dealership

friday, may 25 (01)   [link]

chrisw:  I'm coining a word: "blog-cranky".
Which describes the state of being inspired to express oneself in a blog after staying up too late reading MetaFilter or Slashdot or ETOnline posts about internet identity hoaxes while having just watched the "death" of Buffy Summers.


Doesn't sound like anyone I know. It's just a cute word I thought about making up. :-)

wednesday, may 23 (01)   [link]

jane:  ok, i just have to say something about this...maybe some of you are familiar with the whole fake dying girl on the internet thing. basically, someone faked a whole weblog detailing a girl's daily battle with a fatal disease and then her "death." all those of you taken in by Kaycee's now infamous weblog: what is the matter with you?!? if there's one thing i've learned from Disney, it's to distrust sentimentality utterly. it's the most false expression of humanity.


outraged by the lies? whatever. i'm more outraged that anyone could believe in her obvious fictions. the little story about "Eyisha" is particularily gross. it's right out of Touched by an Angel (view a google snapshot). i quote a lengthy passage below to demonstrate fully the extent of her terrible Seventh heaven-derived writing style:


"I noticed a little girl come out of the shops, look around, then go back inside. She did this several times before she finally walked over to me. I said hi as she stopped in front of me. She had a perplexed look on her face but she didn't seem afraid. I asked her if she was lost.


"No, I'm not lost."


"Well, that's good." I smiled at her while she was giving me one of those indignant looks. "Is your mom lost?"


"Yeah, she always gets lost and I gotta always find her."


"I know what you mean. Parents do that all the time don't they? Would you like to wait with me, until she gets unlost?"


The little girl didn't answer me she just climbed into my lap and took one of my hands. "My name's Kaycee, what's yours?"


"Eyisha."


"That's a really pretty name, how do you spell it?"


"E*Y*isha. How do you spell your name?" Her big brown eyes looked intently into mine and at the same time she ran her hand gently down my cheek.


"K*C*" I figured that'd be easier. Why complicate things?


"Your skin is really soft. Why are you so white? Can't you get chocolate like me?"


"Well no, God made us both special on the outside."


"Why'd he do that?"


"I'm not sure... maybe..."


"Maybe cuz his favorite ice cream is vanilla and chocolate."


I laughed. "Well, maybe."


Eyisha thought about it for about a second then she hugged me. After a little more conversation I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She narrowed it down to a mommy, a teacher, a space girl, and a truck driver.


"I'm sure any of those will be fun."


"When you grow up KC what do you want to be?"


"Hmm... well maybe I'd like to be... a guardian angel."


"That'd be fun. You could stop big trucks and fly around. Can you be my guardian angel?"


"I'm not sure, but I'd like that a lot Eyisha. You don't pick up snakes and play with them do you?"


She laughed. "No, silly. Snakes are for boys." Her little face got serious and she put her hand on my face again. "Are you gonna be an angel KC?"


I didn't know a tear had started to slide out the corner of my eye until this kute little charmer sitting on my lap touched her finger to it. She told me not to cry because I'd make a really good angel.


"I think God picks his own angels Eyisha but if he chose me... I'd want to come and see you're beautiful smile."


She smiled and so did I. "I think angels smile just like you do KC."


"Yeah, I think they smile a lot too."


We sat and talked for a little longer then I thought Eyisha's mom might be getting a little panicked not knowing where she was. Hand in hand we went in search of her lost parent."


excuse me while i visit the vomitorium. you'd have to be a moron to be taken in by this crap, or just really really really naive, and by naive i mean stupid. her log is peppered with such sickly sentiments as "Fighting serious illness for over two years has let me appreciate life in meaningful ways. The sun will always be shining for me, and no matter where I am you'll see me smiling if you take a moment to see it. I never needed the *Pretty Words.* I lived and loved and celebrated life the only way I knew how. I'm still celebrating.


I wish that all of you will too. See all the beauty life has to offer you. And... just love! When you hear this song, know that it's my sunshine and love that is warming you." The song? "I can see clearly now." gross-out!


admittedly, it was better (more real) before. (it's not online anymore so this is excerpted on kuro5hin.) by the end, though, it gets so incredibly heavy-handed you just want her to shut up and die already. by now everyone knows it's fake. but why did so many people need to believe in it so badly? how could what amounts to a second-rate tv miniseries fool anybody with half a brain? (for more on this, go to kuro5hin's excellent discussion on the topic. you'll also see that not everyone bought it, but many doubters were intimidated into silence by the passionate Kaycee supporters.) it's a mystery to me, and one that makes me quite angry.


anyone who has watched, first-hand, someone they love die slowly and painfully before their eyes should have immediately detected the false tone of cheerful Pollyannaism that caricatures the blog. real people who are dying have real emotions - they can be by turns angry, depressed, raging one minute and resigned the next, with moments of happiness and calm and cheerfulness. they are, like anyone else, complex humans who experience a range of emotions including some really nasty ones. i just don't buy it that someone who would blog about her own illness wouldn't express these negative feelings whatsoever. the whole point of the blog is to open yourself up to writing honestly, and it seems counter-intuitive to do otherwise. so this blog was a fantasy of a dying girl who was a complete saint and dreamed of being a guardian angel. it's so deeply offensive i can barely choke out my words. whoever faked this site - be it "debbie" or someone else - has perpetuated a grave and appalling insult to real victims of longterm illness. and i seriously doubt that this person ever had a close friend - much less three, as she claims - who died in such a manner.


so, wherever you are, fuck you.


and goodnight.

monday, may 21 (01)   [link]

chrisw:  That was a great show - I'll post more later after I sleep and maybe have some of the candy that we received.

thursday, may 17 (01)   [link]

chrisw:  Final track listing for TV Highway to the Stars here.

1. tv heart 4:51


2. toujours ta fille 2:34


3. tetsuo 3:31


4. for sale 4:20


5. california 4:09


6. model mortal 3:27


7. just so 4:46


8. twins 5:13


9. gia 3:49


10. together this moment 3:02


11. domesticated 2:13


12. i start to explode 4:52


13. 17 4:13


14. faded crushes 3:04



estimated total album time: 54:43

I'm excited to play this weekend. A new venue for us, which is pretty interesting in itself but the fact that it's being booked by someone who really just wants good music to come to them is always a good sign. I hope everything works out logistically - lately we've had some sort of Mummy's curse regarding any all ages show we attempt to play.


And the bands! I love the bill. Reading a recent interview in the Stranger with Matt Troy from Track Star just kind of added to the anticipation...

monday, may 7 (01)   [link]

chrisw:  I love tour diaries. The common thread seems to be that touring as an occupation is only slightly less hazardous than being a land mine sweeper. Here's some recommended reading...


Check out the Moby tour / life diary:

"I'm trying to do a French version of 'Porcelain'.
The problem, of course, is that I'm an ignorant American and I'm only proficient in American (oh, umm, English, sorry).
But I can learn. Really, I can learn.
I can say 'fenetre', and 'pamplemousse', and 'vache' and all sorts of other interesting French words. So if I end up singing in French about cows that look like grapefruits, just blame it on my ignorance. French grapefruit cows that like to fly out of windows.
I smell a hit single there.... "

Or the Poster Children tour diary (Lots of pics!):

"Gosh- the Fastbacks' drummer told me the best tour story I've heard yet - they went to eat in Laurel, Maryland (Motel 6 town!) at an Olde Country Buffet - they'd never been to one before. We screamed with approval - we LOVE Old Country Buffets!! Then the drummer says, "well, in between the dinner and the dessert, I went into the bathroom and found a dead guy in one of the toilet stalls." Apparently the guy had a heart attack whilst on the pot, like how the King died."

Or the diary of Stephen Malkmus (formerly of Pavement):

"The crowd lately in LA has been AWESOME. I guess they struggle for meaning amongst the glizt and the grime. I just liked the vibe of the audience and the show was pretty awesome. Nigel Godrich made an appearance, gave us a big thumbs up; he is living at the Chateau Marmont while putting another Travis Smash record to tape. He was in great form . I gave him props on the Radiohead KID A --both KIDA and OK are supergreat; I mean you can actually listen to them at home and get into them!!! Unlike all these other underwhelming rock records.....You know what i mean."

or the diary of San Francisco's Actionslacks:

"There was one downer to last night, which was the Dallas police shooting and killing someone in front of the club. No, I'm not kidding. From what we can gather, a guy was chasing and shooting at some other guy. The cops gave chase and, when the gunman started firing on them, shot him dead. This took place during the Deathray Davies' set (unbeknownst to everyone in the club), outside the venue, on the opposite side of the block from where we were. Pretty freaky. The Deep Ellum district is a pretty nice 'hood. You wouldn't expect something like that to happen there. But then again, this is America, where anyone can get a gun in about 4 seconds."

or the Blake Babies' tour diary (from 2001, no less!):

"There was a creepy moment when I was singing 'Girl in a Box' and I suddenly stopped singing and a very large portion of the audience carried the vocal. Man, I wrote that song as a sort of freaky gag to amuse Juliana and Freda and they made me record it, against my wishes or better judgment. You just never know what you'll end up becoming famous for in this world. But I suppose I'd rather be known as the guy who wrote 'Girl in a Box' than to be known as the guy who wrote 'Walking on Sunshine' (written by Kimberly Rew of the Soft Boys for his next band, Katrina and the Waves). I'm not saying 'Walking...' is a bad song, and I'll bet he makes a living from that song alone. Actually, I'll take back everything I just said. I've got to go try to write the next 'Walking on Sunshine' now."

friday, may 4 (01)   [link]

chrisg:  Oh man, cinco de mayo is tomorrow. This is a problem when you live in the Mission. Don't get me wrong - I'm up for a party as much as the next guy, just preferably not the ones with the motor cable cars and hordes of drunken people relieving themselves in the semi-private alcove near your doorstep. Maybe I'm also a little sour because it reminds me of this one time (in band camp...) when I drank half a bottle of tequila with some friends. Recovery was not fun (and they recorded my drunken and incriminating ramblings to boot, which they kindly remind me of whenever I get out of line).


Speaking of band camp, did not Willow totally kick ass for a second there on Buffy this past Tuesday? My mind immediately reeled at the new potential plot twists (e.g., Willow as defeater of Glory, Willow turns into evil witch and becomes Buffy's enemy, etc.), but sadly none came to pass.


I'm listening to that semi-choral version of 'When Doves Cry' from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet right now. I must admit I really want to see Moulin Rouge. Luhrmann's directorial style is totally up my alley - somewhat surreal, super saturated, fast fast fast editing, etc. And the notion that he's playing around with the contrivances of a musical really has me excited. A lot of people I know have been turned off to the film because of the Star Power involved. But I think this could also be used effectively. We'll see.

thursday, may 3 (01)   [link]

jane:  "What's the top speed on this thing?"


"Mach 3."


"Is that faster than a speeding bullet?"


...


Try to tell me that Batman Beyond is not the greatest cartoon show on today. I will put my fingers in my ears and sing loudly to myself. Yes, the show is that great. Today The Call (parts one and two) was on. It's a great episode in which Batman is recruited to join the Justice League and fight alongside Superman, Aquagirl, the Green Lantern, legendary heroes. Of course it turns out that there is also a dangerous traitor in their midst. It's one of the best-written, best-directed 2 half hours on TV, even counting Buffy. I think I'm going to have to write an essay about it.


Oh, and more RPG stuff is on the way. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, you've all given me much to think about (especially you, mercurybonez).

thursday, may 3 (01)   [link]

chrisw:  Two links today -- One for Jane: Focus Test with Young Shop-o-holic Woman. (Read the box that starts out with "dynamic ribbon device".)


Second, I really liked the SF band, P.E.E. and now many P.E.E. MP3s are available for download at Epitonic.com. They've broken up (at least I got to see their last show) but go buy their albums anyway, they're worth it.