Walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

I just got back from a killer walk! I am trying to walk very briskly when I have to walk long distances now so that I can get my heart rate up and make it a workout. For some reason I have to go to a local grocery store to pay the bill for my Old Navy card, which I think makes no sense, but whatever. I listened to In Rainbows and by my estimation I walked about two miles before the record was over. I know that I'll be doing a ton of walking in New York next week, so I want to get conditioned for that. The other day at the beach I think I walked about 2 1/2 to 3 miles on the boardwalk which I walked the entire length of. So I'm happy today that I got my exercise and maybe when the sun goes down I'll walk some more.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I had nothing to do so I went to Coakleys, the best restaurant/bar in the 'burg and had some wings and some rum and cokes. Pretty standard. A friend of mine lives down the street from me and he walks there regularly, so I think I may start doing that with him even though when I walk I like to listen to tunes. It's almost exactly two miles from here, so that would be great exercise if I also had to walk back. I took my Mom out to dinner there two nights ago and we had a great time. The occasion was her birthday, which I was too dumb last week to celebrate on time. I got a killer coupon from our waitress for 20% off next time I go there, but it excludes alcohol. Oh well.........

Get to know The Smiths

What can I say about The Smiths that hasn't already been said? They are the quintessential '80s pop band and many believe that they basically invented the genre of alternative music. Such a great band, and I'm very fortunate to have been introduced to them by an old girlfriend who was a child of the '80s. Morrissey's witty, biting lyrics will leave you wanting more every time and Jonny Marr's guitar is so precise it sounds like it must be a computer program. Great stuff! So here I offer up both of their greatest hits collections for you to enjoy. If your unsure how to use Rar archives to extract the songs just leave a comment. Enjoy!

Volume I

Volume II

I'm impressed slash mortified

So this girl Kristen is mad young. She lives in the south where she writes a blog and stories, poems and whatever else. Of course all of the fun had to come to an end rather abruptly because people had to be fools and harass her and spam her. Not fucking cool. However, she has started a new blog that she is trying to keep as a JFZ. A Jerk Free Zone. Anyway, she has been nice enough to read and comment here so I will return the favor and hopefully send some readers her way. I hope it works. You can find her blog here: http://canabalisticmonkey1.blogspot.com/.

She has also begun to write a story about a vampire who kills vampires. It's coming along nicely too. Watch out for the naked dude in the background. He might get you! Find the story, Valdor, here:
http://canabalisticmonkey4.blogspot.com/.

What did I do today? First I wrote on here about my weird dreams that I hope to forget about. Then I went to Borders books and chilled. I saw that there's a book about Rodney Mullen called Mutt, which I really would like to get. It came out in 2004, but I've never seen it before which I blame Borders and B&N for. He he. Also while there I check out books by Carl Hiassen. I might get into his stuff soon if I ever finish the three books I'm reading right now. Anyway, I left one bookstore and headed to the other. At B&N I saw George and just kind of walked around. Saw my friend Jeff and he was telling me about upcoming shows at a tiny venue that has just started up. It's actually been started by another friend of mine. They're going to have shows there and art photography showings as well. Like everybody I know is working for the place in one respect or another. Pretty cool.

Nothing notable happened at either bookstore today, but they were the only places I could go to get out of the house on a nice day.

I know it's over

I normally wouldn't post about dreams because it's a widely held belief, especially among the comedy community (which I really respect) that people's dreams are kind of clunkers to listen to. i mean usually they have no meaning to the listener and you're like "And then..." and they're like "Yeah, whatever." But I've been having weird dreams lately.

To encapsulate as briefly as possible:

I had a dream that I was sharing a beach house for like a whole week with SVT who I was in a relationship with. The dream never turned sexual, though, it was more just like chilling and enjoying each others company. Ponderous!

I had a dream while I was at the beach that a woman I used to know and I saw Morrissey play a show at a tiny 650 seat venue in the burg. Thoughts: Morrissey frickin' rules! Also, whatever became of this woman? Is she still alluring and vivacious or did she as I like to say, turn a corner hard after hitting 40? Yeah, I remember Sylvia!!

I had a dream that I was taking a bus to this place although I can't remember where I was going. I tried to get back but was super late for work and my people there were like "What??!!"

I don't know what either of these dreams mean. I guess the first one is par for the course so I can wake up and dread my lack of female companionship more. I have dreams like that all the time and am reminded of The Smiths' song Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me. Oh, whatever, I don't want this post to become a pity party. That's lame.

Last night I chilled at Ryan's and we watched A Clockwork Orange. I guess Jess being somewhat young, Ryan has taken it upon himself to show her all the cult classic movies he can. Sort of like when introducing your lady to Mr. Show or Kid A. Jess and I were talking about Lil Wayne, since she's in his prime demographic. She was playing me some of her other beloved tunes from her laptop. Ryan and I talked briefly about the Scarface soundtrack. He thought it was good for it's time. It wasn't though. He lamented the fact that he couldn't watch Scarface and I went on a minirant about Scarface being soooo overrated. All in all a pretty fun night. Mike even dropped by for a little while, which was awesome.

Ha! Awesome!

"Always two there are, a master and an apprentice." - Yoda

Beach and other stuff

I'm seeing Radiohead again in two weeks and I 'm so excited! I get to see them three times over the course of five days, so that's going to rock hard. I'll be taking many more photos and you can check my photos from the last time I saw them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgone/.

So I went to the beach, but didn't really stay down there too long. There were only a couple things I wanted to do, so once I did them I decided to just head home. I went to the Vans outlet store and got a great deal. I got two pairs of Dustin Dollins for less than $60, so that was awesome. I'm not sure about the colors of one of the pairs, but I'm sure I'll end up wearing them eventually.

The beach itself was alright. I spent most of my time there just walking the boardwalk and checking out the shops. I only found two skate shops and my favorite one from back in the day isn't there anymore. I walked the entire length of the boardwalk so at least I got good exercise. Also, while staying at my friends' house I got to watch Natalie Portman's episode of SNL on their 52 inch TV which was cool.

Right now I'm back in PA listening to the new episode of Uhh Yeah Dude. Like The Best Show, it's getting better every week. It's really one podcast that I constantly check for to see if there is a new episode. They took two weeks off at the end of June and I was dying. Speaking of The Best Show, as I said in an earlier post, last week's episode was fantastic and I'm putting it up as an introduction for anyone who wants to check it out. Give a listen, you won't regret it! More episodes and other goodies available at Friendsoftom. com (see links).

WFMU's The Best Show on WFMU 7/22/08

Damn, I wanted to see Pineapple Express this week, but it doesn't come out until August 6th. By then I will have seen the trailer 10,000 times. Maybe I'll see it while I'm in New York. I can't wait for that trip, it's going to be a blast. In checking out the Pineapple Express website I see that Huey Lewis and The News have a new song on it! The title track no less. They're one of my guilty pleasures as far as '80s music goes. I love on Back In Time when Huey says "Get back, Marty." So cheesy. Good to see they're making music again.

What a nice day

I woke up a little late and then wanted to just chill. I didn't want to head to the beach in rush hour necessarily, so I decided to give my friend a call. He said that his wife wasn't feeling well, which is a shame. So I just told him I'd come tomorrow and maybe come back Monday. On Monday or maybe Sunday my friend, John gets to housesit at a place with four (4!) Corgis!! I went there last time I was in town and not only are the dogs super smart and awesome but they also swim in the pool!!! Corgis gettin' loose!! They have a male who is huge and it made me feel better about my old dog because I was like "He was normal!"

Later in the day, I headed over to B&N and ran into George. He's doing really well and is, I believe, in love, which is awesome. I forgot to ask him where he's living right now. I must remember to call him so he has my new number. While at B&N I checked out this new, big book all about the Friday the 13th movies. I just kind of skimmed it but it was nice to see Ari Lehman finally get his due for playing the kid version of Jason who pops out of the water.

Steve, killer call this week! I was just reading the board and I had forgotten about Ramsey's awesome call too. I'm listening to the show now. Great show this week all around I thought. Email me.

I'm still reading A Confederacy of Dunces but have slowed down because I have gotten way too into Blogger lately. Holy jeez. I guess it's just because I like discovered all these different things lately which I'm just checking out. Still reading Harry Potter too, which is cool.

My new hero

Damn, this record is good!! I heard on UYD that Lil Wayne has a personal dude that applies lip gloss to his lips during his shows. I think he might be kind of psycho, but the record is not only really tight as far as the rhymes, but personally, I think it's one of the funniest rap albums I've ever heard and I mean that in a good way.

People might wonder why everything I blog about is like two weeks to a month old. Let me explain. I surf the net and see stuff and sometimes I get jazzed on it. Usually however, I don't think it really warrants a post. Then a few weeks later, I'll remember how cool I thought the thing was and I'll finally post about it. Certain blogs I read, I love because they help me stay ahead of the curve as far as cool stuff coming out and what to look forward to. For some reason though I never think anything is cool until I've had time to really think about it and that takes a little while. I don't know why. If you want to stay current and be a nerd about stuff I'd suggest checking my links section for the latest info. Or you could just wait until something is everywhere and everyone's already up on it and then I'll post about it.
Anyway, Tha Carter III is making me want to check out all of Weezy's other releases. I like him a lot better than Kanye but he's still not up there with Ghostface or legends like KRS to me. God, I loved KRS-ONE when I was young. I still listen to Live Hardcore Worldwide all the time and I could probably recite the whole thing.

On to other stuff, I delayed my beach trip until tomorrow after calling work and finding out that I don't have to work again until next Saturday! Woo hoo! I like working, but I'm loving all this time off too. I wish I was doing more with my time, but what more could I be doing than updating my blog that two people read?

Anyway, get Tha Carter III here.

All I Need

Tha Carter III

I got Tha Carter III tonight after wanting to smack people (magazines) for a month because I was sick of hearing about it everywhere (magazines). I'm not very deep into it, but it is really good! Like the X Files, when it comes to 21st century hip hop, I want to believe. It just mostly seems so empty though. Plus I love guitars and human drums. In other shit musically I've been getting really into Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds version of Black Betty because of the Baker/ Deathwish video I wrote about yesterday. That's just a badass version of that song. Way better than Ram Jam! Also, I've been listening to M.I.A.'s Paper Planes a ton because of it being in the Pineapple Express previews. Such a cool song. I don't really like M.I.A. a ton, so I don't listen to her music that often but I guess it depends on my mood.

Tonight I went out with Ryan and my friend Bryan and we hit a few places. It was OK, but we spent a lot of money despite drinking totally free at one place. After I left those guys I went to Coakley's which was awesome. I called my friend Dana who I'd not seen in like five months and he came and we chilled a bit. Also, there was a really cute girl there who talked with me about beach bands like Mr. Green Jeans and a little known outfit called, of all things, Burnt Sienna.

Just now, The Lil Wayne track I was listening to ended and Lou Reed's Perfect Day came on and for a second I was like "If Lil Wayne sampled this I'm at every show for the next ten years!" But then I realized what happened.

I know there was something else but I can't think of it right now.

Wacky Wednesday

So tonight at work was pretty chill. I made exactly the amount of money that I thought I would and managed to see some hot girls in the process. After work I came home, but quickly got bored because I don't have any smoke, so I went to Coakley's to get a six pack and ran into Mike and my boss. They were hanging out together and my boss was trashed. We must have hugged like thirty times! So that was fun. We had some good conversations and I think I might start hanging out with Mike more as a result of this meeting. I haven't chilled with Ryan and Jess in a few days but I'll probably hang out with them tomorrow. I've got to take my Mom out to dinner tomorrow night for her birthday, which was today.

Other than all that I'm getting my New York travel plans in order for All Points West, which is in two or three weeks. I can't wait. Also, and I may have mentioned this already, but my friend Greg, who went with Ryan and I to the VA Radiohead show in May, is selling me a ticket to Camden for $70, so I'm going to that show too. Nice!

Recently, I've been watching the Baker Has A Deathwish video on Youtube and it's killer. I feel like posting it but it's a six parter and I don't feel like putting it up right now. Deathwish is to Baker as Chocolate is to Girl. Sort of an off shoot company, which I imagine will be huge. Lizard King is on the team and I think he has a killer part in BHAD. So tight!
Lately I've been seeing skaters doing this hill by my house. Steve will know what I mean when I say that they've been skating down the bridge where KFC is and then dodging through traffic like a motherfucker. So badass! I hope they're videotaping that shit. Kids are sarging shit like there's no tomorrow. Maybe there isn't.
Ah, what the hell....... Here's part one.

P'zones are the thing

So, I've been looking on Ebay and that Corey O'Brien is gone. The seller must have taken it down and sold it privately. I did see a similar one that sold for $1,136 though.
Today I just chilled and started reading the first Harry Potter book. Pretty chill day, made some phone calls and finalized my beach plans. I'm leaving Friday and coming back Sunday or Monday.

Up all night

I don't know why I keep posting. I'm just bored I guess. I had the idea of starting a new blog to post some of my fiction writing, but figure that if I ever figure any of it is presentable enough I'll just post it here. Reading A Confederacy Of Dunces is really showing me how much better my writing could or should be. That's a great book. My friend is trying to get me into Harry Potter, so I'll take her up on it.

Man, I'm listening to the new Beck album, Modern Guilt and I've gotta say I don't get what all the hype is about. I used to really like Beck and I still revisit Mutations, Odelay and Seachange from time to time, but the new album just doesn't seem to grab me at all. It's ironic too because everyone on Atease was going so crazy over this album. I've been trying to find it for a few days and found it tonight on Atease and it's just "Meh."

I was looking at skateboards on Ebay tonight and that was pretty cool. I've also been looking at Google groups which seems cool. I read a couple cool blogs that I found on there because people can sort of say "Hey, check out my blog." on there. Also on there I saw a thread where people from all over the world post pictures of where they live which was pretty neat. A lot of them were from India and the Philippines. God, I love the Philippines! I so want to go back there. I want to go anywhere lately. I get to go to New York and New Jersey next month so that's cool as hell. I miss NY and I miss LA more. Jesus wept.

We're tracking this thing!

This thing's on Ebay starting at $900 with a Buy It Now price of $1,200. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

Episodes

Oh my God it's been the most boring night ever. I woke up at, like, 9, just in time to feed the dogs, which was feeding them really late. I didn't do too much today other than talk to my Dad, which was kind of weird, and then I just slept.

One good thing about today is that there was a new episode of Uhh Yeah Dude that I got this afternoon. I'm really loving their Craigslist married M4M segment and since it's not uploaded at a regular time or day of the week anymore I check iTunes like a coke monkey for new episodes. UYD for life!! One other cool thing about it is that one of the hosts is in this band Fixed Action Pattern, which used to go by the name Jogger. I am addicted to their song BISS. It's crazy! Check their Myspace, if you want. I hate Myspace. I started a Facebook like a month ago to find my cousin but that's not that great either. Wuh-wuh.......

I hope that The Best Show is on again tomorrow. Something is wrong with my Realplayer, so I can't browse the archives. Like tonight I'm sitting here with all this time on my hands and just listening to NNF, but I'd rather be listening to Tom.

I've gotta do some stuff tomorrow. I get nervous when I've wasted a whole day and haven't done anything on either front. Today was such a waste, but at least I didn't drink or eat like a total goon. Yesterday I drank a six pack of pounders and was not that pleased with the results. I went to bed at like ten thirty, so that was cool.

I want to get up early tomorrow and make some calls and then get out of the house for a while. I'll probably just walk to Barnes and Noble and hang out there for a while. I think they got rid of all of their skate magazines. Every time I go there I look, but I always seem to end up staring at an issue of Vogue Knits and going "What the fuck?!"

So my new phone is OK. The menu still sucks, and I'd warn anyone who wants to get a Tracfone that when you first set it up there's a fair amount of bullshit to deal with. Today I had to call their customer service and get these codes for my phone. It's definitely not just a phone that you can use right out of the box. Also, like I said yesterday the phone itself leaves a lot to be desired too. Whatever though. If I can get it so that I'm only spending $15 or $20 a month on a phone then I'll be happy. It's just nice to have a phone that actually stays on.
God, I can't believe how big this Batman movie is. I was talking to my manager at the ENC and I guess like everybody there has seen it. He said he went at 11 in the morning because the 3 am show was sold out. Pretty cool. I'll have to see it. maybe I'll go to a matinee tomorrow.

I work Wednesday and then I'm heading back to the beach on Thursday or Friday. I can't wait! I just hope that I make good money when I work so I don't have to dip into savings too much for the trip. Man, summer's almost over and all I did was get fat and hangout. Jesus!

Matrix 2

Last night I was going to go with my friend to see The Dark Knight, but we stayed at her house and watched the second Matrix movie. It was the second time I tried to watch it and just like the first time, I fell asleep pretty early on. I did wake up and catch most of it, but I don't get what all they hype with that trilogy is about. Is there enough slow motion in the movie or what? Every single thing that happens shouldn't require a slow mo 360 rotation, but I guess the Wachowski brothers feel differently. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I don't get the whole Matrix thing. Like they can slow bullets down because they know they're basically in a video game, but they can still get shot? I don't get it.

I got a new cell phone yesterday and I'm trying to figure out if it sucks or not. I decided to get a Tracfone, because I don't use my phone enough to justify a $50 a month bill. I'll mostly use this new phone for texting because that doesn't cost anything really. With this new phone I just pay about $30 for 200 minutes, which should take me like two months to use. The phone that got is a Motorola and it only cost $9. Holy shit would I never get a Motorola phone though. It's not very intuitive and navigating through the menus is idiotic. I don't know if all their phones are like that or just the cheap ones, but yeah, it's kind of ghetto. I'll write more later.

House Of Cards

So right now I'm reading Confederacy Of Dunces. Pretty good. I'm not that far into it having only just bought it the other day at Barnes and Noble. B&N was pretty fun. I ran into a couple people that I know and I got to see George who is doing well. He was telling me that the store has been overrun with young hotties lately. While I was there, I also bought the Upright Citizens Brigade's ASSSSCAT DVD, which is pretty good. I wish I could go to that show. I'll definitely try to make it to a performance next time I'm in LA. Who knows when that will be though.
Today I'm supposed to go over to Ryan's and chill. I don't know what we're going to do, probably just watch some Nightmare On Elm Street and chill.

Radiohead's House Of Cards - This video is the first to be made entirely with 3D plotting technologies. No cameras or lights were used. I'll post the making of video too.

...the tune by my dudes...my homies...The Hooters.

So last night at the restaurant was pretty OK. I made like $90 so that was cool and I was only really busy for just a little bit. Really I was just happy to get the exercise that I get out of working. I'm trying to walk a lot more but I'm not seeing any of these newly acquired pounds come off. It's crazy gaining like 30 pounds in six weeks. I hated working at Amazon, but I guess that was giving me the work out that I needed to maintain a healthy weight. The problem with walking is I always seem to walk to the same plaza where I either load up on candy at the dollar store or buy a bottle of whiskey. That's retarded but it's true. A few weeks ago I was going to walk to Ryan's (about 3 1/2 miles) but couldn't time my arrival right.

In drinking news I have slowed way down, which is awesome. In Living Lohan news, I have sped way up. I caught an episode of it at the beach and now I watch it on demand. It's pretty uninteresting and I've only really watched about three episodes. I need to start watching that other show on E! known as The Soup. That shit is hilarious and a girl once told me I remind her of the host, which is cool. I think I'm going to eat a pizzone tonight or however the hell you spell it.
Oh shit! I almost forgot to mention that my Best Show fun pack arrived yesterday and I've got to thank Steve publicly for sponsoring it! Awesome move.
Boring Friday. My friend asked me if I was working on anything new and I wish that I could say yes but I'm not. Although I appreciate being asked. Ryan is at All Good in W. VA, I think until Sunday or Monday. I'll have a lot of time this weekend to do important stuff like go to Barnes and Noble and lurk. I haven't been there in a little while and I'd like to check up on George, who was having some health troubles this time last month. I think he's back to work now so I've got to go and say "What up!?"
The new Sigur Ros album is really good.

Damn!

I haven't updated the blog lately and I've really been meaning to. Steve, I've been wanting to email you too. I'm working on it. Hold on..... sent!
Anyway, since I last wrote I've been down to the beach. That was great. I chilled with my friends who just moved down to Delaware and we went to Rehoboth a few times. We were going to go to Ocean City which is about thirty miles away but with it being July 4th weekend the traffic on Rt. 1 was just too much to bare. So I never made it down to Ocean City but I plan on going back down to visit after the Radiohead dates this summer. Then it won't be a holiday and I can just shoot down. My friend's uncle who lives down there says that over July 4th weekend there are 2 million people in town.
The cool thing about my friends living where they do is that it's super close! It seems to take no time to drive there and only used about a sixth of a tank of gas. Driving down was a breeze as was driving back. Driving back was cool because I came back on Saturday night, so I got to see tons of fireworks displays in the distance from the road. So Saturday night I get back and I'm just checking email and stuff and I get a call from my friend Scott who lives in Austin. He is the younger bro of Mike and Doug and he was back from their family beach vacation. So I head to the basement at about 2 and chill there until about 7. It was really fun. They were busting my chops because they'd heard about my sleepwalking night prowl the previous week. It's Ok though because they are a family who are very accustom to these types of things.

Sunday was my birthday and my Mom took me to Coakley's to celebrate. I went to work to check my schedule and lo and behold I only work Thursday this week! So I'm gearing up for that, believe me.
I've been watching a lot of movies lately because when you chill with your friends that's what tends to happen. I watched Walk Hard and that was great. Just rewatched it tonight with my Mom. She liked it, and I liked it more the second time. I also watched comedian Doug Benson's documentary Super High Me, which was fantastic. I rewatched it last night with Jess and Ryan and they loved it. Doug Benson rocks and if you have never heard The Marijuanalogues, I highly recommend it. Ryan and I listened to that on the way down to VA in May and it still holds up comedicly.

One thing that I keep forgetting to mention that's totally unrelated to all this other stuff is Never Not Funny video. I guess in a move to get people to sign up for the premium, they decided to start filming their episodes. The videographer is Andrew Koenig, brother-in-law of Jimmy and son of Walter Koenig of Star Trek fame. You may remember him as Boner from Growing Pains. Anyway, why not check out some video of such guests as Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Daly, Matt Walsh, and "3rd chair" Pat Francis. Great show and I wish them tons of success with the thing. Never thought I'd pay for a podcast and I loved Gervais, but didn't follow him once you had to pay.

I'll write more soon. For real.