magic-ness

so after listening to the magic numbers album nonstop since i got it, i finally got to see them last sunday at the mercury lounge.

it was easily one of the most fun shows that i have seen in a long time. the crowd at the tiny club sang along the entire time and, gasp!, there was even some dancing (a rarity here in nyc).

i would have gone to see them again the next night at the much bigger bowery ballroom if i hadn't had so much post-thanksgiving weekend work to take care of.

rats.

their american tour is pretty much finished as far as i can tell, but if they come around to your part of the world again sometime and you don't go see them, i will be so disappointed in you.

oh, and go here, here, or here to listen to some of their songs.

thanksgiving in albany (snapshot edition)

thanks be to metro north

in about 3 hours i will be riding the train to poughkeepsie , where i will be picked up by the da(m)n crazy and driven to albany, new york.

we are going to celebrate thanksgiving upstate-style.

i hope that you all eat a ton of good comforting food over the next three or four days.

i'll try my best.

thanks todd rundgren

for writing my theme song for the day.

this place is a ghost town. plus, it's been raining for two days.

since we've last talked i have seen both sarah silverman's "jesus is magic" and the new harry potter movie. the former had a few really funny parts, but no magic. the latter had lots of magic, but no sarah silverman.

go figure.

oh, and speaking of magic, the magic numbers are playing this weekend.

see how it all comes together?

thanks be to fourfour

i found this gem after i stumbled upon what might be the greatest, most thorough America's Next Top Model recap site in the history of the internet.

you can find it here.

a warning though, it's pretty epic.

models on tv aren't going to make me any money

i should say that after last night's america's next top model, my chances of winning all of the money in the trans-american ANTM pool are getting slimmer.

here's how i guessed the final standings:

1st place: nicole (she is getting shakier with each episode)
2nd place: nik (there still may be hope for this)
3rd place: lisa (goddammit. she was eliminated last night)

i swear to god. if kim wins this time around, i will smash my tv. have they learned nothing from letting the booooring naima win last year? crap, i mean cycle?

this episode was mostly really dumb. especially the part about the paparazzi and the fake passport photo taker (who didn't see that one coming?). when are they going to learn how to actually do model-y things instead of all of this other nonsense? these are the important issues of the day.

please, janice dickinson, come back and restore order to this sinking ship before it's too late.


or maybe bringing in horatio sanz to reprise his role as nolé marin would help?

required arctic monkeys post

i think that i lose my blogging work permit if i don't post about at least one of the artic monkeys shows from the last two days. i'll keep it short and not write too much since everyone else aready has.

here goes:

firstly, my escort for the evening was my pal libby. she gets quite cranky if i don't put a picture of her up, so here she is. adorable.

speaking of adorable...

i knew that these guys were pretty young (in their 19's and 20's i think), but i wa surprised at just how young they looked. realllly young, complete with bad skin and everything. i almost felt like i was watching my little brother's band play.

that said, they were really fun. the crowd was even jumping around, dancing and singing along. a rarity here in new york.


(click for video)

it'll be interesting to see what happens with these fellows in the next few years.

another minot cewebutante

if i'm not totally mistaken, and i don't think that i am, a happily bearded atomly makes an appearance on the cobra snake.

now, has anyone seen his big brother eric lately?

vince is imminent

please help to welcome the legendary vincent sliwoski to new york city.

he moves here tomorrow after living in parts unknown for the last three or four years.

i couldn't be more excited.

happy birthday

josh duhamel.

thoughts on last night's ANTM

-eva, the winner from cycle 3, is a total beeotch now. i'm glad to see that winning has allowed her to get a stupid standard-issue tiny lap dog as well as an "entourage". gag.

-jay manuel wore a shirt that read: "Erotic City-Come Alive".

-hearing the girls yell out "Tyra Maaaailll!!" three times per episode is really starting to grate on me.

-i hate the word "entourage".

-it's hilarious how the hubcaps on the girls' incredibly heinous Hummer limo are ALWAYS spinning. i wonder how much the hubcap spinner guy gets paid.

-that guy benny medina was a jackass.


-though maybe after looking at the 7th grade level collages that the girls made, i can't really blame him.

-lisa peed in a diaper.

-the judge nigel gets increasingly more creepy with each episode. last night's example of this was when he closed his eyes while fantasizing to bre's chocolate commercial and wished that she could go on for longer than a minute. eww.


-i still have NO idea how any of those judges thought that this picture of nik was beautiful. she looks like a totally frightening lord of the rings monster to me.

-the entire ending of this episode was so messed up.

-or maybe it was genius.

-i thought that i was going to have to quit watching this show forever after tyra cut nicole (jayla, i don't like so it didn't bother me).

-my emotions quickly swung from nearly-irate to laughing hysterically at nicole's reaction to finding out that instead of packing her bags to go home, they were all packing them to go to london.

-i thought that she was going to choke tyra out for a second there. awesome.

-this episode might have saved the season for me.

-maybe.

avalanche

for some reason, right now there is SO much good music that is out (or coming out (or has been out for a long time but i'm just now finally listening to)).

i am having a hard time deciding what to listen to first.

here are some of the albums that i'm talking about:

*cat power - "the greatest" - i am in love with this woman again.
*the magic numbers - "the magic numbers" - SO so so SO SO so great. don't believe me? then click here to watch them play on Morning Becomes Eclectic.
*the fiery furnaces - "rehearsing my choir" - yes, i actually do like this album. a lot. though i wish i would have thought of this idea first.
*babyshambles - "down in albion" - really good (but i still miss the libertines). the whole pete doherty drama reminds me so much of john frusciante's nearly-thorough downward spiral of a few years back.
*clap your hands say yeah - i know, i know. i am the last person to finally listen to this album, but i really hated it when it first came out. hey, a fellow can change his mind, no?
*phil spector - "a christmas gift for you from phil spector" - i have heard most of these songs before, but here they are in one place. so badass. and yes, i am listening to christmas music already.
*the rolling stones - "their satanic majesties request" - i have been forgetting to get this damn album for years now.
*the replacements - "tim" - same goes here. hooray for minneapolis!
*the john peel box thingy - there is so much great stuff here that i can't even stand it.

what else? any other suggestions?

death from above 1979

last night we went to see death from above 1979 in good ol' greenpoint.
(click for video)

it was at this crazy place called Club Exit, which is normally an insane Polish dance club.

the show was put on by todd p. who has been getting tons of bands to play in greenpoint for a while now. i think that there were about eight bands last night. some were great, some (well mostly one) were pretty bad.

death from above and japanther were both a ton of fun. i haven't seen back to back drums/bass duos for a looong time. the only thing that could have made it more fun would have been if the mighty godheadsilo would have come back from the dead to play too.


the other band that i really liked seeing was matt and kim.

they kicked ass. and even when she is just totally wailing on the drums, kim is probably the most smiling-est person that i have ever seen.

hooray for monday night.

congratulations mr. wolf, we salute you!
yesterday was the nyc marathon.

it was a beautiful day (about 70 degrees) to stand on the side of the streets and cheer for strangers.

actually, i take that back. this year was the first time in five years that i had someone in the race that i knew to cheer for. that man was minot (and fargo) compatriot scott wolf.

i was excited to try to pick him out of the insane crowd.

so, after a quick breakfast, i headed up the street to the race. i got there just in time to see the leading ladies run by.

this is at about mile 12 and they were running, fast.

later, the men came by running even faster. jesus. those guys are nutty.


look! it's some NY CHiPs!!


then came the crowds of regular people runners, slowly at first...


but then came more and more and more of them.

click here for a video.

i called scott to see where he was at (yes, he had his phone with him) and found out that he was at mile 8. so, after figuring out how long it would take for him to reach me, i started watching the crowd so i could pick him out.

i swear, i think i looked at about 10,000 faces while trying to find him: round ones, skinny ones, sweaty ones, happy ones, sad ones...

when i didn't see scott 10 minutes after when i thought he was going to get to me, i started to think that maybe i missed him.

but then, just as i was about to give up...

there he was! #27518. he even smiled for the camera.

i gave him a big hug (sweaty) and then he was off. it was awesome.

from the looks of the results, he took 11,111th place, with a time of 4:24:06.

you badass!


after watching for another hour or so, i was off to the studio for a long (and inspired) night's work.

international movie edition/good luck scott!


(thanks brian)



on sunday, the nyc marathon runs right through my neighborhood and this is one of my all-time favorite things.

this year, i even have someone to cheer for. scott, has generously agreed to take P. Diddy's spot and is in the race for the first time. good luck buddy, i'll be watching (and screaming) for you.

dear tyra banks,

Nicole, the girl that america will soon know as it's next top model, is from NORTH Dakota, not South Dakota as you stated at the end of last night's crappy remix episode.

please make a note of this for your files.

sincerely,
anthony

* p.s. - i actually do know the difference between North and South Dakota. it's not all that difficult. additionally, i understand that this isn't much of a big deal for some folks with more important things to type about, but really, it's ok.