Cause She Ain’t No Hollaback Girl

Hollaback Girl:
The Urban Dictionary definition says that this is a girl who is willing to be treated like a doormat; allowing guys to do what they want with her and who will just wait for them to "holla back" at her.

Watching Gwen’s new video for Hollaback Girl got me thinking about how amazing this record has been marketed. Sure the music and image thing are progressive, interesting, weird, and (back to the music) good, the way Gwen has marketed herself through product alignment is pretty amazing. I can’t think of another pop star that’s done it this well.

It’s pop music, so let’s give up on the whole ‘sell out’ thing. She’s not pushing products that aren’t modern or ‘her.’ The push is also relatively subtle. Sure Lil Jon is making mad coin on Crunk Juice, and even named his new record ‘Crunk Juice’ to promo the crap, but the whole thing is overt,crude and low margin (which also fits Lil Jon’s image).

So Gwen names her record Love, Angel, Music, Baby, the aconym being L.A.M.B., which also happens to be the clothing line she launched around the time of the record. Seems every other hipster cutie on the subway has a LAMB bag . So everyone carrying these bags, is advertising for the record. Genius.

Back to the video (click above and watch it if you haven’t seen it). Gwen takes a minute to snap a picture of her 'Harajuku Girls' posse (that’s a whole other thing, weird). That’s not just any camera though. It’s the one that she custom designed for HP. So the video that is now EVERYWHERE is also an ad for her camera. Genius.
.

‘Hollaback Girl’ gets stuck in your head, and now you want the ring tone you see advertised on your AIM buddy list.

Cingular has the exclusive on the ringtone. So if you don’t use Cingular, you don’t get her shit.

I guess the only downer here is ‘her shit’ isn’t pointed out on her website . It’s Bananas… B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Eat What I Read

a blogline rss feed.

nerd alert.

Click here: This Blog Will Eat itself

Also - Google releases it's personalization page. Google will never look the same again.

More babies are born in Aug and Sept.

According to "Births: Final Data for 2002," from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here are the births by month from 2002:

January 330,674
February 303,977
March 331,505
April 324,432
May 339,007
June 327,588
July 357,669
August 359,417
September 348,814
October 345,814
November 318,573
December 334,256

I even made a chart so you can visualize this:


Fun.

Gonna give you every inch of my love

I cashed in all of my chips and made it onto the set where Robert Plant was filming a session. (I will post the link once it goes live). I was 10 feet away as he sang a revamped 'Black Dog.' A real once in a life time thing with the king of all rock stars.





Asking Robert to sign the Zep vinyls was one of the most nerve wrecking things I’ve ever done. I was kind of bumbling as he signed the vinyl, didn’t know what to say but ‘thank you’ and off he was.





Other rock and roll highlights this week:
Mon: Live taping of Dave Matthews. I know, right?
Tues: Instore with Spoon for Gimmie Fiction. The Virgin Union Sq. was packed. I think this is going to be the big record for these guys.
Wed: Side stage for Weezer. Show rocked, as always. But, I was probably the oldest person there. How did that happen?
Thur: Aaron came over and we listened to records. I then took the new Spoon to Tye’s gig and made him play 2 cuts off of Gimmie Fiction.
Fri: I was in the same room as Sean Lennon for about 20 minutes at my friend Maggie’s art opening. He wears the same kind of glasses as his father did. And Diesel jeans. Afterwards I went to see Built to Spill with Faycat . Great show.

Cause Jenny's got a big olde butt

I took Jen (from SF) to Burger Joint, a super secret low key burger joint in the Paker Maridian for dinner tonight. You just kind of have to know where it is to get there. 2 AMAZING cheese burgers, fries and 2 beers for $23.

We (finally) get a seat after we order our food at the counter. All of these weird dudes in suits and earpieces are there. We're sitting there shooting the shit, and I look up and ask Jen, "Is that J.Lo's butt? Cause that's Marc Anthony next to it" J.Lo's butt was basically in Jen's face (the BJ is SMALL - it is NYC). They walk out, and all the weird dudes in suits also leave. We enjoyed our burgers and brews in peace. Fun fun.

High school reunion brunch.

Ah Bellaire. Ah New York City.

I called the people I still know from high school who live in NYC and asked them to come over for brunch. I served 2 kinds of quiches (spinach and prosciutto & gruyere), salad and rosemary fingerling potatoes. Twas tre yum.

Paul Westerburg is a God!

Yesterday, someone I work with was like "Hey, want to come see Paul Westerburg with me tonight?" Funny thing is I posted this a few weeks back. Fuck yea I want to go. I've never seen him before and love The Replacements and The Singles sountrack. God knows how much longer he's going to live.

To say the show was amazing wouldn't do it justice. I heard the dude is hit or miss and always drunk. He was definitely drunk, but don't think wasted. A real once in a life time thing.

Eating my way across NYC.

I've done some research into the best of the cheap/interesting/hole in the wall eats in NYC. This city has the most interesting food in the world and I am going to find it.

Here's the list I am going to start out with. If you know of some others, please post them under comments.

Banjara (Indian)

Burger Joint

Caracas Arepa Bar (corn cakes stuffed with fillings like cheese, meat and plantains)

Chumley's (burgers and beer)

Chutney (Indian)

Corner Bistro (burgers)

Crif Dogs (hot dawgs)

Daphne's (Caribbean)

Downtown Bakery II (mexican)

Earl's (comfort/kitch)

Fake Orchid (Thai)

Freemans (weird bistro w/ taxidermy)

Fried Dumpling

Mama's Food Shop (comfort)

Mamoun's Falafel

Pho Bang Restaurant

Snack (Greek)

West Side Coffee Shop (mexican)

Yatagan Kebab House

Zaragoza Mexican Bakery (tamales)

For Michelle

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Kidd

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Nothing like a good meal...

8 airplanes (10 including the connections), 5 cities (7 including the connections) in the past 2 1/2 weeks and broke as shit, I realize today, I have some money in my pocket and I am by my favorite Whole Foods after a shuttle drops me off from another airport. I read a bad piece of fiction in The New Yorker on one of the planes where Halibut is mentioned as a part of this crappy NYC relationship (maybe its a good relationship, I have no way of really knowing). Now I don't know about you, but Alice Waters does a mean Halibut, and she makes it turn into butter, but when I try to make it in my crappy little NYC kitchen it's not quite butter. But I have this idea from The New Yorker, I'm in the store...Meliissa and I had an amazing piece for one of my last meals at Chez Pinnese right before I left for New York. And I seem to remember braised green onions with the CP version, so I do that. With roasted potatoes, and blanched green beans, just right crispy. I threw in some feta chicken sausage cause it's only $5.99/lb as opposed to the Halibut that was $19.99 a pound.

No Alice Waters, but for the 1st meal I've cooked in forever...really good.

Tonight there's gonna be trouble...

We've been listening to my "Camero" mix in the office, alot. And when I write alot, I mean alot.

The three major awesome songs are "Heat of the Moment" by Asia, "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy and "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult.

Some lyrics from "Jailbreak"
"Tonight there’s gonna be trouble
Some of us won’t survive
See the boys and me mean business
Bustin’ out dead or alive"

So Fay took me to meet David Duchovny on Wednesday night. Click on his name to read about it, as I am too lazy to recap. Basiclly she beat me as he walked in the room.

Phil Spector sound/Heat of the Moment (cowbell)

I want every one seeing this to take a good listen to your songs.

Please post songs that start off/have the same structure as those Phil Spector/Ronettes songs (a la Be My Baby) (for the musicians - what is this called?)

-A song on the new Brendon Benson
-A song on the last Ponys
-Heat of the Moment by Asia

Cowbell
-Little sister by Queens of the Stone Age
-Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult

If I get a good list together, I will track down the songs and make a comp.

NYC...rock n'roll...shenanigans

Leaving Monica's and hanging out in the East Village always means I'll run into someone. It's good to see an old face.

Also, Fay did a recap of our insane Sat night on her blog. I still don't really believe it, so you can just read about it here. Still doesn't make up for missing my man at the library.

Also got to see Trail of Dead on Sunday and Sonic Youth in Brooklyn last night (to a crowd of less than 400, amazing!). The New Year on Friday!

My heart could use some glasses...

Man, I want to be outside drinking beer listening to the Replacements right now.

Oh Austin...

Landed.
Drinks on Red River.
Star Seeds with my angel.
Wake up.
Barton Springs.


Salt Lick.


Ron at the Salt Lick.

New doggies!



Drinks at San Jose.
Wake up.
Garage sale con Mi Madre's.
Shadry Grove.
Whole Foods (kiss my ass). and Waterloo.
Wedding at the Driscol.
Palm trees falling.
Wake up.
Family.
Posse East.
Grillin' at Doo Koo's.
Wake up.
Leave.

Ow wow...

Ow wow, David Byrne and I have the same taste in music. Dave, not to DMCA compliant, is it? I remember being with this girl he growled at. I almost barfed on him too. Dave Eggers was there too. Ask me about that next
time you see me. I don't see Of Montreal on his list. And last I checked, he has a much fatter place than the shit hole I spend $1550 a month on that he could have had for like $200 when his band was playing the site of a new starbucks.

I gotta new comp ready to roll. Some shit is a year old. Some shit you just cant get. Comment me your address and I'll ship it to ya. Throw it on with a six pack or a bottle o vodka, and party time.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

...and I feel fine

#1 sign:
This week, 50 Cent became the first artist since 1964 to score four simultaneous top-10 hits on Billboard's singles chart. "Candy Shop" and "Disco Inferno" — from his chart-topping album The Massacre — and the Game's "Hate It or Love It" and "How We Do" tracks, which feature 50 on guest vocals, are sitting at #1, #5, #6 and #8, respectively. The Beatles were the last act to achieve such a feat, with songs dominating the chart's top five spots.

#2 sign:
The Flaming Lips played a shit ass free party for Mazda here in NYC, and true fans got pissed when they were told they were too fat to come in. I guess I can't complain, I did get to see them at a dot coms Christmas' party a few years back.

Well, at least I have the new eels and Radar Brothers records chock full of sad sad songs to keep me company.

Austin, here I come.

I am never moving from this apt.

In addition to the new Whole Foods opening 3 blocks from my place tomorrow, new rumor is a Trader Joe's is now set to open in Union Square as well. When I left San Francisco for Texas the first time, Trader Joe's was the number one thing I missed. I was lucky enough to live on the same block as a Joe's when I moved to LA.

Once both stores are open, everyone is invited over everynight for dinner.

Record shopping in the east village/hanging art

I just took a walk this morning. There is this antique shop on 4th ave that always has amazing stuff. I stop to ask how much a pew out front is. $500. OK, well maybe not today, but I saw a pile of records. Being that I have a record player and no TV, I am always on the lookout for great records. I was able to pick up Neil Young's out of print electro record called Trans on eBay this week for $2.


Living with Michelle was great because she had great records that I sorely miss. So back to this antique shop, and replacing records that I used to listen to living with Michelle. I was able to pick up the Cars s/t and The Stones "Emotional Rescue" a record I would have casted off before getting into one night (morning?) with Phil in Michelle's kitchen. I also found Ace Freeley's solo record with New York Groove. Michelle put this on a great comp. It's my theme song right now. One of KISS' over looked gems. I also picked up Bruce's Nebraska, cause it was in good condition, and it's really the only Bruce I can listen to start to finish. I got scammed on Ray Charles' Love+Genius=Jazz, as the record wasn't in the slipcase. I got a good piece of art for the wall though.



Speaking of art on the walls, I've finally started hanging some of thier pieces I've collected over the years, to make this place feel more like home.

People that you can only see here..

Thanks Fay for taking me to the exclusive screening of Millions. Danny Boyle did a Q&A afterwards with the 2 kids.


At the Apples in Stereo in store this afternoon, Jeff Mangum was there. He put out the best record ever.