Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Today's celebrity wisdom

Some days the jokes just write themselves. (From E! online this morning.)

"Because these tabloids are making so much money, and yes, I consider Us Weekly a tabloid, they go to great lengths to corroborate their stories, whether they are true or not," Pitt said in a statement to Access Hollywood.

Unfortunately, while Brad was giving that statement, two other Access Hollywood reporters were digging through his trash and uncovering the DirecTV bills into which Angelina encoded her love letters to him. They have advanced Access Hollywood-level cryptologists working on them right now. Apparently the first one says "Ur hot want 2 m33t?"

Thursday, May 19, 2005

UPN bashing Thursday

Eti and I weren't able to get together to record another podcast this week, but we did pound out a couple of treatises on UPN's crimes against humanity this week.

They're over at Pop Whore.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Science imitating art

The following headline is from the web-magazine New Scientist. But I really thought it was from E!, or maybe even The Onion:

"Star's Erratic Conduct Hides Predictable Nature"

Quit trying to confuse me, science writers.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

2 things I learned from listening to my podcast on my iPod at lunch just now:

1. FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP SAYING "LIKE," LIKE EVERY THIRD, LIKE, WORD!

2. The volume is WAY too low and many of my comments are completely inaudible. The jury's still out on whether this detracts from or actually enhances the listening experience, but regardless, I have to go back and fix it.

I only link to E! Online stories in case of emergency

And I think it's fair to say that this one qualifies. The baby-naming thing is out of control. Really. It has to be stopped. Eventually kids with normal names won't stand a chance in the elementary schools of the future.

"Laird?" "Here."
"Apple?" "Here."
"Jaden Rayne?" "Here."
"Pilot Inspektor?" "Here."
"Banjo?" "Here."

"Michael?"

(And laughter erupts in the classroom as the kids relentlessly tease this bizarrely named kid, the only one in the bunch who wasn't featured on Access Hollywood in utero.)

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

There goes the podcasting neighborhood

Now that Eti and I are in the game, podcasting is dead for sure.

So get over to Pop Whore and enjoy the wake!

Podcasto Numero Uno

Check it -- Eti and I recorded the inaugural podcast of Pop Whore, destined to spur millions of Americans to plug in their headphones, listen, and ask themselves, "What the fuck is this?" The file will be up for download a little later today. If you have podcast software like iPodder (and click that link if you don't) here's the feed address to add:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PopWhore

Also, feel free to peruse the Pop Whore blog for other fun stuff.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Let the podcasting commence

I... uh... yeah



There's some guy out there working on this kind of equipment for animals. It's not even an April Fool's joke or anything. You can read the whole article here.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Attention!

Do you say "on accident" instead of "by accident"? If so, I'm making fun of you in my head right now.

That is all.

Monday, May 02, 2005

The new Garbage

I realized I never wrote down anything about Garbage's new album Bleed Like Me. I probably should.

Preface -- Garbage's Version 2.0 is probably the album I have spent more hours listening to than any other. From about 1999 to 2003, it was in my Honda's CD changer pretty much nonstop, usually in slot number 6 because that was easy to remember. If there were ever a time where I didn't know what to listen to, or my iPod was burned out, or there was nothing on the radio (highly likely), I'd just start that disc from the beginning and listen all the way through, skipping only track 5 in the process. What the hell's so great about it? I don't know, and even most Garbage fans seem to consider it a step down from the self-titled debut album. But to me, there is no greater source of pure sonic pleasure than the combination of overproduced backgrounds (like, probably around 92,000 tracks) with overly distorted Shirley Manson singing her overly cynical lyrics. It should be unlistenable, or at least tired and cliche, but it's neither (at least, to me). I really, really love it and I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. I can be convinced that there's much better music out there, I can be convinced that one guy with a sharp mind and a guitar is a lot more impressive than a bunch of super-producers with a warehouse full of electronics, but all that philosophy becomes pretty irrelevant once the chorus of "Temptation Waits" kicks in 40 seconds into the album.

So, yeah, I like Version 2.0 quite a bit. I also like Garbage's first album, though not to the same fanatical degree, and I think that Beautiful Garbage, their third, is more or less a piece of crap. Thus was the mindset with which I began listening to their four-years-in-the-procrastinating fourth album, Bleed Like Me. I had expectations that were, simultaneously, unbearably high and unbearably low. So I guess I was ready for anything.

Anyway, Bleed Like Me has its moments. The first single, "Why Do You Love Me," has all the forward momentum that was completely lacking on the last album. It wouldn't be out of place on Version 2.0, and I think that's mostly a good thing. The other track I really like is "Metal Heart," which is more confidence-inspiring because it's highly catchy without being a retread of anything 1998-ish. What I like less are the slower songs. The title track is pretty good, but I was hoping for more of the electronically drenched downbeat stuff that Garbage did so well in their earlier years. So I guess the whole thing is a mixed bag. But it's a step in the right direction, and proof that Garbage can still survive in a day when every third band is using a laptop.

Yeah, I don't usually write about music. No, really! I know you'd never be able to tell based on this Pitchfork-quality review, but it's the truth.