MTA WTF

Found this on a friend's blog, and I thought it would be quite amusing for the subway riders.

Pontiac, You Will Be Missed

As Nathanael pointed out a few days ago, General Motor's Pontiac line of vehicles, known as the Excitement Division, has been put to eternal rest (aka phased out by 2010) earlier this week. Pontiac, you will be missed... eh, not really.

My simple twist of fate/love affair began with Pontiacs back in high school. First off, when they came out with the new, sleeker look of the late 90's, I just flat out thought they looked cool. "Ahhh, yeeeeeah, that Pontiac is hot, yo!"

I was lucky to find a fellow Pontiac enthusiast in my friend, Kyle. Where we were at the time, Hagersbush, MD, the bourgeois thought souped up Hondas were the shiznit. "My Honda is so faaaast and furious!" Little did they knew their Tokyoshit 1.8L engines were no match for Pontiac's much larger 5.0L. The Grand Am GT (pictured below) was a muscle car and had an engine more than twice as big, with tons more horsepower than the bullshit toyrides kids our age were fronting. Keep in mind this entire time Nathanael is also mocking me endlessly for liking the brand, which (in typical contrarian fashion) only made me spout more how they were the greatest cars on the road.


If you're thinking, "what about NICE cars, like BMWs, Audis, or Ferrari? That's a normal boys dream ride," well, I was too poor at the time to think those brands were cool. "Only a rich bitch would be caught in a BMW. Fuck that." I knew a new Pontiac was an attainable goal, so I was drawn to it.

I finally broke my Pontiac cherry one fateful spring in the late 90's. Nat's mother was renting a new Pontiac Bonneville (aka Ponti Bonny) as a replacement for her car in the shop. Nat understood I would NEED to drive this vehicle (and get my picture taken with it), so he convinced her to let us take it for a spin (and something was said about, "pick up Will at golf practice, blah blah blah, wHaT? We can't hear you, Mom").... The next couple minutes are blurry, but before I know it I'm behind the wheel on I-70 going 115 miles per hour. No joke. The other cars seemed like they were in park or driving in molasses as I dangerously flew by. Once I hit 115 the engine literally shut off, I assume the car's "governor" (when the engine shuts off so your car doesn't go too fast to out run cops or catch the engine on fire, I guess) kicked in until I was going about 85 miles per hour. No harm done. UPDATE: there was harm done! That afternoon Nat and I were supposed to pick up his younger brother from golf practice, but came home Will-less and totally got chew out by Nat's mom!! Will referred to it as "the worst day of his life" when he assumed he was forgotten; left to spend the rest of his days abandoned and deserted, bones picked by vultures in the parking lot of a golf resort. Haha!

Then I went to college, still no money to buy a car, yadda yadda yadda. I HATED the Pontiac Aztec with such a passion I largely turned my back on the brand forever... until I heard they were gone this week. It did bring back memories of largely faking a love of Pontiacs. I knew they weren't the best cars on the road, but I felt it didn't hurt having the brand's back... They were made in America afterall... soon to accept the fate of only existing as a warm (but distant) jpeg memory (and you used to mean so much to me).

Pontiac Is Dead. Long Live Pontiac.

American as Milk

Matt, you have really let yourself go...

Hey

From Papa Hemingway

Some of the best advice:

"Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when the luck comes you are ready."

The Armpit Collection XVIII: On the Road

Jack Kerouac's writing, and On the Road in particular, is commonly associated with the word "jazz." This is not only because of his streamy spontaneous writing style, but also because his shenanigans took place in an extremely fertile, influential, interesting, and changing time in jazz history, as well as American culture & sentiment. Call it restless, call it bop. Compiled are some of the musicians & songs mentioned in On the Road.

Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra "Central Avenue Breakdown"
Dexter Gordon & Wardell Gray "The Hunt"
Slim Gaillard
George Shearing
"Close Your Eyes"
Dizzy Gillespie "Congo Blues"
Stan Getz
Lester Young
Lucky Millinder
Wynonie Blues Harris "I Like My Baby's Pudding"
Willie Jackson "Gator Tail Pts 1 or 2"
Perez Prado "Mambo No 8" "More Mambo Jambo" & "Mambo De Chattanooga"

Sal mentions other infamous jazz giants, as well as mysterious & random players he encounters in his journey to and fro. Above are the musicans or songs mentioned by name, or at least alluded to. Some of the artists are mentioned a few times, like George Shearing and Dizzy Gillespie. Of course Dizzy is a foundational artist of the time and spirit in terms of Bebop, and Dean's character also had a fascination with Shearing. I might have missed a few. Sal also mentions going to a Duke Ellington concert at the very end of the book, as he watches Dean fade away in the streets. So it would be appropriate to end this with something of the times for Ellington.

Duke Ellington "The Harlem Suite"

Some Resources

Definitely check out the link above (Resources), there's a few great interviews, essays, etc, especially the Sam Charters bit.

My Lifespan

19852009

Benny Benassi - Satisfaction

McCain - Lookin' out for JJ

READ ABOUT IT

Happy Puff Day

Can't be too subtle

Little Boots: The Home Game

An interesting online instrument that reminded me of Little Boots's Tenori-on

Tax Blues in the Rain

Group Therapy

Pizza Guy Tips

I have been had...again.

Two-fer Tuesday

First, a video of President Barack Obama reading "Where the Wild Things Are" to the kids gathered on the White House lawn for the annual Easter egg roll. Notable because I think you can actually see unconditional love glistening over the Obamas like the shimmer over a sun-baked highway.



Next, a few selections from a series of photographs created by compositing photos of the same NYC location over several days. The smokers are my favorite, obviously. The people touching their faces reminds me of 9/11.

"I think I killed somebody."

"Without him they’re a funk band."

Great interview with Bob Dylan in the Telegraph, a portion of which is C&P'ed below for your enjoyment. Full conversation (14 pages worth) is available at BobDylan.com

Bill Flanagan: Getting back to politics, what did you think of Jesse Ventura, being a Minnesotan and all?

Bob Dylan: He did some good things or tried to. I never met him. All I know about the governor is that he’s a Rolling Stones fan.

BF: Your old cohorts?

BD: I hear from Keith once in a while but that’s about it.

BF: What do you think of the Stones?

BD: What do I think of them? They’re pretty much finished, aren’t they?

BF: They had a gigantic tour last year. You call that finished?

BD: Oh yeah, you mean Steel Wheels. I’m not saying they don’t keep going, but they need Bill. Without him they’re a funk band. They’ll be the real Rolling Stones when they get Bill back.

BF: Bob, you’re stuck in the 80’s.

BD: I know. I’m trying to break free.

BF: Do you really think the Stones are finished?

BD: Of course not, They’re far from finished. The Rolling Stones are truly the greatest rock and roll band in the world and always will be. The last too. Everything that came after them, metal, rap, punk, new wave, pop-rock, you name it …. you can trace it all back to the Rolling Stones. They were the first and the last and no one’s ever done it better.

BF: This Dream of You has this wonderful South of the Border feel, but at the same time, I detect echoes of Sam Cooke, the Coasters, the Brill Building, and Phil Spector. Were those records from the 50's and 60's important to you? Did you try to capture some of that flavor in This Dream of You?

BD: Those fifties and sixties records were definitely important. That might have been the last great age of real music. Since then or maybe the seventies it's all been people playing computers. Sam Cooke, the Coasters, Phil Spector, all that music was great but it didn’t exactly break into my consciousness.
Back then I was listening to Son House, Leadbelly, the Carter family, Memphis Minnie and death romance ballads. As far as songwriting, I wanted to write songs like Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson. Timeless and eternal. Only a few of those radio ballads still hold up and most of them have Doc Pomus’ hand in them. Spanish Harlem, Save the Last Dance for Me, Little Sister … a few others. Those were fantastic songs. Doc was a soulful cat. If you said there was a little bit of him in This Dream of You I would take it as a compliment.

BF: Even though many of the tracks on the album are about love, the album is full of pain – sometimes in the same song. In Beyond Here Lies Nothing, the song is underscored by a feeling of foreboding. You’re moving down "boulevards of broken cars.” You’re going to love "as long as love will last.” Is pain a necessary part of loving?

BD: Oh yeah, in my songs it is. Pain, sex, murder, family - it goes way back. Kindness. Honour. Charity. You have to tie all that in. You’re supposed to know that stuff.

BF: Getting back to This Dream of You , the character sings, “How long can I stay in this nowhere café?” Where is that café?

BD: It sounds like it’s south of the border or close to the border.

BF: You’re not saying?

BD: Well, no, it’s not like I’m not saying. But if you have those kind of thoughts and feelings you know where the guy is. He’s right where you are. If you don’t have those thoughts and feelings then he doesn’t exist.

BF: The character in the song reminds me a lot of the guy who is in the song Across The Borderline.

BD: I know what you’re saying, but it’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.

BF: Well can’t a singer act out a song?

BD: Yeah sure, a lot of them do. But the more you act the further you get away from the truth. And a lot of those singers lose who they are after a while. You sing, “I’m a lineman for the county,” enough times and you start to scamper up poles.

BF: What actor could you hear singing This Dream of You?

BD: Gosh I don’t know, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney

BF: How about Humphrey Bogart?

BD: Yeah, sure, him too. Funny thing about actors and that identity thing. Every time I run into Val Kilmer, I can’t help myself. I say, “Why, Johnny Ringo - you look like somebody just walked on your grave.” Val always says, “Bob, I’m not Johnny Ringo. That’s just a role I played in a movie." He could be right, he could be wrong. I think he’s wrong but he says it in such a sincere way. You have to think he thinks he’s right.

R.I.P. Nick

Making videos is easy

Just a link to a multimedia article from IFC titled "The Directors of Radiohead." Appropriately, the article covers Radiohead music videos and the directors who directed them. HERE

Freedom and Unity...Starting Now

"For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled."

Hunter S. Thompson

Kurt Cobain RIP - 15 Years Later

Fifteen years ago today, Kurt Cobain, took his life. Hard to think that it's been fifteen years.

I remember watching Kurt Loder interrupt with an MTV news update. I couldn't comprehend at that exact moment what this would mean. For the next couple weeks, my buddy, Adam's older brother locked himself in his room, blasting Nirvana music. I remember thinking, "Man, Jonathan has been in his room a while, huh? Do you think he's been crying this entire time?" Mourning the fallen Grunge King was romantic. "I mean, Kurt's music spoke to me, maaaannnnnn!" sniffle, tear.

We all learned how to play guitar in the following years, courtesy of Kurt's "how-to rock with powerchords" formulas. Learning guitar was a tangible, takeaway, party bonus from being a fan. I can honestly say I have played every Nirvana album song on guitar. My favorite songs to play: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Drain You, Pennyroyal Tea, Heart-Shaped Box.

I doubt middle schoolers today are even able to understand what Kurt, the Anti-Hero, meant to us. Who do they have to look up to? Pete Wentz? Though Kurt was not a positive role model, in the traditional sense, but he taught me a lot. He seemed honest and transparent, though maintained mystery. He contributed to the development of my sense of art, style, weirdness, and integrity; I'm very grateful for that.

Who knows what he'd be doing if he were alive today. I'm pretty sure he would have gone solo, maybe did more acoustic stuff with R.E.M. Maybe he would have followed Neil Young's well worn path?

I still listen to his music today, and when thinking about how I felt fifteen years ago... I miss the comfort in being saaaaaaad.

NYC

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

Official Drink of PTIPS

You know, like Easter . . .

My employer here.

-$

Financial Fool's Day in London

XOXO

(Heard this one in a movie)