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March 26, 2003
this case is closed

A couple of weeks ago I visited Steve in New York. It was a nice, warm weekend, and though we didn't do much of note, we did thoroughly enjoy ourselves. We barely lost a game of pool to a hipster bartender, we bowled at a huge bowling alley in the thick of the city, we watched a game of pickup basketball (nothing makes you feel like you're in a city like watching a colorful group of guys play a game of pickup basketball, you know?), we walked around and talked and sat outside at a restaurant and drank as people walked by. It was the way a weekend should be every so often: comfortable and meandering and fun and just a little too expensive.

During the course of Saturday, we caught two particularly good sound bytes, and it has inspired me to start a list of good overheard remarks. Here are the first two (future ones will be on their own page):

  1. "So what did the second guy in Wham do?" -- man in late 20s, sitting in a restaurant, overheard through a large open window.
  2. "I'm drunk, and I'm calling you." -- man in late 20s, walking down the street around 6 p.m., speaking on a cell phone.

Also, I saw Television play on Sunday night. It was sort of strange. Part of me wants to romanticize all of the great music from the late 1970s and believe that it could only exist in a live form in that era. It felt almost like I was cheating, in the sense that any experience I have of great old bands reuniting to play their great old music can never equal the experience of having seen them the first time around. Good music is good music, but when it's good new music in an era blessed with and even somewhat defined by a lot of good new music, it carries more weight. Of course, I could be projecting a nostalgic energy onto the years just prior to my birth. There's no way to know.

Anyway, Television were good, and their performance of "Prove It" was a particular standout. I feel lucky to have been able to see them. Too bad I'll never see The Clash. Sort of too bad, I mean.


File under DAILY. Posted at 12:00 AM




March 09, 2003
taking stock of stolen goods

Here's a list of CDs stolen from my car a couple of weeks ago. I haven't decided how to replace them. For awhile I was in denial, thinking that they would crawl out from underneath the driver's seat one day and surprise me. Of course, I had already looked underneath the driver's seat like eight times, and they weren't there.

So now the question is, do I buy new copies, or borrow copies from friends and burn them? If I buy new copies (I can't afford to do this right now, of course), I'll make an art collage out of the CD covers and title it "Loss." Because I'm a brilliant artist.

Artist
Album Title
Air Moon Safari
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds**
Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister
Big Star Third/Sister Lovers**
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks**
Bruce Springsteen Nebraska**
Bügsküll Distracted Snowflake
Charlie Parker The Ultimate Charlie Parker*
Chet Baker Chet Baker Sings
The Clash London Calling**
The Clash Combat Rock
Gutterball Gutterball
Joni Mitchell Blue**
Kinks Well Respected Kinks
Koop Waltz for Koop
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin Is Back Box Set CD #2
Lou Reed Transformer
Pernice Brothers The World Won't End**
Radiohead OK Computer**
The Stranglers No More Heroes
Talking Heads 77
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists The Tyranny of Distance*
Television Marquee Moon**
The Toys A Lover's Concerto/Attack
Various WOVO: Songs to Remember
Various Karaoke mix
The Vibrators Pure Mania
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
X Los Angeles/Wild Gift**
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Yeah Yeah Yeahs

*These CDs didn't do much for me, so it's okay. Note: it isn't that I don't like Charlie Parker, but this particular compilation has some live songs on it that wouldn't qualify as "ultimate."

** Wah...


File under DAILY. Posted at 12:00 AM