Pointless Website Blog

This bird has flown

2007-01-17T17:26:00.000-06:00

Hiya! So, ah, yeaaah... if the lack of me posting anything over the last month hasn't been any indication, I'm out of webspace, and for that matter, I might be switching ISPs soon anyhow, resulting, at least for now, in no more website. I'm thinking about perhaps starting another one at some point in the not-too-distant future (and if that precedes the new ISP, I'll make a note of it here), but for now, many thanks to the occasional readers!

Oh, and by the by, I'm really digging this excellently good vegetarian Indian fast food restaurant Gokul lately. I'd recommend.

2006-12-01T19:35:00.000-06:00

Cruel irony

2006-12-01T18:10:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I'm in a hotel room right now. I haven't technically got the power.

Thank you, North County

2006-11-30T20:20:00.000-06:00

Did you know that African Palace existed? I didn't until recently, but their jollof rice is calling to me. I've got a buy one get one free coupon, and if anyone wants to go, let me know.

Oh, also:

Tamarind chutney macaroni & cheese. Still delicious.

From the "why does this even exist" department:

2006-11-10T17:17:00.000-06:00

I was looking around at pianos on eBay, and you know what I found under "keyboards"?

This. Wow.

Some more attractive than mine, others, not quite as attractive

2006-10-31T22:11:00.000-06:00

Enjoy this virtuoso performance by young Julliard acting student Brian Atene, in this, his 1984 audition tape for "Full Metal Jacket".

Double Exposure

2006-10-30T15:48:00.000-06:00

A pretty interesting article from the Washington Post looking at Diane Arbus photography, and where some of her more famous subjects are today. Also, did you know that Diane Arbus was Howard Nemerov's sister? Because I didn't. Is that bad?

Site Meter

2006-10-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

So if my site tracker thingy has taught me anything, it's that:
1. English people have a disproportionately large tendency to specifically seek out pointless websites.
2. Lots of people want to be Joey Ramone for Halloween. People, it's totally not hard. You need a leather jacket, a white t-shirt, round sunglasses like these, skinny jeans of either the blue or black persuasion, and either months' worth of black hair growth, or a wig. I actually used (and will use again) a somewhat cut-down witch wig. As long as it's all black, and not one of those wigs with the gray stripes everywhere, it should work reasonably well. So have fun with that, you bunch of hoppin' cretins.

Dear St. Louis,

2006-10-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Explain this to me:

U. City Olive Link

2006-10-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

Lord, what a stilted name for a neighborhood. But them's my old stomping grounds! I grew up around my dad's guitar store there, and yup, I most certainly love paying visits to the East Asian groceries, which gave me a rich early adolescence's worth of Pocky and fermented milk sodas. And may the internet correct me if I'm wrong, I've heard that the McDonald's is the very McDonald's that Nelly used to work at. Do correct me if I'm wrong, internet.

I love that strip of Olive Blvd. to death. Maybe I oughta bloggerate the whole street's worth of businesses someday. People call it "Chinatown," but it's about as culturally diverse as you're gonna find. Among the cultures represented in the neighborhood's businesses and restaurants: Chinese(/Taiwanese/Hong Kong), Filipino, Indian, Jamaican, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Nigerian(/pan-African), Pakistani, Russian, Vietnamese, and with Marco's picking up the slack from Terri's Southern Cafeteria, good old fashioned American soul food.

So what's happening these days? First, I wanna say how wonderful O.J. Photo is. They're in the process of remodeling, and in the meantime, they're running a basement sale, which I'd encourage every film photographer to pay a visit to. LOADS of camera filters too.

The African/Jamaican grocery, if you show up early on Saturdays, is carrying freshly-made Ghanaian kenkey.

Also, since it's on a rather obscure little strip just behind Olive, I hadn't realized until recently that sadly, St. Louis' old premiere ride-pimpers Lightspeed seem to have bit the dust.

Finally, there are a lot of places around the neighborhood to buy foreign movies, but Universal Toys and Gifts' new, bigger location has nothing less than all of these for sale, and endless amounts more:
b420
Sad Movie
Cocktail
April Snow
Operetta Tanuki Goten
Golden Chicken 2
Everlasting Regret
I'm thinking I'll be buying one of these. Any suggestions? In general, the new place has all kinds of stuff that the old one didn't. Nice, graceful furniture, clothes, all kinds of stuff.

Also just picked up this from Manila Food Mart. Bless ya, Olive.

New blog

2006-10-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack - I guess Joe has lightened his stance on blogs, eh? A blog by the P-D's restaurant reviewer from ages past, and from the husband-wife team behind "Beyond Toasted Ravioli."

There's also the 'Tater, who've actually been carting satire directly to other blogs' comment sections over the past few days...

Mortimer -- take - out - the - GAH-bage.

2006-10-14T18:17:00.000-05:00

So, ah, yeah. I'm not sure if this "Unkie Dunkie The Baloney Slicer" and his album about his nephew Mortimer is an actual attempt at comedy, or some sort of Dada exercise or what, but it sounds like a cross between a poetry slam, Andrew Dice Clay, Rocksteady from the Ninja Turtles, and, well, sheer tedium. I know I've got a thing for occasionally tedious cultural curios, but this takes the cake. IF - YOU - KNOW - WHAT - I - MEAN.
[Cue tape loop of woman's distinctively loud laughter]

Regina Spektor

2006-10-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

So's you all know, she's playing the new Creepy Crawl November 14th.

Everyone's gotta pay the bills

2006-10-11T21:37:00.000-05:00

The Mutantes rock out to Shell Gasoline.

Radios.com.br

2006-10-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

I've loved this site for a long time, to the point of thinking it's the greatest thing on the internet ever, and figured I oughta post something about it to the blahg. Okay. First of all, 's all in Portuguese. Are you okay with that? Does that bother you? Are you gonna cry a little? Because if you know, really, any Romance language, you'll probably figure out the basics.

It's cluttered! Yes it is. But I'll save you the effort of sifting through all of the ads and clutter on the front page. Interested in listening to radio stations from pretty much every country on earth? Ta-da! There ya go. Remember, if you're looking for us, we're the Estados Unidos. International TV is here. On this page, if you look under Radios Por Países, you can find some unusual stuff like police scanners and train radio (<---?) as well.

So what I'm thinking is, satellite radio? Why bother? Screw that noise, I want international internet radio in my car! If there's Chinese opera, British techno, and talk radio from Burkina Faso out there on the internet, how about a monthly fee to access it? And hey, public wi-fi areas are only going to grow in number and size from here on out. Of course, in any case, KDHX is still going to be in my #1 slot.

Beck

2006-10-03T14:46:00.000-05:00

So are we all in agreement that the new Beck album "Information" is really good?

The Galleria

2006-09-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went to the Galleria to buy some new shoes. Man! What is happening with St. Louis County, with the upper-ish middle class, and with this country? I feel like everything's a little more upscale in food, in fashion, in everything, but in the process, scads of people must be getting priced out of being able to afford it. $100 jeans, people. $100 jeans. Welcome to the future. Macaroni and cheese is $8.

Whoever came up with the idea for purple and green shoes needs to be punched in the mouth.

Attention

2006-09-27T00:29:00.000-05:00

Puerto Muerto. October 27th, 8:00 PM, Off Broadway. Who's with me?

The Creation of an After-School Activity

2006-09-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

Folks, I've entered the world of online video. How, you ask? Am I vlogging? Do I have a slick new mini-DV camcorder? Video podcasting? Of course not! I just put a video that I made when I was sixteen with a dumpy Panasonic VHS camera on YouTube. Enjoy!

And if you've already seen this back when it was hosted on standard webspace, well, nuts to you.

Two best decisions in recent memory:

2006-09-23T12:44:00.000-05:00

Buying a car cassette adaptor for my iPod, and buying the second Mutantes album, as Vintage Vinyl is currently carrying what would appear to (due to their FBI warnings) be major-label stateside releases of the first three Mutantes albums. Granted, the booklet's still all in Portuguese... But I do declare, I might like this album the best out of the lot of them.

So who's going to Calexico tonight, eh?

Not involved with it, just sounds interesting:

2006-09-22T00:32:00.000-05:00

I'm Lovin' It

2006-09-18T01:56:00.000-05:00

I'm way into when the new version 9 of the Flash plug-in makes Internet Explorer 7 epically crash. Especially when I'm in the middle of a large, internet-assisted academic undertaking. That is so awesome. Thank you, Macromedia. Thank you, Microsoft. Way cool. Radical.

SkyMall, part III

2006-09-16T22:51:00.000-05:00

Much thanks to my friend Steph!

Li'l pieces of sonic joy

2006-09-12T16:22:00.000-05:00

If you've been the recipient of one of my [in]famous mix CDs, you may have already heard one or more of these, but I feel compelled to share a bunch of my favorite-favorite songs of late. That's right, my blogging has been lagging just that badly.

The Decemberists - The Engine Driver
Lyrics about using the writing process to deal with lost love mixed with a just fantastic melody. What's not to like?

Nina Simone - Lilac Wine
I loved Jeff Buckley's "Grace" as much as the next guy, but his cover still had nothing on the original.

Todd Snider - You Got Away With It (A Tale of Two Fraternity Brothers)
Thank you KDHX and Pop Life with Anton. Thank you so, so much.

Orson Welles - Frozen Peas Spot
Okay, not really a song per se. But it is one of the all-time greatest, most tragic figures of U.S. cinema obsessing over the shortcomings of a script for a British frozen peas commercial. Sometimes, that's enough.

Godzuki - Your Future
Out-of-print late 1990s Cure-influenced indie-electro-pop straight outta Detroit. Most pleasing.

Mulatu Astatke - NÃ�tsanÃ�t
1970s Ethiopian jazz-funk.

Julia Sets - National Steel
This song only showed up on the band's mp3.com page and on a pretty limited cassette release, but I still wager that it's one of the best songs by one of the best St. Louis local bands of the last 15 years.

Kettel - Through Friendly Waters
I think this guy is Dutch? Pleasant, leisurely IDM.

Magazine - Shot by Both Sides
Oh, this Buzzcocks offshoot. Oh, how they rock and how they roll.

The Skalars - High School
I think that long-lost local faves the Skalars may have made my favorite ska song outside of the Specials or Desmond Dekker.

Kenickie - Lunch at Lassiters
It's just catchy, y'know?

Neko Case - Look For Me (I'll Be Around)
Better than the Sarah Vaughn original. The entire "Blacklisted" album is just tremendous, really. Neko has to be the reincarnation of Patsy Cline, swear to God.

Tiger Trap - You and Me
Sunny, happy '90s indie pop.

The Plastics - Digital Watch
Like a Japanese version of the B-52's, except with more drum machines.

So there you have it. It's like an mp3 blog without all of the illegal!

If only I could be as Cool as Ice

2006-09-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the YouTube theme...