04.05.03
you've got a nerve to be asking a favor (pt. I)

photo: the singer of the apes, paul

paul, the singer from the apes took my camera and took a picture of me while he was singing. now that's talent!

hey peeps, so five bourbon and gingers into the walkmen show last night i was toast. most of it was a blur. i remember manning the merch table for a few minutes. then something like this happened:

and it was superb. look how alive hamilton looks! it got me jumpin'. it gave me the fever. on their second encore, they played my "french vacation" request. if i knew the title of that other song (you've gotta nerve to be asking a favor!) i would have requested they play that again. if i get the nerve, maybe i'll ask hammy what the title of that song is. here's the link to the photo gallery from last night.

tonight when they ask for requests, please scream "that's the punchline"

btw, while the walkies are rocking out over here on the chilly willy east coast, their buddies, french kicks, are rocking out in warm, sunny california. check out derek's photos from their show in pomona.

if you never saw my top 10 list for 2002, here it is on drewbacca, where it's been fermenting for quite a while now. bet you know who's topping the list...

04.04.03
you gave me your number, you don't have a phone

photo: jinners

it was really difficult for me to keep my big ol' mouth shut, but i did because i was told the walkmen secret show last night at sin-e was on the super DL. i can't believe i'm going to see them four nights in a row. how wonderful! how insane! whatever you do, don't say i've got deadhead devotion. i'm just young and taking advantage of my ever-distancing youth. how much longer can i do marathon shows?

check out the photo gallery from the secret walkmen show. click here for the razzle dazzling pix.

yeah, hamilton's army jacket is MIA. did he donate it back to the salvation army? i hope i didn't embarrass him out of wearing it, like jco hypothesized. i kinda liked the badass military gear. on a related note, peter still had the same jacket. i like that jacket, too.

my updates haven't been as frequent, but i swear, the quality of my posts will be much higher.

so anyway, the walkmen played a secret show sorta last minute at sin-e last night. peter kept saying that it was gonna suck, but i knew i had good reason to doubt him. i was listening to the everyone album earlier again and it just keeps blowing me away. fuck the naysayers. my several glasses of mediocre red wine gave me the asian pink, and i quickly melted into their swaying rhythms. they were better than i remembered them. after like 8 songs including many new songs and many old songs (i know, very fucking descriptive, jinners!), the cops stopped the walkmen set, citing the show was getting too loud. (de ja vous of a certain realistics show that was shut down by the cops for that same reason, tho rachel says that it was because it was too crowded. whatever, we were messed up and confusd that night so don't trust either of our accounts) is the east side of nyc becoming too fucking gentrified for rock? who are the stupid asses complaining about the quality music vibrating the last supper paintings on their walls? come on, already. give me a fucking break. at the merch table, we saw a walkmen baby doll tee shirt. what is up with that!?

anyhoo, derek wish you coulda been there.

isaac, i'm glad you think my site is "charming". about 99,999 other people think so, too, every week. of course, i don't have stellastarr* wearing my pin on national tv like melody nelson does. perhaps when the walkmen get their letterman spot, i can get him to wear a "jinners" pin.

04.02.03
my band is better than your band

photo: mclusky.com

mclusky will be at mercury lounge on april 22 with koufax. i know lots of people have mixed reviews on this punky pixies sound-alike, but i likes them. i appreciate the evil tone in their songs, the sense of humor infused in their lyrics, and crazy abandon running rampant in their choruses. i can picture totally losing control at their show. i can't wait!

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yesterday i found a treasure at work -- a jonathan fire*eater sticker! it was just sticking to the wall, and i asked if i could have it. no objections. now here it is! click on the thumbnails below to view.

according to derek of realistic records, there will be a record release party for the recoys album. and he and his partner max will fly up for the festivities. i'm hoping the invitation extends to moi! please save an invite for me, derek. btw, when do i get to hear the record? can you send me a copy?
;-)

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two bands i just heard about via coworkers who are in said bands: the brilliant mistakes and wiyo. has anyone heard anything about them? what are your opinions?

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rachel has her own launchcast station now. check it out!

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re: the yyys secret show i didn't go to... according to some listserv reports, sounds like so many people showed up for the "secret" gig that many were turned away. heard that sound wasn't too good. i'm kind of glad i didn't go because i hear karen o's entourage was in full force, and i just can't deal with them again. someone who talked to nick after the show said he thought the show wasn't very good and that karen and her girls couldn't hear their vocals at all. someone quoted karen as saying, "nobody listens to the vocals anyway." wtf is she talking about? sometimes when i listen to the yyys, that's ALL i hear. not all the time, of course, but a lot of the time. i'm still working out my love/hate relationship with the yyys. maybe i need to go to some post-punk therapy or something. a no-wave help group. there should be a helpline for people like me who just can't make up their minds or work out their dueling feelings of love and hatred. odi et amo!

04.01.03
i've seen better ways to waste my time

photo: jinners

yeah this is what i spent most of the french kicks show staring at. it's not my fault that my head is on level with nick's crotch. actually, it's rather obscene. he should crawl around the stage and sing to me face to face!

photo: jenyk and tiswas

do blondes have more fun, amanda? what a makeover, as rachel pointed out. amanda from stellastarr* joins the ranks of other fun blondes. perhaps she's been hanging out with w.i.t too much.

the french kicks have a new video for their song "when you heard you". apparently, country club is the new prep-school. the editing and effects in the video remind me of slow internet connections. luckily, i bow down to the power of cable modems! and yes, the kicks will play the bowery ballroom april 27th with the delgados. tickets are $15. show is 18 and over.

and just for the heck of it, watch the walkmen's "we've been had" video again. as bidi pointed out earlier, there's a shot of matt from that video in an mtv show about urban myths. my gawd, mtv hearts startime more than me. how is that possible?

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starting my new job on april fool's day. you can start the joking now. and no i didn't go to that yyys show last night. if angus was there, i will feel kinda sorry that i didn't go. i used to have a mad crush on him, even though he does have that redneck mullet-stache thang going on. on a brighter note, now that i've left alloy, i will probably be more inspired to post excerpts from my favorite interviews, including my phoner with that very, very tall aussie.

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psst. hamilton's real first name is james. pass it on.

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stupidity at its height. three men climb the billsburg bridge after a night of drunken debauchery. let this be a warning to you, jco and hope! [link from the morning news]

03.31.03
it goes something like this

photo: jane magazine, october 2002

a trip down memory lane -- this is the jane lookalike piece i took part in late last year. i have to say i don't get too many margaret cho references any more, but i used to when i first moved to nyc six years ago. click on the picture above to see a bigger version. my friend rachel met adrian tomine (who does the optic nerve series) at some comic book convention, and told him that her friend (me) related to hillary chan so much, it was creepy. he replied with a bored face, "yeah, i get that a lot." uh, he still signed a copy of the comic book for me. yay!

even if i could download the entire radiohead album right now, i would still buy it when it comes out in june (or if they push up the release date, i'll buy it then, too). why? i believe in supporting artists i like. music is a community and a nice luxury. we should be willing to pay to support the people who make great art (if we can afford to).

i was pretty sad on friday night because kimya had a couple cds of new music, and i really wanted to buy it, but i'm flat broke. but this doesn't mean that the next time i see her and i have cash, i'm not gonna buy those cds! so there! tell me what you think! tag my board.

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i added to my bio, putting cds i'm currently listening to and books i recently read. i got kind of inspired while surfing jenyk's site. i also wrote haikus about the cds in rotation. when i get a chance i'll write haikus about the books, too.

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HAMMY + JIN = SOMETHING IN COMMON?

i wasn't the only person featured in jane magazine. while i was miss october, hamilton was mr. december. he along with some other notable indie rockers were "rated" by models. who the fuck cares what models think? click on his picture above to see the full feature.