Minneapolis Michael
Phish.com: Trey’s new guitar, completed in July, was made from a single piece of Koa that Paul had been saving for some time. It’s the first guitar where he used wood binding (contrasted with the white edging from guitars) and the first time color inlays were used.
Can’t wait to see Trey attack this beast at Alpine this weekend.
Not sure if I’m allowed to say this yet or not, but thanks to my main man (and longtime F.O.W) R. Mills, I’ve been listening to the new Guster record, Easy Wonderful, for the last few weeks. I’ll save my thoughts on the album as a whole until the time is right, but it’s worth noting that the album’s first single, “Do You Love Me,” is gonna knock both your literal and proverbial socks off. It’s already starting to blow up at radio and, methinks, has the chance to end up as an even bigger hit than “Satellite” (which KILLED on radio back in the fall/winter of Oh-Six).
In addition to having a gorgeous and instantly hummable pop melody, the lyrics do an incredibly amazing job of getting to the heart of the question that’s at the crux of just about every romantic relationship, be they short- or long-term: Do you love me? It’s rare for a band that’s been together for a lifetime now — they started off way back in 1991! — to still be getting better, but after spending the last month with this record, I can say with a large degree of confidence that this is the best song in the band’s illustrious catalog. It drops on iTunes tomorrow, be sure to pick it up!
Grambo on Guster!
944: Olivia Munn
um.
I’m going to see the most buzz/blog worthy band of 2010 tomorrow night in The Main Room: Built To Spill.
I said as much on The Twitter tonight, but I really don’t know what would’ve happened had I been exposed to Built To Spill in 1994 or 1997 or 1999. Instead of honing my ear on a great/shitty pop hook thanks to the bullshit KKCK was playing from 1994-1999, I could’ve honed my ear on totally badass guitar-crunching indie rock.
This is something I actually spend a lot of time thinking about: what is life like in Rural America in 2010, thanks to the Internet? And what would life have been like in Rural America when I was growing up, from 1990-2000, if I had access to the Internet of 2010?
Life.
A Chris Jones Piece
I’ve been seeing a lot of praise and a lot of you-gotta-read-this’ about Chris Jones’ piece in the August issue of Esquire, “TV’s Crowning Moment of Awesome.” So, naturally, before I sat down to read it today, I was expecting a Chris Jones Piece. Instead of a Chris Jones Piece, I merely got something that was a fine read. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool little story, but I felt like 1-2k words were cut in the editing process, and that leaves the narrative a bit disjointed.
What, exactly, is a Chris Jones Piece? What does it look like when Chris Jones has as many words as he wants to tell a story? First, let it be known that I hold Jones in high esteem; I think he’s one of the best long-form journalists in the country. I’ve been reading him for as long as he’s been writing for Esquire, and man has he been writing for Esquire.
If you want to take some time to find out what a Chris Jones Piece reads like, here are a few to get you started:
“The Things That Carried Him” - Jones tells the story of the journey Joe Montgomery’s body took from Iraq, where he was killed in battle, to its final resting place in Indiana, where he was born. A 2009 National Magazine Award winner for Feature Writing — this is a Chris Jones Piece.
“Roger Ebert: The Essential Man” - Jones tells the story of…ah fuck it, you know who Roger Ebert is, right? A beautiful portrait of a beautiful man. A Chris Jones Piece
“The Runaway” - Jones tells the story of Ricky Williams, one of college football’s best players ever, and one of the NFL’s most enigmatic. Jones was the first journalist to track Ricky down and get the story after Ricky’s abrupt retirement in 2004. A Chris Jones Piece.
These are the three pieces that spring to mind. I’ll give it a bit more thought, and if any more of his work presents itself in my brain, I’ll add them here.
J.R.
East Bay Funk Dunk. Damn, I had high hopes for this dude.
I don’t agree with my peers that Rex Sorgatz’s profile in the New York Times — in the STYLES section — is akin to the death of Journalism. That said, I do have to call bullshit on something that was written in this article. Specifically, this:
IT was a rainy Tuesday night and Rex Sorgatz, a rail-thin man with spiky red hair and Sol Moscot glasses, walked into a birthday party held at Tom & Jerry’s, a bar in NoHo that has become a go-to place for New York’s Twitter class. A circle of friends who occupy the digital elite closed in, all shouting “Rex!”
I have been to many, many social functions where Rex Sorgatz was also an attendee. I have ALSO been to Tom & Jerry’s on a number of occasions where Rex was also there. However, in neither of those situations have I ever once HEARD OR SEEN a group of “digital elites” descend on Rex, en masse, shouting “Rex!”
What can we draw from this? Either:
1) It never happened
OR
2) Rex set it up in advance
Does anyone know the real deal? No offense, Rexy, just doing some homework!
Do work, son!
I saw this live and, though it may be hard to believe, it was better than this video. That makes this video only a little less awesome.
There won’t be an iPhone 4 recall, there won’t be a (significant) decline in demand for iPhone 4, and there won’t be a legit Android competitor any time soon. There will be sadness, however.
Dude, Angry Birds. Either the best or worst $0.99 you’ll ever spend, depending on whether or not you have an addictive personality. Makes Flight Control seem about as fun as your iPhone’s calculator function. 5318008!
Grambo: always true. I can’t get past the level at :37, and it’s pissing me off.
