Stuff.

Hugh <3


Ghost World influence, cats, + flowers = love u Givenchy RTW Fall 2011






favorites.

dear Santa:

birthday wishlist.

my birthday is in 20 days.

Lola


Kombucha


Feelies reissues




Nick Hornby's new book


Our Noise


Music Listography


Roper Boots, like these






Hefner reissues




Swedish Princess Cake

Road Soda

i've been doing a lot of new things recently, due to my dire financial situation, and just because of life in general, & they are mostly good things! you know, we work with what we've got.

new things:

1. using my collection of vintage handkerchiefs to actually blow my nose because i don't want to spend money on kleenex. kind of old man-ish, but also kind of dainty!

2. wearing ripped up tights. i can't afford new ones, but they add a kind of nice subtle punky/grungy touch to my otherwise preppy outfits.


3. hanging out with lots of really really great & super cool people...

4. ...which kind of relates to the fact that i've only been going to shows that i can get on the guest list for. so i don't have to spend $$. it's pretty sweet knowing most of the people who you want to see play.

5. wearing this jean jacket i got like 10 years ago, when i was in middle school, at the Gap. i literally never wore it until a few weeks ago & now i can't stop, i totally love it!


6. eating subway sandwiches. i admit, i used to look down on subway, i thought i was just too good for them. but you get lots of vegetables, it's cheap, very easy, and it's really darn tasty. it's still sort of embarrassing though.

7. drinking coffee at work. i never used to, but um, free coffee? yes please. today i even made myself an iced one, with splenda & Silk soy creamer, oh my!

8. only being allowed ONE Diet Coke a day. this one is really sad actually. but i just can't afford drinking my usual, like, 4 a day. oh well, RESTRAINT is a good quality for me to practice.

9. not listening to much music. this is also not really a good thing. it's just too exhausting. i've been listening to um... Sex Clark Five & The Del Fuegos. um, yeah, what? weird. well anyhow, here's a video of Sex Clark Five's super terrific cover of a Clash song.


10. getting creative with decorations! i fashioned a table out of wood & books a while back, and now i've got some interesting things on my walls. i'm really into this little Stereolab 7" i got at work the other day that i put on my wall. i think it's so cute!


this isn't really new, but here's the view from my window, from where i am sitting right this second.

Old Year/New Year

2008 was pretty sweet. the last day of it & the first day of 2009 were spent in Athens, Ga. we saw Of Montreal. they rubbed blood on us & played a full set of covers, highlights being "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "American Girl" by Tom Petty, and the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't've Fallen In Love With." it ruled, a lot.

E & i post-champagne, pre-Of Montreal:


broken glass: new year's eve aftermath


playing guitar with an extra hand


so anyway, that was 2008. goodbye, year.

now i have some predictions for 2009. what you can look forward to:

COOL PLACES- Savannah, Ga; Memphis, Tn; Oxford, Ms; Gainesville, Fl

COOL VENUE- The Bottle Tree in Birmingham, Al

LEGENDARY BANDS THAT WILL BE COOL TO BE INFLUENCED BY- Tall Dwarfs (and all other New Zealand/Flying Nun people like The Clean, The Chills, The 3Ds, The Bats, etc.), Pavement, Guided By Voices, original Elephant 6 stuff, R.E.M.'s first two albums

FOOD PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LIKE TO EAT- french fries (humble, yet easy to personalize & make more fancy; also, cool in a kitschy and also ironic, these-are-bad-for-me-but-i-don't-care kind of way)

COOL ART TO DO- Bookbinding

COOL ACTIVITY- categorizing all your favorite things in life into structured lists

DRUGS THAT WILL BE IN VOGUE- over the counter medications and the trusty, always readily available alcohol (especial hard liquor and cheap champagne)

COOL THINGS TO WEAR- glasses (preferably ones that make you look like Woody Allen), 80's-ish lace up ankle boots, sunglasses indoors, cropped t-shirts, t-shirts that are too big for you, things that are grey

SOCIAL-Y WEBSITE PEOPLE WILL GET EXCITED ABOUT- Yelp (see mine here! camillaaa.yelp.com)

COOL JOB- not actually having a job but finding creative ways to have enough money to live (i.e. selling cd's & lp's to your local independent record store, selling any items really on Ebay, getting your tax return back, spending your savings, having a birthday/graduating from high school or college or grad school/celebrating a holiday, making bets with people you know you'll win, etc.)

PHILOSOPHY/OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR- no nostalgia; being more excited about right now & the future than the past, not romanticising the past, not basing new experiences on old ones, making new friends, doing new things, memory loss.

be is was i me b c d e f g h i think...

lately i have been listening to lots of Tall Dwarfs & Chris Knox.

i have also been liking songs like these

(king khan & bbq's "love you so")

that sound like real 1950's songs like this

(gene vincent's "my heart")

see also: the vulgar boatmen's "heartbeat," jonathan richman's cover of "i can't stay mad at you," the ramones' "i wanna be your boyfriend," elvis costello's "really mystified," hoodoo gurus' "my girl," etc.

i like these cartoon drawings of the Presidents
http://www.letrainbleublog.com/2008/10/fourty-four-presidents-mzamaria-sputnik.html

and the graphics for the Queen's Hideaway in Brooklyn
http://thequeenshideaway.com/

and "The Catorialist"- HYSTERICAL
http://thecatorialist.blogspot.com/

AND I LIKE

this bag


and mustache necklaces


and masks like this


and this picture of the Go-Betweens.

walk around, walk around, shake

even though i've got no $$, i'm bidding on these glasses because i like them lots



i'm also contemplating going after these in addition to the grey pair



if it was possible to get sick from listening to one album too much i think i might have died already due to the number of times i've played Opposite Sex by the Vulgar Boatmen in the past 4 days. i only heard it for the first time on Monday night, the day before the Election (!). and i'd be frightened to even guess how many times i've listened to it since. MAN, IS IT GOOD OR WHAT. just bear with me as i go through my VB Obsession Stage 2 here, folks.

look how cool & dorky they looked



i'm going to devote my life to writing a book about them. well, i might not devote my whole life to it, but i'm definitely going to do it! maybe it will be entitled Women and Boatmen First, the title of one of their early cassette-only recordings, or it could be called Right to Left, the name of the band Dale Lawrence (one of the 2 main dudes) was in before the VB. hey, don't steal my ideas now! i know everyone's just dying to get a piece of this goldmine of a project.

and here is this song, it's a really early one by them, or maybe it's even by Right to Left, but Dale Lawrence is singing (there's also Robert Ray, he wrote most of the songs, way to go Rob!) and it's a song called "Over You," that is not on any of their releases and the first time i played this video i was honestly speechless. it's from some 20 year old recording, made in someone's basement somewhere, and yet the beauty and urgency and melody and power of the song manage to completely overwhelm. the song has one lyric: "i'm over you" repeated for 2 and a half minutes, and it's pure bliss, every single second of it.

"the boy next door is into better things/the boy next door is into bigger things/the boy next door is me"

i saw The Feelies a few weekends ago in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. they were phenomenally fast & tight & perfect & amazing. i think the highlight of the show for me had to be "Raised Eyebrows," with it's pounding, primal three-drum intro, giving way to jittery guitars and a beautiful melody. IN-CREDIBLE. this is what the "Raised Eyebrows" (with "Fa Ce La") single looked like when it came out in 1980.


The Feelies are my style icons they were (and ARE) so cool, they just dressed and looked perfect to me.


My favorite album cover of all time, how can you deny THE COOLNESS:






Glenn has the best style of any man ever. He was sporting some amazing tortoisehell sunglasses & nicely-fitting khakis & awesome all black All-Stars.


Oh, and Dave, the guy who plays percussion, was my FAVE. he completely owned the tambourine & bells & maracas & occasional snare and bass drum.


before The Feelies came on, SHRUBS opened for them, and i thought they were the greatest thing i'd ever heard. they also were amazing because they had mini-shrubs on stage with them. and the drummer especially rules because he gave me all this crazy stuff. he liked me.


and, while we're on the subject, i also saw the mighty Robert Forster (of the best band of all time, The Go-Betweens) a few days before The Feelies. Robert wins at life.

things of inter-est lately.

i've been obsessing over the Vulgar Boatmen for the past few weeks. almost all i've been listening to are their albums Please Panic and You and Your Sister. they were from Gainesville, FL, back in the late 80's & early 90's. they sound twangy and poppy and basically like the best thing you've ever heard and the lyrics are incredible, they make me picture mossy Southern towns with winding, hilly streets, that seem quiet but are actually brewing with activity. um, yeah, anyway. there are not many good videos of them to be found, but this one showcases a beautiful song of theirs called "Drive Somewhere."



Bas Jan Ader is my favorite artist of all-time only after mr. a.w. he was this amazing Dutch guy who did really sweet conceptual art involving sailboats & tea parties & falling off bicycles. he went missing in the Atlantic Ocean during his final work of art. this is a particularly wonderful piece of his, from 1974, called Flower Work.



i've been up to some creative projects, including filming random shots on my video camera downtown at night & of my friends and i being hysterical. we've also been plotting our upcoming band, maybe or maybe not called The Tundra. it's going to be the best tambourine-laced party band ever!! and last but not least, i recorded 2 albums on my trashy tape recorder (that was once used by me to interview Calvin Johnson no less!). they are entitled Broken Tailbone and Twangy & Jangly.

i just re-discovered this part of an atrocious picture once taken of me & E. our legs aren't really that stumpy.



i've also been really, really obsessed with Athens, Georgia, and all things having to do with it. like, Elephant 6 bands (especially Circulatory System and the classic Olivia Tremor Control albums) and the Happy Happy Birthday To Me record label and the band THE SQUALLS. they are incredible. their song "Na na na na" is one of the greatest ever. it was featured on the seminal Athens, Ga: Inside/Out film. this clip from the film is kind of a nice encapsulation of everything i've been into Athens-wise. (you'll see some sweet R.E.M., Flat Duo Jets, Pylon, and BBQ Killers action, among other stuff. oh, and watch Peter Buck- he's amazing in this!)



um, and i've been way into glasses lately. i've been sporting a sweet pair of thick black-framed ones, ala Elvis C. and Buddy H. they look like



plus



and i've obtained a pair of red heartshaped sunglasses, ala one of my other style icons, Lolita:



finally, i've begun watching what some people consider to be the greatest TV drama of all time, The Wire. i'm not even through season 1 yet, but it's super terrific. here is a picture of my fave character, Bubbles, pulling at fast one on some mean drug dealers!