Sorry this is LATE! I had some incidents that had me go Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past Mode as you may read below. Also, I got into Bluesky and before you ask, no I don’t have an invite and if I did I would give it to MY WIFE.
ROSES AND THORNS
When I got to college I heard about kids who would sit down to dinner with their parents and name three good things and three bad things that they saw or experienced that day, they’d call them Roses and Thorns. This sounded like a nice way of communicating as opposed to my childhood of spending dinner hoping that we’d sit late enough to miss the boring syndicated episode of MASH and be dining just as the awesome syndicated episode of Night Court was coming on. So now I’m stealing this idea for what may or may not be a running feature!
ROSES:
I got my premiums from the WFMU annual fundraiser this week and once again they whoop ass. It was especially nice this year as I finally decided that I’ll never need another WFMU t-shirt unless the design is truly outstanding (and given their history that seems unlikely). Just the dj comps thank you very much! Right now I’m listening to the one that’s all early ‘00s bands that never quite made it and it rules. Sure, I’m a little in the bag for the keyboard and hi-hat-abusing freaks of the era but that doesn’t diminish these songs that sound like something very close to hits. Also nice to remember when bands were called things like Mazing Vids or ______ Kids.
That particular premium had me thinking about the music of that era and its place in the dawn of online mp3 culture. So many small to middle-sized labels came and went without a hint of an online presence that it seems like whole scenes disappeared into nothing. I guess this was what they called “The Blog Era”? A lot of those blogs still exist but their influence has been subsumed by the prevailing algorithmic discovery music phase we’re in right now and that’s kind of depressing. I like getting recommendations from weirdos who listen to way more music than I do and write like maniacs (if you are reading this you are obviously also a fan of people who write like maniacs). Look, do I need to hear bands like Crack: We Are Rock and Lil’ Pocketknife again? I mean, I remember really liking Lil’ Pocketknife.
Part of it is probably me reckoning with my small little music career being non-existent outside of some scattered youtube videos and the odd appearance on a SoundCloud page. I’m generally OK with it since you know, things end and that’s cool and it’s kind of more fun to tell people I was in a rap group and leave it there. It would be nice to point someone in some direction since our old website is kind of gibberish (a hilarious mix of gibberish but gibberish none the less). I suppose that happens when all the labels you’re on go out of business not too long after putting your records out. WOW GUYS IF THESE WERE THE ROSES, WHAT’RE THE THORNS?
THORNS:
I had a very bad pizza experience which is something that should never happen! Not in New York City! I had just finished hanging with some friends and was starving but needed to get home quickly to walk the dog. This was the perfect scenario for a classic floppy-ass slice of pizza eaten while standing on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I was in, god forgive me, Dimes Square. This meant that my nearest spot was Scarr’s, a fine slice to be sure but not worth the 20-minute line I’d have to wait in. I quickly googled around and came upon a perfectly fine-reviewed spot on Grand Street which was more or less on my way to the train. I arrived and ordered one pepperoni and one cheese slice, the most common ass pizza order known to man. It seemed, however, that said order had rendered me invisible to the entire staff there as I sat for 20 minutes waiting for these two slices of pizza. This put me in an emotional place where no matter how good the pizza was, I would fail to enjoy it.
When the pizza finally arrived they were nice enough to throw two more slices of cheese in there, this was not the gift that they thought it was. Two slices of pizza are really the maximum someone should have on a busy afternoon. When at home or sitting in a pizza restaurant this rule goes right out the window, those are eating half a pizza or more scenarios. If you’re out and about though? You need that two-slice strength, anything more will just weigh you down both physically AND mentally.
By the time I had my excess of pizza, I had to get home, my poor old dog had been waiting for hours now. To be completely honest, he was probably peacefully sleeping and farting the whole time but I felt a heavy amount of pet supervisory guilt. I stomped my way to the station and hopped on a train. Unfortunately, my residual anger did not abate my hunger. So I did what anyone else in my position would do and rage-ate four slices of pizza in quick succession sitting on the M train like a psycho. I feel for anyone who had to witness this horrific act.
SOUND OF THE WEEK
This could be a song or just like a sound I heard or something. MY SUBSTACK MY RULES!
I’ve been watching that show Poker Face on Peacock and it is not very good! In the same way that you could not make a movie like Buckaroo Bonzai in today’s self-aware world, an attempt at a Columbo/Rockford Files homage just kind of falls flat. There are also wayyyy too many actual famous people as guest stars on the show! Back in the day these guest stars we mildly famous tv actors who would eventually maybe go on to bigger things, not your Joseph Gordon-Levitts and your Nick Noltes! Much like dive bars, they aren’t making any new McLean Stevensons. Plus, the film grain/lighting makes everyone look kind of garish and gross. The one positive is that it has a few really great needle drops, including this Donald Fagen gem at the end of the first episode. I was vaguely familiar with The Nightfly but hadn’t ever gone too deep on it, so I missed out on The Goodbye Look previsouly. It verges on a parody of a Steely Dan song, jazzy instrumentation featuring a marimba that’s almost goofy, ridiculous lyrics that could’ve been adapted from a second-rate spy novel, and an aside asking an unseen woman named Gretchen for a drink. It stops just short of bad band trying to be Steely Dan thankfully and it’s been in heavy rotation for the last week or so.
CELEBRITY SIGHTING OF THE WEEK
I saw Ira Glass at a sidewalk market, he was very nice but looks very old!