VAGUE SPACE

The Fault in Our Stars

2012-02-14T08:21:00-05:00

Cancer books normally scare me off. Hell, I bought this novel based on my previous love for John Green's writing and rave reviews for his latest and I still didn't want to read it once I had it home. Even though every review said it isn't really a cancer book, it isn't sad or maudlin or depressing. But still: Cancer book. Who wants to read that? Well I'm glad I did and I'm here now to try to convince you to do the same. This is an amazing book. I recommend it highly.

The narrator is a 16-year-old girl named Hazel and she's got cancer. Terminal cancer of some form that is described in minor detail that I won't bore you with now. But Hazel is funny. Not like laugh-out-loud funny but full-on sarcastic, I'm going to die but I'm cool with it and the world kind of sucks, funny. You know, funny. She's an incredibly appealing narrator who becomes even moreso when she meets Augustus, a cancer kid in remission who finds her at a support group at her church (which is the victim of some well-earned barbs). What starts as mostly a cancer story becomes a love story, something else I don't particularly care for in my reading but these two characters are so damned appealing that I couldn't help myself. I couldn't help but love the story being told. Hazel's parents and Gus's parents and Isaac from support group who is partially blind from the cancer are all perfect supporting characters and there's a wonderful connection to a book by an author in the Netherlands but I won't spoil with any more information other than to say that every character comes to life, no matter how minor, and everything in the story serves an eventual purpose. The cancer angle is there throughout -- how could it not be -- but it's not an overwhelming presence, and even your attachment to the characters doesn't quite make you sad about their fate in life because they've accepted it, they are bravely facing it, so you as a reader go along. As you must. And John Green's magical writing takes you wherever he wants to. I couldn't put the book down, I read it in just a few hours over a couple sittings. And I would suggest that anyone -- even someone turned off by cancer stories or love stories or stories about teenagers or anything else -- would love it too. Please give it a read. You won't be disappointed.

Buy The Fault in Our Stars

New Moonface!!!!!!!

2012-02-13T08:59:00-05:00

Is that too many exclamation points? I don't care. This has easily been the shittiest past 2 months in my life since like ever and now that I'm walking around again and able to drive (but still in fucking pain) I was out of the house when I read the Pitchfork tweet about a leak of the first song of the forthcoming Moonface album and I really couldn't contain myself (sorry, people at Jiffy Lube!). And then I got home and took a listen and I'm still freaking out. Moonface -- for those new to this blog or this planet -- is Spencer Krug's latest band incarnation in the wake of his self-imposed shuttering of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, 2 of my favorite 5 bands of all-time. And Moonface, he announced, would be a catch-all for a bunch of different recordings he'd be making in the coming years. The first 2 releases -- a 20-minute single-song EP titled Dreamland followed by a full album of five 8+ minute songs that won the Vague Space 2011 album of the year, Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped, were significant departures from his work with WP or SR, heavily organ-based (obviously), more instrumental, no guitars, all keyboards, machine percussion, and a unique but intrinsically thrilling sound that took a while to get into but ultimately was wonderful. This latest Moonface release -- coming April 17th!!! -- is a collaboration with the Finnish instrumental band Siinai, whose members opened for Wolf Parade years ago when they were in a different band, and it's titled Heartbreaking Bravery. I don't know anything about Siinai, I might have listened to one or two of their tracks but I tried to keep from hearing too much while I awaited this collaboration, which Spencer promised to be a return to a heavier rocking sound than the previous Moonface records. And I can confirm that now. This first track is definitely a rock song. A beautiful, perfect, stunning, catchy, and way-too-damn-short track. No slow build like Dreamland or "Fast Peter". This is instantly full of hooks and roaring guitars and smashing drums and... fucking Spencer's perfect fucking voice. Just wow. Fuck. There's some of what I would call futuristic sound effects layered throughout but it's mostly a straight ahead pop song that doesn't sound at all like Wolf Parade and not really much like Sunset Rubdown and nothing like Moonface to date, but it's wonderful. Spencer, unsurprisingly, does it again. And already we have a challenger to Shearwater's "You As You Were" for 2012 song of the year.

You looked so beautiful then. And you look so beautiful now.

Download Moonface - "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips".mp3

Go to Jagjaguwar for more details. No pre-order up yet.

Random Music Friday

2012-02-10T08:00:00-05:00

Song: "The Reasons"
Artist: The Weakerthans
Year: 2003
Album: Reconstruction Site

Download The Weakerthans - "The Reasons".mp3

How I don't know how to sing
I can barely play this thing
But you never seem to mind
And you tell me to fuck off
When I need somebody to.
How you make me laugh so hard.
How whole years refuse to stay
Where we told them to, bad dog,
Locked up blindly in a word
Or a misplaced souvenier
How the past chews on your shoes
And these memories lick my ear.

I know
You might roll your eyes at this
But I'm so
Glad that you exist.

How we waste our precious time
Marching in the picket lines
That surround those striking hearts,
And the time is never now
And we know who we should love
But we're never certain how.

I know
You might roll your eyes at this
But I'm so
Glad that you exist.

I know
You might roll your eyes at this
But I'm so
Glad that you exist.

I know
You might roll your eyes at this
But I'm so
Glad that you exist.

Syracuse 23-1

2012-02-08T08:44:00-05:00

Well Fab is back. And all is right with the world. After 3 games without the sophomore center in which the previously undefeated Syracuse Orange lost to Notre Dame and struggled to beat Cincinnati and West Virginia, Fab Melo's academic situation was resolved and he returned to the lineup on Saturday in Madison Square Garden against St. John's (not "at" St. John's as the majority of fans in the sold-out arena were rooting for the Orange). Fab's presence was pretty immediate and an early blocked shot led to a fast-break like we hadn't seen since he'd been gone and the Cuse took control to win, running away, 95-70, dominating like they had for nearly the whole season -- the previous 3 games excepted. Admittedly St. John's is small and they do not match up with Syracuse well at all and their "home" game wasn't exactly any kind of advantage but it was really great to see the team back to its soul-crushing ways, cruising to the victory against the talented (but freshman-laded) Johnnies. We're getting into the meat of the schedule, though, starting tonight against Georgetown, a stretch of late-season challenges including 2 against Louisville and 2 against UConn after tonight's battle royale with our hated rivals. So I have a feeling that close games are going to be the norm again, and hopefully the experience of struggling without Fab helped to train these boys how to win the tight ones for when it really matters. And it really matters starting tonight. A season-record crowd of 33,000+ is expected. Georgetown is really, really good, as usual. And they're not really afraid of the Dome. We need everyone to play and play big. Especially Mr. Melo.

With Fab back in the middle, the defense is dramatically improved, partly because his shot-blocking presence forces other teams to alter shots when they're around the rim even when he doesn't swat that shit away but also because his backline existence allows the guards to take more risks, go for steals and generally pressure the ball harder, knowing that if they get beat Fab is still there to clean that shit up. So much of their success this season has been built around steals and turnovers and blocked shots leading to fast breaks -- where they are simply dominant -- but without Fab, the defense wasn't able to turn the game around, suffering through grinding half court games on both sides of the court where they weren't nearly as effective. They didn't shoot well with Fab out, largely because they needed to rely on making plays on the half-court and they struggled, particularly from beyond the arc. At some point this season, the team was shooting well from outside but they've been around or under 30% from 3-point range for the past 7 games and are near the bottom of the Big East in 3-pt. shooting percentage -- even as they lead in overall FG%. Fast break layups and dunks from Dion Waiters and Kris Joseph, along with CJ Fair's deadly midrange jumper, make up for a lot of misses from outside the arc. But all of that only happens when the team is running. And it's tough to go running if your defense isn't creating chances. Without Fab inside, the defense isn't creating chances. And this is a much worse team.

So we'll see what happens from here on out. Fab had a career-high 14 points on Saturday but honestly, the only thing we really need from him (besides not getting into any other academic "situation" that leaves him on the bench) is to stay out of foul trouble, stay on the court, and dominate on defense like only he can on the team. If you were to tell me last year at this time that Fab Melo -- the in-over-his-head laughable load of a freshman center -- would be the most important player on the team this year and the #1 reason we were 23-1 and #2 in the nation -- well, I would have asked what drugs you were on and if I could get any. But this year has been a strange, wonderful ride, and Fab has been the catalyst. We'll see what this team is made of over this last stretch of games heading into the Big East tournament. Personally, I think we're looking at the best team in the nation. As long as Fab is on the court.

New Music Tuesday

2012-02-07T08:12:00-05:00

In today's post, we have a 2nd track from the forthcoming Bowerbirds album The Clearing, which I have to say is getting me more and more excited; we have a new track off a new Woodpigeon EP For Paolo that is pretty damn awesome; we have a couple tracks that I like from bands I don't know much about, some that I know a little more about (Said the Whale, Damien Jurado), and we have the "slow version" of Superchunk's absolutely brilliant 2009 B-side "Blinders", the origins of which you can find here. And just in case you missed it last week, I'll kick things off with the best song of 2012, a song that every other song released this year will be hard-pressed to match.

Pee into this Cup, Governor Scott, You Asshole

2012-02-06T07:01:00-05:00

Aasif Mandvi brings out the funny with this perfect report on the hypocrisy of Republican lawmakers in Florida and their oh-so-1980s-style attempts to demonize welfare recipients as drug addicts abusing our taxpayer dollars so the rest of us -- the actual taxpayers -- can continue to avoid casting our angry glare at the corporations and lobbyists and politicians in their pockets who have spent at least the last 10 years actively legislating against both the poor and middle class. Because -- hey -- if we get pissed about the random welfare mother (read: African-American woman) who bought $150 Nikes at Wal-mart that one time we heard from someone one time who works there, then we might not notice how Bush's tax cuts (still in effect) cost the treasury $1.065 trillion since 2001 on just the top 5% of taxpayers, or including all tax payers, close to $2.5 trillion over the past 10 years - and the top 5% got 52.5% of that benefit in 2010. Or we might not notice how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost our treasury between $1.4 trillion and $3.7 trillion, depending on what factors you include to calculate it (such as lifetime veterans benefits). Or we might forget that corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP have fallen to an all-time low of less than 1.3% (down from 6% in the 1950s). In fact total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the lowest level since at least 1972. And well below the 25.6% companies paid on average from 1987 to 2008. If we were taxing corporations at a western world average of ~3% of GDP, that would bring in an additional $300 Billion to the treasury -- or enough to fund the national Food Stamps program (~3.5% of our national budget = $120 Billion) + welfare (also know as TANF = 0.8% of the budget = $30 Billion) + extended unemployment benefits (~4.4% = $145 Billion). Yes, just making corporations in America pay what they would in the rest of the free world WHILE THEY ARE MAKING RECORD PROFITS AND NOT HIRING MORE AMERICANS would pay for all social assistance programs for the poor every year.

Let me repeat some of those facts clearly here: "Welfare" is only 0.8% of our federal budget. Welfare + Food Stamps + Unemployment Insurance is about $300 Billion a year. We spend more than that every year on Bush's tax cuts (almost that much just for the cuts for the top 5%). We spend more than that every year on our unnecessary and pointless wars. We spend more than that every year on tax breaks for corporations. And we spend -- oh I don't know -- nearly 3x that much ($868 Billion in 2010) just on national defense (which may or may not include the war spending, I'm not sure). And of that $300 Billion on "welfare", how much is "undeserved" by drug addicts and welfare queens instead of poor kids and the unexpectedly unemployed who cannot find a job because no one's hiring? What would you want to cut out? 10%? 20%? That's a rounding error for the Bush tax cuts. That's like 1% of what we're spending on weapons. That's nothing. NOTHING.

Please, my middle class friends and family. Focus on what matters. Before the corporations and the rich and the Republicans make you pee into a cup for your share of the government -- you or your parents' Social Security, your parks, your libraries, your roads, your bridges, your child's education!, your fucking shared existence in America, which used to be the land of the free but in the hands of the far-right freaks running our government today, is quickly becoming the "Land of the Pee."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Stephen Writes a Children's Book

2012-02-02T08:53:00-05:00

...and other absolute laugh-out loud hilarity in this 2-part interview with Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are.

The Colbert Report
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Part 2. Colbert: "What does it take for a celebrity to make a successful (children's) book?"
Sendak: "Well you've started already by being an idiot."

The Colbert Report
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Ferris Bueller Honda Commercial

2012-02-01T09:27:00-05:00

H/T to LegFu for alerting me to this... the commercial to end all commercials, the Ferris Bueller redux, starring Matthew Broderick as himself, some 27 years later (wow, has it really been that long?) Ferris was my favorite movie growing up and it still would make any list of my all-time favorites today. I assume that Honda didn't acquire the "rights" to the movie or something because they didn't go into a full-on copy of the film, but the commercial definitely makes reference to a lot of the highlights. Not as much laugh-out-loud funny as it is pleasantly amusing and a trip down memory lane, but there are a few really great moments. This is the full 2+ minute version below. I don't know what they will actually edit this down to for the Super Bowl.

You as You Were

2012-01-31T08:52:00-05:00

I had surgery on my foot on December 7th, which turned out to be my own personal Pearl Harbor. And yes, I just compared my travails over the past 2 months with the attack that started America's entrance into World War II. Which might be worse than me weaving the story of my upcoming surgery with a review of 127 Hours. But this is my blog and fuck it, the last 7 fucking weeks have been absolute hell. So let's just move on. Shit happens to arlot of people but when you've been relatively healthy your whole life and you're young (or think you're young) you really kind of ignore any sort of "at least you have your health" statement, or at least I did, and I realize this was in some ways elective surgery -- and in retrospect, one of if not the worst decisions I've ever made in my life -- but I just spent the past 7 weeks waking up every day in pain, limping around in pain, drugged up to alleviate the pain, stuck inside, unable to drive, unable to do much more than watch TV or read for many or most of those weeks, not even able to sleep. But... but, finally, in the past week, the pain has started to go away.

November and December are typically slow times for new music, particularly among indie rock artists, which was unfortunate since the past 7 weeks one of the only things that helped me survive was my iPhone, listening to Sirius and Pandora and, mostly, my massive iTunes collection that didn't have much to offer in new music, or at least not much that excited me enough to pull me out of the pain and depression of the past 7 weeks. In addition, I haven't been able to spend much time at my desktop upstairs where all these files reside and where I download new music so even if there had been new songs to love I haven't really had a chance to listen. The Bowerbirds' stunning "Tuck the Darkness In" (which I guess is an appropriate title for my mood) and Plants and Animals "Light Show" are literally the only 2 songs that I even got a little excited about over this time, and they've occupied the top 2 spots in my new music playlist probably since Christmas, which, by the way, I kind of missed this year (New Year's too). Again, let's move on. Because last week, on probably the 3rd or 4th day in 7 weeks when I could realistically use the word "better" when someone asked me how I was doing, when I was at my wit's end and the end of my ability to even deal with all the pain and growing depression that had haunted me since the surgery... last week I downloaded the second leaked track off Shearwater's upcoming album Animal Joy. "You As You Were". And it blew me away. I haven't been a huge fan of the band, which started as a side project of Okkervil River that eventually became Jonathan Meiburg's only project and has been around for quite some time, but I've been a fan, a definite fan, I loved their last album and I got to see them at the Bowery during that tour, which I believe was 2 years ago. But something about this song, its driving energy that explodes about 1/3rd of the way in, the pulsating beat of keyboards and percussion and guitars and Meiburg's howling voice, the crescendo to the finale -- the 'I am leaving the life!' part, it's all just... wow. Easily the best song I've heard in months, I can't stop playing it, I've probably listened a good 20 times in the first 2 days. It's just perfect. And as much as I loved "Tuck the Darkness In", I was truly surprised at just how much a great song can change your mood. It didn't hurt that the pain was starting to go away, that the potential of healing and walking again and driving again and all the things I'd taken for granted could come back to my life again, a life that spent 2 months in horrible hiberation. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I can go back. I'm selling my house (I had planned to anyway, before all this foot trouble) and at this point it can't happen fast enough... I need to get out of this place where I felt so trapped and in so much pain for this time. And maybe that's better. Maybe I can't go back to "You as You Were". But maybe it will be better.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the kind words and especially all the help from friends and family who came to visit or dragged me out of the house or brought me food or milk every couple days. I couldn't have survived this without you all.

"You as You Were" by Shearwater

Download Shearwater - "You As You Were".mp3

(lyrics may not be accurate, this is what I guessed them to be...)

When you fell in the rocks, out abandoned the river
With the blood from your nose running hard on your fingers
And through the rest of your life

The electric charge like a change in the weather
You were touching my arm, you were holding a feather
And then I opened my eyes

And the world goes racing, suddenly changed
As the shock of the accident leaves you trembling

Like a bursting shell in the small of your back
Or a child bites hard on a cast of your little lies
And an animal life pulls surging away

And you were back on the road through the worst of the winter
Through the valley of light passing through like an arrow
Oh with your vision collapsed and a stone from the river
Like a pull in the ?????? clutching tight in your fingers

But on the slope with the urge, will you recover your life?
You could stand on the back of a shuddering beam with a pistol firing shots into the earth
You could run in the blood of a sun-tarred rage, you could drive the mountains down and turn the page
Or go back to the east where it’s all so civilized, where I was born to life

But I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life, I am leaving the life

I am leaving....

Vote for GOP = Vote for 1%

2012-01-30T08:18:00-05:00

The title of this post couldn't be more evident than in this chart of the % share of tax cuts by income proposed by each of the leading GOP candidates for president. Disregarding the economic reality that cutting taxes during a recession is insanely idiotic and goes against every economic principle of every sane human and disregarding what this loss of revenue for the government would do to the deficit that the GOP claims to care so much about (only when they are not in the presidency), what's so tragically sad is that the GOP's plans to revive a failing economy that has only provided wealth for the richest 1% of Americans is to -- get this -- give huge chunks of money to the 1% of us who aren't suffering in this economy and who haven't been suffering and who, in all analyses, helped bankrupt the economy, and who aren't creating jobs in this economy as it is. Seriously, if you vote for a candidate espousing these beliefs on the most important issue in 2012, you just -- I can't -- there are no words...

■ Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s $18.1 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of
Americans an average tax cut of $391,330, which would be over 190 times as large as the average tax cut of
$1,990 that the middle fifth of Americans would receive.
■ Texas Governor Rick Perry’s $10.5 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an
average tax cut of $272,730, which would be over 270 times as large as the average tax cut of $1,000 that the
middle fifth of Americans would receive.
■ Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s $6.6 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of
Americans an average tax cut of $126,450, which would be over 100 times as large as the average tax cut of
$1,220 that the middle fifth of Americans would receive.
■ Former Senator Rick Santorum’s $9.4 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an
average tax cut of $217,500, which would be over 100 times as large as the average tax cut of $2,160 that the
middle fifth of Americans would receive.

Some Mitt-specific data after the jump...

Now see if you can spot the possible connection between that story, and this one. Mother Jones made a handy chart of the top 20 political donors in America and who they were putting their money behind. Go here for the charts, but we'll just focus in on the punchline:

17 out of 20 are giving to Republican or conservative groups and candidates. And half of the top 20 are major donors to the pro-Mitt Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future:

Why, that's odd. Of the top political donors in America, a who's-who of Wall Street tycoons, media moguls and several associates of some curious outfit called Bain Capital, all people ranging between ridiculously wealthy and buy-your-own-island wealthy, fully half of them are big Mitt Romney supporters. How very curious. How very puzzling!

(keep letting the rich buy and pay for our government or do something about it, my fellow citizens.... although at this point the only thing I know for sure to do is to throw out the GOP Congress and don't vote for Mitt Romney. Oh and definitely vote for Elizabeth Warren if you live in Massachusetts. But yeah... sigh).