It's like the end of an era, it is.

Billboard 11-18-2006

• I'm writing this on Monday, November 27, but who know when it will actually go up, since the internet at work has apparently been down since last Wednesday.
• Also, I got so distracted by how amazing Stranger Than Fiction was that I didn't blog this weekend and am, I guess, officially out of the running for nablopomo.
• Maybe next year.
• Tomorrow is my last non-staff day at this job.
• Actually, I really want to talk about Stranger than Fiction, but I don't think the 3 people who actually care what I have to say have seen it yet.
• So I'm being nice.
• Record companies are going to get a share of Zune profits.
• "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it."--UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris.
• That's...um. Yeah.
• Seriously waiting for them to realize the number of library patrons that check out cds and copy them, over here.
• There was also a trailer for Dreamgirls and Lara and I totally have a Christmas holiday date to see it.
• Even if I always think of that little boy and Camp everytime I hear that song.
• All Saints and Take That both have new albums coming out.
• Wait! The Ronettes weren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet!?
• That's a fuckin' travesty.
• I love those girls.
• The new Stars of Track and Field record will be released to indie stores a couple months before chains.
• I wonder how successful that'll be...
• Okay, this feature about comics who tour like bands isn't even going to mention David Cross.
• I mean, I know they're talking about the uber successful guys, but who's been really doing that for awhile now?
• Julien Temple's Strummer movie is premiering at Sundance.
• Hee--I just ordered the Tenacious D soundtrack.
• I really want to see that movie.
• I have officially stopped even caring one way or the other about Gwen Stefani.
• It would take a hell of a gossip item to change my mind.
• Like if she hooked up with K-Fed, or Chris Noth or something.
• Or if K-Fed and Chris Noth hooked up, and she introduced them.
• I think I pretty officially have started babbling now.
• Anyone want to pack up some dishes for me?

heh

The town I'm about to move out of is very strange. Who names an apartment complex after such a trashy book/movie?

Gobble Gobble Hey (yes, I reused my awful Thanksgiving title)

So, I have this 4-part theory of animal usefulness. A truly useful animal:
*is cute;
*tastes good;
*creates some other foodstuff (like eggs or milk);
*and creates some other useful good, like suede.

For example, sheep are cute and tasty. Sheep's cheese is also tasty, and who doesn't like yarn?

Turkey, on the other hand, are kind of useless. They're ugly, and no one really eats turkey eggs, do they?
They are damn tasty, though. Especially their skin.
And you can't draw a sheep by tracing your hand.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Replace the flesh (which is weak) with steel (which is strong).

Why do I always wind up forgetting and putting my 3 heaviest books in the same box?
As I was slogging stuff up into my new apartment yesterday, I did that thing you always do when you move: fantasize about throwing it all away.
It's especially an attractive option if, like me, all of your most prized posessions and favorite things were cheap and are a pain to move.
Take those 3 heavy books, for instance. One of them was a gift, so it's price isn't of my concern. It's the nice big Yoko Ono retrospective catalog from a few years ago. Fucker weighs like 4 times the weight of your average big fancy art book.
Book #2 is a yearbook from a big famous military school (whose name is escaping me now--Naval Academy? something...) I found in the trash outside a giant Squirrel Hill house one day. It's from the early 70s and is pretty damn sweet.
And the third book is a world atlas/encyclopedia from the early 1960s. I love this book. I think it was a dollar.
So, what I need all of you to do is remind me. Everytime I gripe about how much junk I have, and how heavy it all is, remind me of how much I love all my stupid books and records and Jimmy's Robot World coffee mug and plush things that shouldn't be plush.
***
Then, this afternoon, Mom and I went to Kawaii and I bought more stuff I'll have to move (plus a present for Tiff). In my defense, though, I did need a 2007 planner and weird Japanese school/office supplies for my new job.

Vase of carnations from central Ohio.

In the words of the lovely Stacey, I am so punished right now.
Let me explain.
I was supposed to leave work at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I wound up finishing work at 3:45. I wound up leaving the library at 4.
Then I drove around town for 2 hours looking for 2 large bottles of reisling. Does reisling even come in a large bottle? At one place, the proprietor started to get on me about the disparate types of wine I was attempting to buy (also a bottle of cabernet sauvignon). With my last ounce of class, I managed to not precede my explanation of the different people drinking different wines with "Listen, Bub..."
Then I went out to dinner with Stacey, Melissa, and Ashleigh, and that was pretty fabulous. As was the strawberry margarita.
Then I went home and proceded to pack my car full of as many boxes, crates, etc., of books, records, cds, fabric scraps, legos, etc., as I could. Pausing for a lengthy and repetitive conversation with my one remaining sketchy neighbor about our crap landlord.
This morning, I was up at 6:30 and on the road around 9. First I had to drop my apartment key with Melissa, who has once again agreed to look in on the jerks from time to time while I'm gone. What can I say? I think she's a saint, actually.
I spent a good part of the first leg of the drive taking my life in my hands and texting while driving.
Oh, did I mention I woke up with the beginnings of a cold this morning?
I hit Thanksgiving, accident traffic, and rush hour in 3 of the 4 large cities I pass through to get to my parents' house.
And all those boxes of heavy, heavy books and records and things? They all went up 3 flights of narrow stairs into my next apartment. By me.
I'm going to go fall over now.
On the plus side, though, I did hear "Do They Know It's Christmas" for the first time this year around Washington, PA.

It's a nice day to start again.

A friend of mine has apparently decided to get himself all ministered up from the Universal Life Church. You know, from the back of Rolling Stone fame. How a variety of television weddings wind up being performed by main characters (Chris in the Morning, Joey marrying Chandler and Monica, etc.). That church.

Here's the conversation Tiff and I had after she informed me of this.
me: So, what you're saying is, if I ever get married, Richard can perform the ceremony? SWEET!
Tiff: yes, he will be able to...and you could probably pay him in booze...
me: done and done. And, while I'm never a fan of the Richard facial hair, I think it would be hilarious to be married by an old-timily made up Richard, n'est-ce pas?
Tiff: it would, yes...especially if he talked old-timey, too...
me: hee. Like an old-timey sports announcer, or auctioneer.
Tiff: or a newsreel reader...
me: heh. What an awesome wedding I'm going to have.

Fits and starts.

The PW review of Modest Mouse: a Pretty Good Read calls Isaac Brock a "sailor-mouthed, media-loathing front man...whose songwriting knew much darker beginnings."
Last month, I found a copy of Fight Club mis-shelved in juvenile fiction.
Trying to explain who Tim Gunn is and why it's so exciting that he's on Megan Mulally's talk show to someone who's never seen Project Runway is a bit difficult. Especially when you interrupt your explanation with, "Eee! I bet he's giving her a bobblehead! I totally want a Tim Gunn bobblehead!" And it's before 9 AM.