All right!

i am back from a lovely week in upstate new york, the finger lakes region specifically, and auburn, new york, even more specifically, and it's time for the ridiculously long vacation update, a long-standing tradition on the pita. auburn, i learned, is home to a federal prison that hosted the first execution by electric chair, and was the birthplace of a beautiful friendship between harriet tubman and an important white man who purchased alaska. other fun facts here.

this is what happened there in 2006, in my world: carl, paul stuart and i bussed up there in the early a.m., fueled by apples and caramellos. we arrived in ithaca, greeted by a calmer, more reasonable stuart, matt stuart, and their friend dan. immediately dan went to fill up his "growler" (a large glass jug) at a local brewery, then we had lunch at a mexican joint after an extensive standoff involving one person's extreme desire to eat vietnamese food (paul) and another person's extreme desire not to eat vietnamese food (carl). then we went swimming in a swimming hole, where kids were hurling themselves off cliffs and traversing slippery dam edges. scary! i was weirdly nervous about completing a six-foot jump. was i always this wussy? i did it though. then we ate some delicious purity ice ceam, headed back to the sorta run-down but 19th-century mansion that taylor (remember him?) lives in with his very cool mom, sally, and rocked a BBQ. that was sunday.

monday we borrowed sally's car and started off at one of carl's favorite joints, doug's fish fry in skaneteles (pronounced "skinny atlas"). extremely greasy but delicious scallops and fish sandwiches and grilled shrimp. then we did some thrift shopping, some driving around looking at cute lakeside towns, and ended up at long point winery, where we picked up the first of nine bottles we would eventually purchase. we went dinnerless to the gorilla biscuits show at this pretty nice club in syracuse. a chandelier at a hardcore show! who'd'a thunk that. drinkers were sequestered in an upstairs, overly air-conditioned balcony, where i watched the entire show from a safe vantage point while carl and paul and a bunch of their peeps tried to pretend they weren't 30 in the pit. paul stuart got punched in the nose. good times. i didn't hate the music, but i was more interested in watching the moshketeers do their crazy dances from above. such energy! carl commented that if indie rock shows contained half of that enthusiasm, he would attend a lot more indie rock shows. point taken. we then adjourned to dinosaur's, a BBQ joint, where i shoved a piece of cornbread into paul stuart's mouth.

tuesday was boring day, at least after we were woken up by the two resident jack russell terriers who burst into our room (through a closed door i might add), jumped on our bed, and menaced us and the fluffy kitty, pook, with their slobbering tongues, panty breath, and excited demeanour. that's dogs for ya. anyway. since we were cheapos and didn't rent a car, we were dependent on carl's friends to haul our asses around. as a result we ended up riding an ATV (carl), playing bocce (fun enough), and hitting the lake for a quick dip. i took a break from my eating rampage and ordered a raspberry chicken salad at connie's, then we checked out the open-mic night at a local theater. taylor is damn good as a solo artist.

wednesday was lake day and also carl's birthday. we bought a lot of meat and headed to the lake, where carl's buddy joe has a "camp" that has a bunch of boats, a shack for storing shit, a dock, an anchored "raft" with a diving board, and a bunch of hammocks. carl immediately decided we should take a canoe ride. it was a mile across the lake and a mile back. felt good to exercise, actually. felt even better to laze in the hammock and eat cherries and read my book. then it was TUBING, which is basically waterskiiing but with your ass in a tube. the boat driver does all sorts of crazy turns to throw the tuber back and forth across the wake. incredibly fun and harder than it looks. gave me a wicked case of whiplash but totally worth it. then it was off to dinner via boat, to a group dinner at a restaurant at the end of the lake, where carl's brother's girlfriend brought a "funfetti" cake she had baked for him. the food was eh but it was a good time nonetheless.

thursday was the much-anticipated wine tour. carl's brother brian was our chauffeur for the day and remained good-natured throughout. it's hard to drink fifty sips of wine in a day and remember what you liked better than what, but we emerged with some favorites and a few bottles. it's all about the RIESLING, kids. hermann j. weimer and dr. frank specifically. once all the wineries had shut their tasting-room doors, we had a lovely dinner at the red newt bistro, on the porch overlooking a lake (don't ask me which one) at sunset. the meal was excellent.

friday we waited around for the stuarts for a while. i ate two tunafish sandwiches in the interim, plus a piece of cake in honor of matt stuart's birthday. eventually we went hiking in a state park with taylor, his awesome girlfriend theresa, and paul stuart. again a yay for exercise. and another yay for ice cream. then we headed back to the lake where a brisket had been smoking for five hours. i ate some brisket and a hot dog, and i believe several nectarines, including honeydew nectarines. seriously, i was putting it AWAY this trip. i know i just mentioned healthy fruit but i'd be hard pressed to count the amount of sausage i ate this week. later that night we met up with taylor at the local watering hole, then adjourned to the hot tub, finally working. good chaturbate stuff.

saturday we hit up a gig at the polish community club. it was a benefit for the red cross, sponsored by harley or something. odd scene. taylor opened for this other very good band, the peace recovery search party (inexplicably not on myspace). we played pool, drank beer, paid seven bucks for BBQ (but only $6.25 for a top-shelf liquor drink and two draft beers, total!). i even ate the cole slaw. at night taylor threw a little party on his back porch, at which carl received some kind of crazy finger-acupuncture and i enthused about guided by voices between raspberry margaritas. taylor was really excited about that blender so i was glad he got to use it.

sunday we pretty much ate breakfast and hightailed it back to ithaca to get on the bus. i ate too many dried apricots and there were some stomach issues.

and then today i got on the scale and gained several pounds! that's more than a few, folks! but: totally worth it. great vacation. carl, an auburn native, somewhat obviously, has a pretty extensive travel journal currently up at his myspace. so if you need another long-winded treatise, go there. i am going to bed.

hello!

i have been doing nothing but riding in cabs, it seems, and so that is why no update. tuesday night carl and i had some delicious belgian beers at vol de nuit, then at the appointed hour, we ducked around the corner to the apartment of a virtuous craigslister, who was giving me his 27-inch tv for free. free! i think this is because i have good TV karma: i've put more than one working tv on the curb, and there was the whole fiasco last week, when i went to pick up a tv that was listed as 32 inches, but when i got there was only 19 inches (thank you mr. tape measure). hey wackadoo craigslist chick: you don't just pick a number! so i deserved a good (free!) tv, perhaps. let's hope this crazy, unheard-of brand, curtis mathes (??), holds up. so far so good. and then last night i trekked to greenpoint in the rain, and hopped in a gigantic escalade to transport home my new, cool bookcase/bench. the dude put little legs on it! so cute!

digression: check out ikea hacker, a blog that features all sorts of modications people have done to their ikea stuff. it's addictive. i read the whole archives. i now want to be buried in a billy bookcase.

continuance of story: and then this morning, carl made an astonishing score on the streets of carroll gardens, and promptly called his friend erik, who helped him load it into his car and spirited it away to his office for safekeeping. dudes, it is an absolutely beautiful piece, a midcentury modern glass-topped teak coffee table. carl estimates it costs about $600. and some rich person just left it on the street. it is so sweet. have i mentioned I LOVE BROOKLYN?! the place is really coming together, with the help of carl, who in addition to scoring awesome period furniture has taken to doing things like coming over and alphabetizing my cd's, then waking up and unpacking my books, when he is not tilling the land. for those of you who have read this far, here's a treat in the form of a look at my new coffee table:

[incredible, no?]

tomorrow i will post about music, because i have some very interesting items for discussion. now, i must go meet eileen and holly, pet kitties, and eat crabcakes.

huge weekend, just huge. i moved and allison and brandon got married. but i only have pictures of the wedding, so i'll start with that. now, i already knew i was dealing with some cool people, but then when asked if she did, allison almost yelled "hells yeah!" and the two of them recessed to "you shook me all night long." i reached wedding nirvana (new term!), which basically means crying. yay! meanwhile, carl managed to tear it up on the dance floor with women of a certain age while manning the ipod without any major snafus: good showing. and the setting, at the palm house at the brooklyn botanic garden, was gorgeous, especially when it stopped raining and the sun came out (basically right when the ceremony started). the afterparty at commonwealth (in my new hood) continued till the wee hours; we were wedding-ing from 9:30 a.m. till about 11-something. that's a good party! so congrats to the happy lenihans, everybody!

the day before that, saturday, i moved. people, as good an idea as it seems at the time, do not piecemeal move. phase one: i had my parents return all the stuff they shuttled to new jersey the weekend before. they arrived in the slope at 7:00 a.m., only to find carl and me locked out of the new place. carl did not want to castrate himself by going over the rickety fence to get in the open back door, but howard, a former firefighter, and 65 years old, quickly assessed the situation and went over the fence like a cat. problem solved! the rest of the move-in went relatively smoothly, and then carl and i spent hours cleaning the place. phase two: getting the rest of my stuff at the rivington street apartment. for this i had enlisted vanessa, who has a car but does not, it turns out, have trunk access, due to some long and involved story that i, as usual with vanessa, still do not quite get. we did two trips in her car; traffic was horrendous; i still had stuff at the apartment. phase three: various cab and subway trips with small amounts of stuff. i completed the last one only last night, hauling a vacuum on the f train and up (well, down, i guess, geographically speaking) seventh avenue. so now i can reply "yes! thank god" instead of "no, it's not!" when people say "at least it's done" in response to my tale of moving woes.

and i am quite loving my neighborhood. monday night carl and sean and i had dinner at java, an indonesian restaurant across the street. and last night we met brandon and allison and lissy at the gate, and then had a "welcome to the neighborhood/yay you got married!" dinner at stone park cafe. the steak eaters were disappointed (i guess raw meat will do that to you), but the chicken with butternut squash puree was delish. also of note: carl has stayed over two nights in a row and has been tilling the land before 9 a.m., harvesting basil and turning the compost, each morning. once i get some olive oil in the house (and perhaps some rhubarb in the ground), i think i'll be set for life.

okay, cats and kittens, i have some MAJOR news to report. three days ago i thought i was moving in with nate and holly, wayward-girl style, paying a ghetto fabulous rent for a couple months so i could save money and afford a ginormous broker's fee for my mythical new apartment. two days ago carl was all, "can you move into sean's apartment this weekend?" yesterday morning i presented my financial info to a nice chick named guyana, and by yesterday afternoon i was approved! so, details: one bedroom, park slope, cheaper than i'm paying now, with utilities included! the drawback is it's a basement apartment, but it's not like there are NO windows, and as you can see above, it has a totally sweet back garden/patio. tomatoes included! (giant inflatable pool not included.) and it's all mine; only i have access to it. think barbecues, and sunbathing, and, if carl gets his way, a haunted backyard party. in other weeds, i mean words: YAY!

i can't decide on a punk song of the week, so you'll get this nonpunk song of the week, from a pleasant yet ultimately pretty forgettable album of 2006:

hello boys and girls in america! i went out box hunting last night. that's what i do on the lower east side these nights, instead standing on street corners screaming into my cell phone or smoking with my stupid friends who think this area is like, so cool, which is what most people seem to be doing on the streets of the lower east side on any given night. ryan came over last night to have the first birthday drinks with my soon-to-be-ex-roommate jen (happy birthday, jen!) and remarked that the neighborhood seemed quiet. i guess this meant there were only 50 people loitering on our block instead of 150. anyway, i am so glad to be getting out. i put mannequin heads in a mussels box last night. it was fun.

it is interesting to sort through your stuff. makes you realize certain things about yourself and how you've changed. i am a totally different person than i was eight, and even five years ago, i think. for instance i no longer think i need to keep all bills and bank statements ever printed, as my mom made me think. and it's very freeing to pitch stuff into the trash (even though i have a fear that someone will find it and use it for evil purposes: should i get a shredder? i don't think my 1998 emails need to come to light). i couldn't really even read most of those old intermittent diary entries, though. never been much of a diarist. i like myself well enough but not enough to read the crap i wrote eight years ago.

carl fed me blue point blueberry beer (so delicious!) with a "snack" of cheese and crackers and hummus the other night, followed by pork loin and collard greens and couscous. my dad wonders how i can eat all this food i talk about and still maintain my girlish figure. i'm not sure what's going to happen when i move and don't have access to the dolphin gym. i may just have to fidget a lot; the magazines actually tell you to do this.

so i may not get a television when i move. i can always download my one must-see (project runway, duh!). i watched the first survivor: racist but it was kinda boring. cable news sucks ass, network shows blow, mtv doesn't even have any good guilty pleasures, and if i'm going to get into the good hbo shows at this point (like the wire, yes i know, paul), i'm going to have to get 'em on dvd. maybe i'll get a tv, a dvd player. and a netflix account. that'd be good for the soul, no? i'll keep you informed. but if i don't get a tv, i can read more books! (by the way this paragraph is totally adapted from my semi-frequently updated myspace page! rock and roll!)

also, last weekend i went to the atlantic antic and fashion-blogged it.

finally, we have a PUNK SONG OF THE WEEK! (never just one song of course.) i find it hard to believe this band is considered hardcore b/c it's so damn listenable. it's fucking pop, people! i love it. don't be scared! download!

I've been listening to the new yo la tengo

worth prime, link-one real estate here on the esteemed pita is the fact that the new gawker music blog, idolator, launched today, co-edited by my friend maura. she rocks, and while i'm disappointed the blog isn't called rawker.com (seriously, why not?), i'm sure it's going to be interesting to see what it poops out. (some bloggers are feeling a little bit wounded by the idolator manifesto, it seems. kids: chill out! it's just a blog!)

the retardedly titled i am not afraid of you and i will beat your ass, and i must say i think it's way better than the last (snoozer). honestly makes me love them again. and then i got this email from matos about all the emusic stuff on the band: a review by david cross (who didn't listen to the album) and a review by douglas wolk (who did), plus ira kaplan's dozen list. i'd like to say here that i think emusic does some quite good editorial work (and not just because i know the editors). in the course of my packing so far, i have come across several printouts of their "dozens" guides to various genres (like, say, stoner rock) and found them worthy enough to keep and learn from, while my emails from the late 90s, revealing my unsureness and broke-assness in my new-to-new-york stage, i pitched pretty promptly.

ben kweller has got a new album streaming over at his myspace page. like ben himself, it's quite lovable. it's making me really happy. in sum: yay, ben! [thanks to a brooklyn life for the tip!]

the hold steady are also streaming their album at amazon if you preorder it. you might as well listen to that while you're making your video, right? also, here's craig finn's "guest list" listy thing at pitchfork (he just discovered the kinks). it's list season, y'all. better get used to it.

in fact, catbirdseat did a funny handy music-blogger best-of-2006 cheat sheet. it's funny because it's true. (though the destroyer bit is probably just wishful thinking....)

lindsay uncovered a bunch of weatherman mortses and this one is just too effin' good not to share: gay black weatherman freaks over a bug.

finally, the wall street journal had an article about the rise of fashion blogs. are you reading my fashion binge, punk?

weekend update on a monday, y'all! started out friday night with an impromptu double date with matt and tamar, in which we went for old-school italian to sam's restaurant, a bare-bones basement place with a VFW-hall-like atmosphere and a wisecracking waiter. here i had my first (and last) sloe gin fizz. we ordered a couple entrees that turned out to be mediocre and a pizza that was possibly the best ever. seriously, go there and eat their pizza. so delish.

saturday i woke up early to go help tamar set up for our stoop sale. we had a ton of stuff, and the early birds descended on us like vultures before we could set our first bags of stuff on the sidewalk. the first 45 minutes were absolutely insane, and then it settled down to a manageable pace. quite an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, even more enjoyable when you consider the $142 i made off my unwanted books, cd's and clothes. that night we went out to union hall for the teeth/gaskets/bling kong show, the latter of which two bands were pretty hilarious. i am still haunted by the outrageous eye makeup of the boy cheerleader in bling kong, who is a dead ringer for will ferrell. a bunch of people came out, so it was a good time. then we cabbed over to abilene, a cool little spot with excellent bartenders and good jasminlive music. so nice to be able to actually sit in a bar on a saturday night (brooklyn wins again!). on the walk home i remarked to carl that i was hungry, and he promptly led us to the back of mazzola bakery, where we purchased a loaf of warm bread that was just about the best thing i've ever eaten. so perfect. wow, this is turning into an epic tale requiring paragraph breaks....

sunday featured a failed attempt at playing tennis (lesson learned: go early, or go to the suburbs) and then an afternoon spent working on our next meal: soy cumin chicken, beet salad with plums and goat cheese, and for dessert, fresh figs with goat cheese and peppered honey. in case you were wondering, yes, i do nothing but eat.

it's thursday; do i really need to do a weekend roundup? i guess, for those readers who like to know about my comings and goings, i will, but labor day weekend is a distant memory at this point. i was unable to get to the beach due to horrendous weather, which pained me (not a single day spent lying on warm sand this summer!). i did enjoy a lovely friday afternoon off hanging with amy in her hood of park slope, drinking coffee and window shopping (purchased a lovely little jacket at beacon's closet for ten bucks), then met up with holly and nate back on smith street at cubana cafe, then to carl's studio space for some beers followed by mediocre wine and okay paninis at paninoteca. that whirlwind of a day was followed by a rainy, windy mess spent watching another eh movie (the illusionist), having a couple drinks with the soon-to-be-brooklynized eileen and jesse, and letting carl make a delicious pasta meal out of nothing. sunday i made it to the met's "anglo mania" exhibit and got dissed for tennis (new york is totally effed up for making you pay to play tennis); monday the fam and i were blessed with great weather for the u.s. open, where we stood in many lines and saw some decent but not exactly thrilling tennis. i really liked watching those strong ladies (and we saw mostly women) kick ass. but you can see their muscles better on television.

okay, let's talk about some music. first up, i can't believe i haven't discussed what must be my favorite record of the year so far: oakley hall's "gypsum strings," the band's second full-length of the year. i remember when they used to have like 12 people onstage, but they've since pared down and honed their sound, so that it's now a thoroughly sophisticated take on country rock. there are plenty of guitars (papa crazee was a founding member of oneida), and just a hint of twang. i love the psychedelic drones, and the way the girl's voice will kick in and sweeten it up. it's really just a great, great album and i can't recommend it enough. buy it.

Oakley Hall, "Lazy Susan"

also getting a lot of time on my ipod, and also, conveniently enough, on brah records: home, whose most recent is their sixteenth (!) album. this one's called sexteen, and it's all about sex.

Home, "Bubble" loooove that buzzing guitar sound. this song's also got a video that gets kinda dirty there for a sec. go get more tunes, including my fave, "teasin' pleasin," on their myspace.

and get a bunch more juicy mp3s here. and whaddaya know, miss jami interviews the band for nerve about their penchant for certain sexual activities (hey, this is a family blog; click the link if you wanna know what), and here is home's top ten albums to fuck to. they're playing a FREE show coming up for the east river music project, on saturday, september 16. it's a pretty good lineup: love as laughter, home, professor murder, and the end of the world.

meanwhile, dfactor (who's doing a cool "12 covers, 12 months" project) points to a post about a new bob pollard mp3 (in addition to the officially released one) over on a cool new-to-me mp3 blog called marathonpacks . bob's got that "16 two-minute pop songs" album, normal happiness, coming out soon. also, bob will be playing bowery ballroom november 13 on his upcoming mini tour. yay!

i haven't heard peep one about the new beck album. what's up with that? this wired interview where he talks about the idea of having many different versions of an album doesn't even mention the title of the new one. it's called "the information" and apparently will come with a DVD of homemade videos for each song. or you can just download 'em from the internet, and beck seems to be cool with that. beck. he's just so damn cool. it also comes with stickers and a blank sleeve so we can all participate in the artistic process, which...eh. stickers. i guess they're cool too. most important, now: a couple of mp3s from the album from the tastily designed culture bully blog.

here's a good time waster: the webcam sex bubble project, where you can see pics of all those thought-bubble stickers that are placed up over ads all over the city and filled in with witty (and not so witty) commentary by regular folk.

also, hotel bed jumping.

those are all pics from carl's meat party as i liked to call it, a bbq in his building's courtyard with hundreds of dollars (no exaggeration) of meat products and some vegetarian options for the herbivores. it was quite fun, included bocce and croquet, and went from 3 pm to the wee hours. i included that shot of me just so i could mention that i am wearing my brand-new, ultracute catbird records t-shirt, which record label (founded by ryan catbirdseat, duh) puts out some fine music. music that usually, if you act fast enough (as with the get him eat him ep), comes with unique, hand-decorated packaging. i love that shit. and i just realized i probably need to get the tap tap album these songs are from; i don't think i'm out of line to say they remind me of both the arcade fire and wolf parade:

you can get yourself a catbird records t-shirt, too, when they get repressed, so be sure to, as mentioned, ACT FAST. i may get one in a different color this time, i like mine so much.

continuing with the weekend report, ted leo at the seaport friday night: so great. i wasn't even gonna go, cause I didn't have anyone to go with, what with jen needing to be in the VIP cattle pen, but then michelle f. called me, all, "are you at the show?" and twisted my arm a little bit and, really, folks, it's not that hard to convince me to go to a free rock show. and that spot by the pier, with the huge ships rising up right next to the stage? so cool. and ted leo, man, he is just so full of life and intelligent charm and coolness -- he even dedicated a song to a high school teacher he'd run into there who said "taught me to think for myself," AND he played "suspect device" by stiff little fingers, a former punk song of the week, as the last song in the encore. i was actually surprised how many people knew it considering the age of the crowd (i was surrounded by very polite 15-year-olds). he played a bunch of new songs, and one of them i swear is going to be a huge hit. in sum, ted leo: yay!

also we saw half nelson, which is getting great reviews, on sunday, and while ryan gosling is wonderful as a crackhead teacher and so is the girl who plays his student who knows about his problem, i dunno. carl was all "what was good about that movie?" and i didn't really know the answer. nice broken social scene soundtrack, though.

here's some youtube of the hold steady at warsaw in april, a great show from start to finish: "most people are dj's" (In which they pass around a bottle of jack, lending credence to those gbv comparisons) and "stuck between stations." as a side note, i ran into my friendly neighborhood rock star craig finn on the 6 train last week and he was positively giddy that the copy protection on the new album is working. and he very surprisingly did not reach into his bag and pull out a copy for me! the nerve!

Hello there, loyal reader

first up, the weekend update. yes, late wednesday night. it was kinda boring, unfortunately. they can't all be rip-roarers, i suppose. the good: brunch at le french diner (delicious food + no wait + good service = happy catherine, even minus available ketchup); photo shoot with a real photographer in lower east side park, with catcallers urging me to "love the camera!" and one kid asking me if i was a model (ha! stay tuned for the results!); beef sesame pancake at dumpling house, fried in frightening vat of oil but sooooo tasty; listening to sonic youth old and new whilst reading jami attenberg's incredibly enjoyable linked-short-story collection, instant love (just like a friend you just want to hang out with all weekend, really, funny and interesting and says stuff that just might stick in your head). made me realize i really don't read enough. reading: it's fun! the bad: a flurry of eh movies rented and abandoned mid-movie; going to holly's house two times to feed her cats, with the wrong random key both times; going to fontana's to have a beer with aforementioned sesame pancake and being served a warm-ass pint (never again, fontana's, i hate you); oliver stone's WTC. (seriously, there's no real need to go see it. entertainment weekly said it "lacked dramatic urgency," and i totally agree. it felt slight, which is amazing in light of the subject matter. what's wrong with being oliver stone, oliver stone? and plus even for an earnest drama, i think it was a weird way to tell the story, but i suppose there will be countless more 9/11 movies as the years pass.)

big annoucement, folks! on march 1, 2001, i moved into my new apartment and then went to see my favorite band at the time play at the bowery ballroom. on october 1, 2006, i will be moving again, into a new place in brooklyn, and then go see my current favorite band play irving plaza. this is a weird way of saying i'm looking for an apartment. so help me out: is your friend moving out of her affordable one-bedroom? is your landlord cool and looking for new tenants? is your broker worth the exorbitant fee? lemme know. also, jen and kurt are looking for the new me, so send interested female parties my way, too.

The Hold Steady, "Chips Ahoy" new song alert! i still have high hopes for the album, since i also couldn't stand separation sunday's single, but i'm not really feelin' this song. also, the copy protection on this album is impressive. i can't believe it hasn't leaked yet! i still have high hopes for the album, since i also couldn't stand separation sunday's single, but i'm not really feelin' this song. also, the copy protection on this album is impressive. i can't believe it hasn't leaked yet!

cause it's funny: celebrities yawning. gisele looks ridiculous. but of course her makeup is perfect. love it.

another tamar special (somebody get that girl a j-o-b!): worst music video ever. sometimes i hate this kind of overly ironic, "so bad it's good" shit, but i LOL'd! so should you!

since you never know when i'm going to get around to updating, here's a PUNK SONG OF THE WEEK! it's by the band weston, about whom i know nothing other than that they apparently play totally infectious pop-punk. i dedicate this one to my roommate kurt.

I'm back. full report shortly

i'll start it off with a belated PUNK SONG OF THE WEEK! part of the reason carl and i are going upstate this weekend/week is so he can attend his second gorilla biscuits reunion show. overall i could give a shit about this band, but occasionally i can appreciate one of their breakdowns. this is one (at 1:03). it's carl's ringtone, for now (i think next up might be "baby got back"):

Gorilla Biscuits, "Degradation" carl and my brother paul like to talk hardcore. they did a bit of that today, once we all met up after the brooklyn cyclones game, which was supposed to be a birthday present for my dad, but turned into just a fun time, sans dad. oh well.

Gorilla Biscuits, "Forgotten" this is my other favorite (for like a minute) gorilla biscuits song. carl tried to get me to go to asbury park friday night, and then today he told me he got kicked to the ground. i think i made the right decision.

back in bands-i-actually-like news, the other night i went to the last sleater-kinney show ever in new york, one of their last shows ever, and let me tell you this: despite the 105-degree heat, despite the fact that i spent most of the show fanning myself and envisioning what would happen if i passed out, i had an absolute blast. such a time has not been had at a show by me in a long time. concert nirvana: oh yes. danced ass off: yes. this band will be sorely missed. a lot.

and then thursday night jami and i went to the mercury lounge for the indie rock show. if i may lie for a moment, one all-female power trio leaves, another enters. magneta lane is not yet as good as s-k, but they have the tunes. they've got the rock. the rock is there. the songs are there. but they lack confidence. and the ability to plug in their instruments. but they'll get better. way better, is my prediction. this is catchy rock music, y'all. you know you want it. check out their album(s); "constant lover" was a ringtone of mine for a while (till i changed it to s-k's "all hands on the bad one.")

meanwhile, i can't believe this hold steady record hasn't leaked yet. i'm friends with a band member and i can't even get a copy. wtf? i've been hearing some really interesting things, too.

and with that, i'm off to the finger lakes for tubing, wining, dining, and whatever else comes my way. i'll be back in like a week. try to console yourselves.