But Kermit and LCD Soundsystem raise some good points.  Gentrification, being poor for the first time, moving to a city that is somehow safe, political and police-oriented disillusionment… but oh, how we still love you.

And for more Kermit action, here’s a site made by someone with this absolutely brilliant idea: “Soon after the death of Jim Henson, Sad Kermit spiraled downward into a life of addiction, romance, and pain.  The songs and videos on this webpage shed light on Sad Kermit’s descent into his dark, hurting world.”

Sad Kermit

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I’d moved into a new apartment.  It’s a proper den of idiocy near the Lorimer stop on the L train.  A converted warehouse where I reside on the top floor with two roommates.  We have roof access and we’re steadily doing our part to up the awesome factor.  Incidentally, this also entails upping the amount of wine we drink while looking at Manhattan from our spectacular view.  Enjoy the video tour (and more) after the jump.  Continue Reading »

That last post was a little harsh.  Anyway.  This is what’s really been happening:

On Thursday, I rode the subway all the way through Brooklyn, to the AirTrain, straight to the ever-festive, newly remodeled Terminal 5 at JFK.  I fly in and out of this terminal quite often, as I’m building JetBlue points for free trips to such charmingly demure locales as Bogota, Colombia soon.  Nonetheless, it never ceases to amaze me.  This place makes me feel like Schaumburg, Illinois took a Woodfield Mall-sized dump on Queens and JetBlue decided to jump on the shitstorm that ensued and open shop.  What results is an airport terminal complete with fountains, skylights, plants, a LaCoste store, numerous places to get drunk and eat Buffalo wings, and a food court:

A quick vid of Terminal 5:

Continue Reading »

This is just too flagrantly awesome to not share with the world:

There are scant few times when I put my coffee mug down, shove my headphones deeper into my ear canals so that the vibrations can rest right up against my auditory ossicles, and wave away my flaneuristic yearnings in order to become totally engrossed in something I find online.

La Blogotheque made me do all 3 of these things then made me drop my coffee mug on the floor. This got the attention of the baristas who were on duty and, after paying for the mug, I showed them the site as well.  They agreed, it’s a veritable gold mine of “indie rock” excitement (zeus, how I hate that term).  Though a lot of the site is in French, the key features are displayed in English as well.  For instance, scroll to the bottom of that opening page and click on “All Take Away Shows.”

Here, you’ll find a collection of improvised “shows” by any band that Pitchfork heralded in the past few years.  They are all performed “spur of the moment” in public places, oftentimes involving more people than the typical band line up.  The results are almost always serene, buoyant, transparent versions of songs that are left out of the deepest part of your heart due to production on an album.  Here, each artist is stripped of all semblance of modernity and left to perform the song however they see fit.  The results: inspiring.

Some of my favorites: Continue Reading »

Things have been busy.  Big updates really soon, though.  For now… I hope these videos bring as much glee to your life as they have to mine:

“Please don’t confront me with my failures,

I had not forgotten them.”

I try not to bring politics into this… but this is just too amazing to not post.

Thanks to Brett Westnedge.  Visit his blog here.

So I’ve stumbled on some fun things lately and added a few new links (on the blogroll to the left).  Here’s a rundown:

BooHoo is a blog by Joe Dummitt.  He’s the one who is living in Argentina and whose voice occasionally shows up in the Covers Project portion of this blog.  Check out what he’s doing down South.

Brett Harmon is a close friend of mine who travels too much.  He also does some good things in terms of design and photography.  Check out his (huge array) of talents here.

Seminary Co-Op Books is a great book store in Chicago.  I occasionally write book reviews for them, so check out their blog of wonderful, intelligent front table books.

And some things keeping me happy:

The Mountain Goats.  Singing “One Fine Day.”  He goes from playfully giggling to unbelievably intense by the end.  I encourage watching this one straight through.

And here is The Mountain Goats playing “Cubs in Five,” this version especially poignant since it’s in Chicago.

Lyrics here.

From the beleaguering rant of the Penguin to the exasperated yet calm face of Batman… all the way to the condescension in the moderator’s tone and the side of the screen the candidates appear on, this is frighteningly familiar.

Oh Adam West… what ye could have taught were we listening.

I really hope there’s a lot of ::BAM!:: and ::WHACK!:: in November…