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Dec 31st

Things I've Learned: 2008

beekeeperssociety: 1) If someone gives you a good opportunity, they’ll be happy for you if you leave them for a better one. 2) Chance and luck account for a lot in this world, but so do skills and smarts. 3) The Walkmen, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, and Fleet Foxes make good music. 4) Despite what his Sun-Times writing may indicate, Rick Telander is a marvelous writer. Read Heaven is a...

Dec 31st

1 note

The year of the blog, at least here on Yahoo!... →

Dec 31st

Fuck you, Geddy Lee

Not only is your band’s name, Rush, a complete misnomer — whatever the opposite of a rush is, that’s what I get when I listen to your music — and not only are your songs melodically indecipherable prog-nonsense, and not only do you sing like a somehow-even-twattier version of Bruce Dickinson, but damn it, you guys are really fucking hard to play on Rock Band. Seriously. My...

Dec 31st

Blago Appoints Burress →

Dec 30th

57 notes

Dec 30th

Dec 29th

16 notes

Dec 29th

Dec 26th

If you listen closely, you can hear the tumbleweed...

Today is almost as internet-quiet as yesterday. Not that I blame people. I’m only here because today is my last day at my day job (how many times can you fit “day” into one phrase? Beat that) and I don’t even have to pretend to work anymore. Anyway, there is one exciting development: the return of Mottram Station, an early adopted but long-lost Tumblelog by Mssr. Jamie...

Dec 26th

“But note a curious fact about his career: It maps perfectly onto the 25-year...”

– On the eve of Valkyrie, revisiting Tom Cruise in Risky Business

Dec 26th

4 notes

Merry Christmas, Amtrak asshole

I have to work tomorrow. Because of that slight annoyance, I took the train from Princeton, Ill. to Chicago tonight to make sure I could both spend Christmas with family members and be back in time to get a decent night’s sleep, as if that’s something that usually governs my life. Sleep. Right. Anyway, on the train, I was reading a book and decided, hey, I’ve got a couple of...

Dec 26th

Is it Christmas? →

Dec 25th

7 notes

Dec 25th

Dec 24th

'Bullet in the Brain,' by Tobias Wolff

Via Jon Bois’ brilliant Dugout the other day, here is a portion of “Bullet in the Brain,” a chapter/short story by Tobias Wolff. Thank you, Jon, for alerting me to its brilliance. The thought that I might have lived my whole life never having read this troubles me more than words can express. Read the whole thing here. This is what he remembered. Heat. A baseball field. Yellow...

Dec 23rd

Listen

Dec 23rd

Amtrak passengers stranded at Union Station →

Can’t wait to take the train tomorrow morning: “They just keep giving us all of these excuses. Excuse after excuse after excuse,” said Beth Kelly, 29, of Lima, Ohio, who is en route to Canada by way of Minot, N.D. The “excuses” have included engine problems and that no conductor was available for the train, Kelly said. In a morning announcement to disgruntled and...

Dec 23rd

15 notes

Dec 23rd

Poll: 1 in 5 say Cheney worst vice president ever →

paulkloet: I really have no opinion of Cheney one way or the other, as he was heard from very little in the last eight years. However, I would have liked to have seen how many among the 1,000 or so respondents could name 9 other Vice Presidents. I suppose if you’re comparing all Vice Presidents ever to hold the office you should at least know who the choices are, perhaps even 25% of them……Could...

Dec 22nd

MLB 09 To Utilize Rock Band Mic. Awesome. →

Dec 22nd

The Outfield's Your Love reworked by Bon Iver →

Dec 22nd

YouTube sensation Straight No Chaser becomes hit →

And they’re already talking like Brandon Flowers: Collins: Well, that’s the whole point. We hope that that momentum — not only with YouTube, but with our album — keeps going so we can get right back in the studio and come out with some fresh new music that’s not holiday. We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves. We do all genres, all types of music.

Dec 22nd

Nevermind

Still frozen. I give up.

Dec 22nd

Vital shower pipe update

Like Johnny Damon, the pipes appear unfrozen. Unfortunately, what water does seep through is legitimately ice-cold. This is fantastic for drinking. Not so for showering. STAY TUNED FOR MORE DISPATCHES FROM THE FROZEN PIPE FRONTIER.

Dec 22nd

Personal hygiene dealt serious blow

My shower pipes are apparently frozen. This is not good.

Dec 22nd