you even set my world into motion

It feels wrong that today is Saturday when this entire week so far has felt like a 7-day weekend. But it's been exactly what I've needed--good people, good food, good music, good weather.

everybody on your dick

"Sistas are just as fulla ish as the brothas are."

- an audience member at the "No Homo: Masculinity in Hip-Hop and Beyond" panel discussion

happy christmas

my life is average

No matter how many times I hear this song, the lyrics are still amazing.

white castles made of snow

just because i'm losing

doesn't mean i'm lost

doesn't mean i'll stop

doesn't mean i'm in a cross

just because i'm hurting

doesn't mean i'm hurt

doesn't mean i didn't get what i deserve

no better and no worse

i just got lost

every river that i've tried to cross

and every door i ever tried was locked

oh, and i'm just waiting till the shine wears off.

laughter is an ab workout

"Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day."

- the inside of my diet Snapple bottle cap

I'm pretty sure the only thing getting me through reading period right now is fratmusic.com.

flat second, major third, perfect fourth

Do you really love listening to the latest Jack White project? Do you really hate the sound of Britney Spears? Or are your music-consumption habits, in fact, not merely guided but partly shaped by the cultural information that Pandora largely screens out — like what’s considered awesome (or insufferable) by your peers, or by music tastemakers, or by anybody else? Is it really possible to separate musical taste from such social factors, online or off, and make it purely about the raw stuff of the music itself?

- "The Song Decoders" (NYTimes)

I think my Pandora is trying to tell me that I was a British and/or Scandinavian dude in a past life.

google yourself when you get home

The indie world can't live on fingerpicking and textural guitars alone, and a varity of sounds and multiculturalism in indie rock isn't the enemy here; shitty Jackson 5 covers are.

- "LP" album review (Pitchfork Media; rated 6.8)

Cat introduced me to Discovery, the spin-off project of Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij (keyboardist/producer) and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles (singer), who released their "LP" album (yes, that's the title) this summer. Imagine the beat dynamics of both bands combined and then projected through a flurry of synths and waves of electro-pop sound, with a dose of MJ and a remix of Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell" thrown in for good measure.

Or, since Pitchfork calls it "your electro-pop summer soundtrack," maybe you could just think of it as the musical equivalent of drinking a lemon fizz while whirling down a pool slide.

Yes, please.

and in that moment, i swear we were infinite

They carried wine from Trader Joe’s, blankets, almonds and goldfish (the Pepperidge Farm kind), and they were headed to the Great Lawn in search of a patch of grass. It was 6:15 on Tuesday evening, a breezy, golden 77 degrees, and people were streaming into the park with plastic bags of picnic food, like pilgrims bearing offerings, for one of the city’s great summer rites: At 8 p.m., on the grassy oval ringed by oaks, skyscrapers and the almost-too-cute turrets of Belvedere Castle, the New York Philharmonic would start to play. Free.

- "In Central Park, Nearing Consensus on Perfection" (NYTimes)

Picnics in the park; dancing after dark -- this is what summer will always mean to me.

meet me at chapeau

This video makes me miss Praha (both the city and the idea of the city) every single time.

that's what you get for waking up in vegas

On Saturday, my friends and I went to see "The Hangover" while hungover, which albeit was a cliche move on our part but it definitely did not detract at all from the experience. The movie was easily one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time, a blend of comedy and mystery, tigers and babies.

But the real question remains: was the perfectly timed release of Katy Perry's latest single "Waking Up in Vegas" planned to coincide with the film's Box Office takeover, or was it all just cosmic luck?

cut copy at cat's cradle

Sore legs. Broken purse. Glitter.

Incredible show.

the ting tings at cat's cradle

you're the star at the top of the tree

Merry Christmas!

The two songs that have been stuck in my head all holiday season:

Jimmy Eat World - "Last Christmas"


Mariah Carey - "All I Want For Christmas Is You"


And on a non-Christmas-related note, here's an (old) interview MTV did with Chester French, a recent infatuation:

MTV Shows

I'm kind of in love.

a turning point

My iPod is officially too small for my iTunes.