Space travel is boring
first off, i'm not sure whether to be happy or sad about this. i mean, two cents per song (kwur being non-commercial and all) isn't too bad, but with the fees being retroactive and whatnot, who knows whether this is going to completely mess the station up or not? time will tell, i suppose.
in addition, missy indirectly pointed me toward this year's fort reno schedule. the fort reno concert series in d.c. has always been just plain fabulous, putting on shows by great bands for free during the summer. obviously, i've never been to one, but with this year's schedule including q and not u (tonight, admittedly), fugazi, canyon, trans am, jenny toomey, el guapo, and the dismemberment plan....well, i wish i lived near d.c.
i've gotten it in my head that i want to be a librarian. i'm not kidding.
now i don't even know at this point whether anyone is reading this or not, since i said that i wouldn't be posting for a while. then again, i also said that the new website would be up by friday, which it obviously isn't, so no one can really talk about my reliability.
anyway, i just figured i'd pop on and mention a few things that i've done in the past few days, since i'm sure everyone is constantly on the edge of their seat waiting for me to let them know what bits of pop culture i've been consuming of late. so here goes:
movies:
about a boy--in an actual movie theater, where i spent only $3.75 for the ticket (take that, new yorkers!). great movie...hugh grant and that kid were really good together, and badly drawn boy delivers quite a soundtrack. a must-buy in the near future.
the hurricane--in my ever-present attempt to see award-winning movies about a year after everyone else, i finally saw this. very well done.
the contender--a fine melding of feminist stuff and political wrangling. so good.
cds
mountain goats, ghana--one of three compilations of older stuff john recorded and released on cassettes, cds, and 7"s that are pretty much all out of print. there's a lot here (31 tracks), and it's taking me a while, but as usual, i'm entranced.
dj shadow, the private press--more eclectic than anything he's done before. some hip-hop, some downbeat, some new wave-y stuff....all funkily fine.
books
at large--a look at one of the most overwhelming attacks on different computer networks worldwide, and why the perpetrator (a teenage boy in oregon) was never charged after he was caught.
shows
...and you will know us by the trail of dead / secret machines / five grand (?), live at the galaxy here in st. louis.
quick wrap-up: five grand (i'm not sure of the name) is, as far as i know, a local band. pretty good, taking tips from trail of dead, fugazi, and some screamo bands. i enjoyed them.
secret machines were on tour with trail of dead, and apparently love having long hair. they were pretty good, coming across like a mix between explosions in the sky (from what i've heard of them) and led zeppelin. actually, that's not a great comparison--actually, it's really bad--but it's late, so i'll leave it. oh, and secret machines get points knocked off for making me think that they were going to cover a joy division song (the one with the guitar lick similar to "transmission," or maybe it was "transmission") by copying said guitar lick, but didn't.
trail of dead was fucking amazing. loud as anything, intense, and just damn good. oh man...i'm poor, and i couldn't really afford to go to the show, but it was sooooo worth it.
unfortunate side effect of the loudness of trail of dead: i think i screwed something up in my head. i've found myself feeling dizzy on several occasions today, and i can't think of any reason other than some far-fetched notion that the extreme volume messed up my inner ear somehow. more details as they become available. hopefully it's nothing.