Arts & Sciences (9/22 show, CDU).

Spinto Band

Jasper & Eddie Argos of Art Brut

We
Are
Scientists
**********

I took the camera out of the shipping box, charged it for 30 minutes, and went to this show, manual in hand. Luckily enough, the controls were really intuitive. I had to reduce the pixel quality of these photos A LOT (from a capacity of around 8 megapixels down to 2) so that I could take more than two shots (the camera's memory is only 16 MB by itself -- I have to buy a memory stick for this beast).

As I continue to work at it, I should be able to get better results, and learn how to post them more properly with aligning HTML text & pictures.

I was a psychiatric nurse at the time. I just started writing stuff to kill time on summer evenings. This is why I'm always telling people who ask me what they need to do to succeed to give up, do something else. Because giving up and doing something else (nursing, for me) was exactly what eventually led me to making music that other people wanted to hear. People will complain that they don't want to wait around for lightning to strike, but why not? If you invest yourself in chance, the potential for disappointment is pretty low.

-- John Darnielle

A bit of extreme advice, but I have heard similar musings from a couple other respected people.

timeline.

WED: Final day of work at Albertson's.
THURS: Free admission to Tom Petty/The Strokes show in Gainesville.
FRI: We Are Scientists w/ Art Brut at CDU, Tallahassee (also free).
SAT: "An Afternoon with Kevin Smith," Orlando (paid for this one). If back to Tallahassee in time, and it is not sold out, I will buy entrance to Less Than Jake (don't think I'll be able to catch it, though).
SUN: Freak out about how much stuff I haven't done/have to do.
MON, TUES, or next WED: Good possibility of interviewing Lady Sovereign.

*Raises da roof*

*Grimace*

Doubt begins to set in as New York band The Hold Steady releases listenings from its new album, Boys and Girls in America. Three album tracks are streaming on the Steady's MySpace page, as well as a track called "Hot Fries."

"Hot Fries" sounds exactly like any other Hold Steady material -- sharp, biting vocal delivery from frontman Craig Finn, heavy riffs from the band, and a general rock beat.

As for what will be the new album opener, "Stuck Between Stations," it plays as an understandable 1 Standard Deviation from normal Hold Steady stuff.

Doubt only sets in with the light, southern classic rock tune "Southern Girls," and the disturbingly pop-punk "Chips Ahoy" (MP3), both of which have Finn singing and both of which seem further than 2 Standard Deviations from normal Hold Steady material.

I hesitate to blame this on the one major (ha) factor I know that separates Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday from the upcoming Boys and Girls in America, namely, major label status. While Finn et al. now share a label (Vagrant) with the likes of Eels and The Futureheads, they are now also rubbing rock elbows with Dashboard Confessional and Senses Fail.

But... just look at the album cover...



Instantly reminded me of this...



And what about the name of the album? And are the lyrics going to continue with the characters presented in earlier albums?

This really does feel like a Strokes-y effort to expand on the band's musical base, though if I had to guess, I would pin it on major label influence. Can't wait to see what reviewers think...

Google saves college student money

Your Price: $211.00 (@ http://www.prestigecamera.com/)

versus

this

or even

THIS price.

Scoot.

Friday afternoon.

ME: Is there a way I can get this program [e-prime] so I can work on this at home?
MARK: Do you have a laptop?
ME: No?
MARK: Here, take this [FSU-owned] one. It's about four years old.
ME: ...'k'.
MARK: Yeah, if anything happens to it, I'll just say that I stepped on it.

Phew.

I'm still surprised I made it out of this one alive (and employed). Writing the email felt good.

(Sending it felt better.)

Providing background information for the context of this email would help a lot. I will give the succinct version.

Last year: 4 sections of paper -- News, Sports, Arts & Entertainment, Lifestyles.
This year: 3 sections of paper -- News, Sports, Arts & Life.

Reason provided for this change from owner and editor-in-chief: "Streamline information." "Too much confusion of overlap between the sections."

Response to this email: Editor-in-chief likes to cover him some sports, and he will continue to "cover the hell" out of football while Arts faces off against Life in a war for space.

(And YES, that was the "succinct" version.)

Bottom line: I bite the bullet until ol' editor-in-chief graduates this fall, then aspire to gain a higher position...

**********

Subject: Volume XV, Issue 7 of the FSView & Florida Flambeau (a.k.a. "Florida State vs. Troy")

Dear operators of FSU's official, student-run newspaper,

As an avid reader of the FSView and Florida Flambeau, I was among the first to notice the change of formatting that begun this fall semester, with A&E and Lifestyles being combined into one section. My mind was put to ease when I realized that no longer would any occasional overlap of story ideas or topics bleed into neighboring sections--if any stories on the aspects of students' lifestyles on and around campus were afloat, they would appear in Arts & Life (or, if deemed proper, in News); stories on student health/fitness/nutrition, student sexuality, Hollywood movies, restaurants, recent CDs, fashion, DVDs, nudist resorts, television, local concerts, books, Greek organizations, local plays/musicals, local art exhibits, how to prepare for parties, and many other subjects would likewise be neatly contained within Arts & Life.

But my logic failed me today when I viewed the current issue of the paper. Naturally, I read the front story on the cover of News, to see what the most important event of the previous couple of days was. The Florida State vs. Troy game did seem important in that it was the first home game of the season and that an unranked team almost beat the No. 9-ranked Seminoles team. At the end of the article, I noticed a teaser leading to a commentary in the Viewpoints section. I thought that would be interesting. Turns out it was a commentary in Viewpoints on the minor game that was covered in News by the managing editor. Well, it was relevant and somewhat informational at least. So let's see what's going on in Sports...

A full-page spread on the Florida State vs. Troy game? Well, football IS a big moneymaker here, and the game DID affect thousands of people. So, what does the Sports Editor have to say about the current state of sports...? oh. Another commentary on the Troy game. I suppose that was one heck of a game.

Anyway, I just wrote in to present a bit of my confusion over what material goes into what section of the 'View. It seems to me that maybe if a certain topic were contained to a certain section (outside of MAJOR events), that maybe readers would experience more of a "streamlined" effect, knowing where to open the paper in order to find a story that would interest them. Or, perhaps if you had notified the editors in Arts & Life, they could have written a lead story about football uniforms, football fashion, or the like for this issue of the newspaper, giving it a common theme about a noticeably weak effort from an FSU organization in what appeared to be a minor event.

Thank you for your time in reading this,
J----- -- -- ----

**********

Efforts like this on my part are akin to throwing pebbles at a giant: I can get his attention, even knick him a little bit, but getting him to do something based on logic and any sense of "fairness" would be like trying to reason with... well, with a lumbering giant. At least he didn't squash me this time, although he raised a hand of admonition.

When I wrote this up, I didn't give any thought to being polite out of sake for my job. I mean, the pay is decent enough (not "good," though, for the amount of work I do and crap I put up with), but losing a paid position over my principles here would only be a loss to me in terms of seeing my section dissolve into utter ridiculousness without me there.

I guess this is a taste of what many like to call the "real world," no?

Grandstandingest or awesomest?

Which superlative best describes Prince's performance in the following video?

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - George Harrison Tribute from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 2004


(Thanks to Matt G.)

Working is for SAPS.

well

At this point, I shouldn't be shocked by these things, but:

*****

ASJ: What brand do you have?

Cuomo: I don't even know. It says Talkbox on it.

*****

ASJ: So when you're working on these tunes on your own at home, are you recording into a cassette recorder, a home studio - what do you do to keep these tunes in your mind?

Cuomo: Nowadays I record directly into my lap top. I've got a $25 microphone from Radio Shack. I plug it into my computer and record into a program called Vegas. It's really easy to use, much easier than Pro Tools.

ASJ: Vegas is Sony's video editing software. Why are you using that instead of their Acid recording program?

Cuomo: I don't know. Somehow, I think our web guy had it because he makes videos of us. So I learned it, and now I'm kind of stuck with it.

*****

ASJ: Was there anything in particular on this album that you allowed to enter your brain and influence you that way?

Cuomo: Yeah. Rick was very particular about what recommended I listen to.

ASJ: Really? What did he say?

Cuomo: Three things: 1) John Lennon, 2) Neil Young, and 3) Trent Reznor. So I listened to those three artists over and over again.

ASJ: And learned some of their songs?

Cuomo: Yeah. I learned songs and listened to them.

ASJ: What tunes did you learn?

Cuomo: I remember learning a song called "Alabama" by Neil Young. I learned so many John Lennon songs.

Holy Crap!

I just heard metronome on "Undone".