

Posted on January 25, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

Here’s some notable music videos/streams I’ve come across in the last week or so. Some Replacements videos from a 1981 show where they opened for Husker Du The Postal Service’s  We Will Become Silhouettes (shot by Jared Hess, the director of Napoleon Dynamite) [Quicktime Video] Arcade Fire at KCRW(~ 40 min.) [Real Video] American Music [...]

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Gaddis at Chekhov’s Mistress

Posted on January 25, 2005 - Filed Under Books | Comments Off

Bud does his typical bang-up job at Chekhov’s Mistress, this time disussing William Gaddis and the myriad of references in  The Recognitions. It would be futile for me to try and summarize his post, so I won’t.  Trust me, internet, it is good.

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Blogging My MP3s

Posted on January 25, 2005 - Filed Under Look Away! It's My Brain, Music | Comments Off

I’ve just set up an account with Audioscrobbler, which logs songs I play in my media players (WinAmp & iTunes are my players of choice). Now the whole wide world can see what songs I am playing in (almost) realtime at my audioscrobbler page. I’ve also set this as a permanent link in "Other Hangouts" [...]

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Gang of Four

Posted on January 24, 2005 - Filed Under Music | Comments Off

The NY Times profiles the Gang Of Four, hitting the road for the first time since 1981. The music Mr. Gill wanted to make was like paintings he was doing at the time: precise black grids with blotches of paint smeared across them. "It would be the juxtaposition of tight, fixed patterns that were very [...]

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Can’t Lit Without My Radio*

Posted on January 24, 2005 - Filed Under Books, Music | Comments Off

Lit-Blogger extraordinaire Mark Sarvas DJ’ed for the internet at Pinky’s Paperhaus recently and an MP3 stream of his broadcast is now online. Also included were selected readings from some of his favorite books. * My apologies for this horrible title.

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Coupland & Carey Readings

Posted on January 24, 2005 - Filed Under Books | Comments Off

Peter Carey and Douglas Coupland will both be appearing in the Bay Area this week, taking turns at Cody’s and A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books. Peter Carey Wednesday 7:30 at Cody’s (Berkeley)Thursday 7:00 at A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Reading (San Francisco) Douglas CouplandFriday 7:00 at A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Reading (San Francisco)Saturday [...]

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