2006 music

I am debating making comps for the crew this year like I have in years past.
Everyone has an ipod chock full o good tunes...why would anyone want a piece of plastic I've dropped 19 more onto? Maybe I should keep it going...just to have a nice keepsake, as things become more fluid, digital and cold.

The year in music...here is the top 11 I've submitted to AOL. I based this list on bands who put out a new record AND I got to see live. I had to limit it to 11.

Muse
Band of Horses
Islands
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
The Raconteurs
M Ward
Mates of State
The Thermals
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
CSS

As far as the CD - I've come up with playlist of 26 songs. I need to pair down as a CD will only hold about 18.



I think Hot Chip and Arctic Monkeys may be over exposed, so I should save room for songs that didn't get at much blog love, like Chin Up Chin Up and Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsen.

I also have to keep The Thermals, The French Kicks, Film School, Lilys and the Islands, as these songs rule so hard and I listened to them over and over again ( like a monkey with a minuture symbol).
Mates of State stay too, cause they give me a shout out at the beginning of the song.

If I am to make the comp - I want to know what you think, and what I HAVE to keep.

Thanks.

I turn my camera on

I've been feeling that the more digital we become, the more cold the world becomes. I wanted something more analog in my life, besides the record player I own and use.

I also wanted a camera that sounded cool when I took pictures.
So I found a Canon AE1 Program camera on ebay, after looking high and low for something that would not set me back too much and something I’d actually use.


I had no idea how to load the film so the first test roll was a bust.
I figured out how to load the film, but wanted to know if thing would work, so I just walked around the neighborhood and took pictures of all of the neat signs I walk by on a regular basis. Luckily, the drug store burns the negatives onto disk, so this will work for the blog as well.

Here are the 1st set of pictures from my new camera (new to me, 30 years old really)

Living room






Backyard









A tour of the East Village

Ron writes on Thanksgiving.

Ronald wrote a tribute to our time over Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving…

Before leaving for Texas for 5 days, Susie took me to a Shag art opening. These were the hottest pictures.



Gramps picked me up from the airport and took me for some BBQ


I went to Austin for a few days to visit Alia and Shane in from Frisco, and got to hang with Shawn and Lindsay as well.
We went to Common Interest to do some karoke.
Alia slayed with ‘Common People’ (at Common Interest – har har)

I did Heart’s ‘Alone.’

Froggies in Shane’s moms back yard.

Shane’s mom’s dog was nice and slept in the bed with me.


I went back to Houston with Ron and Sara. I spent most of Wednesday with the nieces.
Shopping at the mall:


Santa!


Lainie crusing the streets of Sugarland


Ron and Sara came over for Thanksgiving.


Over all it was a nice time in Texas. I flew JetBlue, and boy did JetBlue blow.
My plane home was 6 hours delayed due to software malfunction. I finally got home at 11 on Friday.

Bob Pollard still wearing my hoodie after all these years...

I had a chance encounter with Bob Pollard about 4 years ago, backstage at a Guided by Voices concert at Slim's in San Francisco. For some reason, I gave him my custommade "California" hoodie.

I just read this interview with him in Gothamist...and he's wearing the hoodie I gave him in the picture.

Halloween Dog Parade in NYC!

The best part of Halloween in NYC is all the dogs in costumes!

We were born to sin.

I love the Thermals.



I hope I get into the show on Thur night. That should rock.

AOL launches something super cool

This show soft launched today.
I love it.
Check out The DL.
I love it. And the people who created it too.

TODAY!

My sister Tish came in for a visit.
We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning for a trip to the Today show.




We were on the Today show. It was alot of fun.

Back from India/Tokyo...back to this blog

I had the time of my life while in Asia. I landed from Tokyo close to 24 hours ago, and am now very delirious, as I was wide awake at 3:30 this am.
Here is the blog I kept while I was away. Every one from senior execs to grandparents read the thing, to my surprise.
I was facinated with taking pictures of the food I ate, as I ate some amazing food. So I decided to tag all of my food pictures on Flickr, hence
this slideshow.

You can't buy what you can't find, what you can

Aaron mentioned last Thur, 'Hey man, can we get some tickets to the Raconteurs next week?'
I looked into and scored 2 for last night.

Here are some pics from my camera phone.



The show hit a point during Store Bought Bones and never really let up. Jack is still having fun (maybe even more?) and it really showed.

Jim Jarmush was at the show


This past Sat, we celebrated with Emilia for her Birthday




and on Sun, we took JTR and Step out to celebrate thier matri-monay at Freeman's. Freeman's has goooood food.


I am headed to India then Tokyo on Saturday until October 17th. I won't be updating this blog but instead have started a new one to document the trip. It's going to be pretty cool.

Road trippin' for Katie and Mark's wedding.

Bar Harbor was almost as beautiful as Katie and Mark were. Click on this awesome pic to see the flickr set I put together.



On the way home - Regan and I had to get the accent out of our system, so Doo Koo sang a song about how his mustache brings all the cahs to ba-ha-bahs.

Hit the play button

The OhSees (OCS)

I wanna go get this record after work. Yeah, on vinyl!

So that was the New Year...

Saw The New Year last night. Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE bedhead, and in turn, The New Year. They play about 5 shows a year, and I've flown cross country to see these few and far between events.

With out Bedhead, there would be no Interpol. No Death Cab.

The show was amazing.

broke my phone: need your number

howdy partner...all's good on the eastern front...now that the heats blown over (for the time bein')
you see, that 3 yr old piece o crap phone finally fell and the screen broke. ah, technolo-geez.
if you could please text me with your name, I would be forever ingratiated, that way you slip right into my new phone. then, I can call you.
hope all is well, your families are safe, and all of that.

Dog Destroys Elvis' Teddy Bear at Museum

This headline made me laugh my ass off.
Dog Destroys Elvis' Teddy Bear at Museum

LONDON (Aug. 2) - A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley , during a rampage at a children's museum.

"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.
Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.
The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.
The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.
"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.
A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.

All Spoon radio! - That's my voice...

Use Winamp to listen to the All Spoon Radio Station from AOL.
Click on this to hear it.
Yep - that's my voice reading out the nuggets, facts, and all those goodies.

I love Lucy(s)!

Lucy's is this great dive in the E.Vil. Aaron and I were looking for a cheap beer when I first moved to the hood, and about 5 minutes after getting there I knew I had heard about Lucy. Nate had given me a book about people telling thier employment stories, and Lucy (along with her daughter) were a featured story.
Nice to see this little documentary.

MOS cover Crazy - give me a shoutout.

When Cori says This one's for Josef she's talking about me.
Brooklyn Vegan's comments section is blowing up.
The background on the story - I did a search for Crazy in my iTunes (wanting to hear the MOS version) and hit play a few weeks back. The Gnarles and MOS versions rolled one after the other. I texted Jason and suggested they do this. And here we are.

Glasses on?

What an idiot.

He's a Senator (1 of 2, 50 total - NOT a 'Congressman') and this is what he thinks of the Internet? We're totally screwed.

Click here to listen

From the recording:
"And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that?"

Bank of America SUX

Bank of America –

I’ve been a customer of Bank of America for over 13 years now. I always thought your services were adequate, but in recent months I have become increasingly frustrated with your organization.

I checked my account balance today and noticed that I was charged an $11.99 fee for identity protection service that resulted in an overdraft fee (I don’t want to get into the BS about charging for such a service – as it’s your duty to protect my identity.) I don’t remember signing up for this service, only accepting a free credit report. Free month trials are designed as a deceptive practice in hopes that customers who were duped into signing up (as I was) will forget – and said businesses can charge away (which you have).

Basically, I feel this was a deceptive practice, and I feel that YOU ROBBED ME. I am now out almost $50 from a sloppy and deceptive communications error.

I find your customer service to be useless. The handful of times I have called to inquire about a transaction and rectify a dispute I’ve been told ‘Sorry’ and that’s about it. I’ve also been told that I only have only so many desk transactions on my account, and that I would need to pay a fee to deposit a check.

Basically you are telling me that you don’t want me as a customer and that I should take my money else where. I wish you would have just called me a few years ago and saved me the anguish while you continued to rob me.

I feel that you have constructed your business practices around deception in order to take more and more from your customers. Businesses rip off their customers all the time, but since you are so closely tied to my finances and my credit, I can no longer continue to have this happen. I am looking for a new bank.

I’ve started asking friends who they bank with and I have found that no one I know uses BoA. I am going to extend this survey by posting this on my blog and on message boards. I am going to STRONGLY encourage everyone I know to never consider banking with Bank of America and suggest that those people I meet that do bank with you to leave.

Birthday bbq/a world cup party

We couldn't start the fire...
But then, a group effort, Susie, JTR3 and Rami - got us some grey coals! I am a purist and refuse to use lighter fluid.

Here I am standing in front of the BBQ. The colorful 'tarp' kept the drops away.

Snacheges - all kinds of pork and chicken.

And then, the whole point of the gathering: the viewing of Mexico vs. Argentina.


Ok, so I am now 29. No more parties (at least for my 29th). I will be grilling all sunmmer though. Please feel free to drop buy this summer if you want some grilled mmmmeat.

Horoscope for a birthday

"Josef,
You may think that you are well-protected from the ill effects of the confusion around you, but you are not. You might believe that your adaptability will easily get you through this situation. It might, but you're going to have to make a difficult choice, for you cannot be everything to everyone. Don't stress about the outcome; any decision you make now will be better than making none at all."

Ugh, gross. WTF does this mean?

Mmmmeat

As part of the 29th year celebrations, I made a reservation for the 6 of us at Peter Luger’s. Supposedly being the best steak house in the country, they also supposedly have one of the best burgers known to man. They only serve the burger at lunch, so those are the reservations I made.



A cocktail to start


Butter w/ a side of bread

The menu (a porterhouse for 2 is $77)

Josh and Fay ventured for the steak (so glad they did!) while Monica, Susie, Aaron and I went for the burger.
Look at the blood on that burger!

That’s a piece of bacon.

The steak gets presented! (look at Josh’s face!)

OMG!

Half way there

Creamed spinach

Coffee and coins for desert



Did you see the china pattern with the ships? That is so cool.

Over all, was this the best burger and steak house in the world? Doesn’t really matter. The trip was definitely an experience. I went deaf when I took the first bite of the burger. It was an overwhelming meat experience, not unlike the first few times I went to
The Salt Lick (which Susie and I got the sample at the Big Apple BBQ fest last weekend.

Time to go back on South Beach.