Friday, February 25, 2011

Give it to You [G. Love and Special Sauce]

This week's music friday is a progression. first up we have one of my favorite G. Love songs, from his first album. I present it to you in honor of his newest album and the tour that will be stopping in St.L in a few months. The second is a song he wrote with Tristan Prettyman - who is fantastic (also, she's engaged to Jason Mraz) She's commonly referred to as the girl version of Jack Johnson, mostly cause they both play guitar and they both surf. The final song is a cover that Tristan commonly does at shows - and it's a million times better than the original.





Facts are Facts [Stephen Curtis Chapman]

when i drove down here the first time, KTO assembled some fun facts/trivia about dallas to make my ride better - i got a new fact every hour of the 10 hour trip. since i need a post today, you get dallas facts.

--Dallas is the 9th largest city in the US (and 3rd largest in TX)
--Walker, Texas Ranger was filmed in Dallas (duh) as were parts of Prison Break, Robocop, and Karate Kid
--The Trinity River Corridor project, when completed, will be more than 10x as large as NYC's Central Park. (Currently it's a depository for dead bodies)
--Northpark Center was the first air conditioned mall in the US
--The frozen margarita machine was invented in Dallas
--Dallas has the 6th largest gay population in the US
--7-11 started in Dallas, and the HQ is still here
--The Dallas Farmer's Market is the largest working farmer's market in the US
--with the roof enclosed, the new Cowboy's Stadium can house the Statue of Liberty

Taxman [The Beatles]

fun facts 1:

"oh my god, texas has no income tax"

correct - however, they do have something like a 10% sales tax, and parking meters cost $2 and hour, and parking tickets are a minimum $35. so, they get their money, just in other ways.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Poster [Jack Johnson]

i love graphic things - not like graphic depictions of violence, but graphic design stuff - logos, posters, cool textile/wallcoverings, graphic patterns, etc. i also love star wars, so it is no wonder that i think these are awesome:

star wars posters by olly moss

ps: i love olly moss, too. his stuff is the bee's knees.

We Built This City [Starship]

Stop what you are doing and go to this guy's blog:

mike doyle snap

This is the coolest thing i've seen/heard all week. Thank you random ramblings on the internet. not one, but two, awesome, AWESOME abandoned buildings built with Legos. I need to stop playing my PS3 and do something like this instead.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cover Me [Candlebox]

it's no surprise to anyone that I'm a big fan of cover songs. Even if it's a cover of a favorite artist or song, I'll give it at least one listen. even for artists that you wouldn't normally cover.

i love me some david bowie, but i also love this m.ward cover of let's dance. Happy music friday.





Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Bone 2 Pick [Angie Stone]

So i have to address this - it's bothered me for like a million years. At one point in Bust a Move, Young MC says:

"Your best friend Harry has a brother Larry
In five days from now he's gonna marry
He's hopin' you can make it there if you can
'Cause in the ceremony you'll be the best man...."


The way i hear it, your best friend's brother is getting married, and wants you to be his best man. Why cant his brother do it? And, if you're the best bet Larry has, his brother Harry must be a real number - i mean, the wedding is 5 days out and you haven't even RSVP'd. Some friend you are.

I guess you could assume that the wedding in question is Harry's and the part about having a brother named Larry was incidental - maybe Young MC just needed something to rhyme better. "Your best friend Harry is getting married in 5 days, and also has a brother named Larry" just doesn't work as well. It still doesn't explain the relationship between the two brothers, or why you're such a crappy friend. Seriously - 5 days and you cant even verify if you're going to be there? whichever brother is getting married needs to be able to make alternative plans, you jerk.

I still think that for whatever reason, your best friends brother picked you - and you're failing miserable.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

This Magic Moment [Jay and the Americans]

I wonder about the experience these kids are getting. Sure, they made the choice to go to an art school - but it's a commuter art school - which is even worse. They're already not getting a true college experience, but add the daily drive and the lack of proper facilities and I feel like these kids are getting ripped off. Actually, for what they pay they'd be getting ripped off for a 4 year university, too. If there was a graphic depicting the typical college experience (or a metric like windows 7 has) I think these kids would have almost the worst rating. In my estimation the rating goes something like 4 year university, liberal arts college, religious university, community college, art school, technical school, university of phoenix. 3rd from the bottom is no place I want to be.

The student to student interaction is minimal here - even amongst the majors. There is no quad to hang out on, no team to rally behind, no local dive to eat at. There are no dorms, no bookstores, not even any books, really. What they get is a small, very stinky (it’s a greasy/oily smell) deli. There are some tables, two very gross couches, and a TV that apparently only gets Comedy Central. Generally the classes are offered and arranged so that you have 2 back to back - so there's no downtime in between - you're here and then you go home. But, if there is downtime or beaks during class, the room is full of students watching whatever portion of a Scrubs episode happens to be on.

You can tell it's an art school (a computer based art school) by the kids that attend. They look like art students. They wear those dumb overly large pant leg jeans, some even have straps and buckles on them. They all have t-shirts with anime characters on them and button up shirts with dragons and fire and skulls all over them. They're all awkward and socially timid, even around their own kind. They're not really nerds or geeks (both of which imply smarts) but maybe they’re dorks? They are the kids who were picked on the most in high school - shoved into lockers and such. Heck, being at the nerd end of the spectrum in high school I had my share of being picked on, and even I want to pick on these kids. They're going from a life of torment in high school to a false sense of 'acceptance' in art school to a life of seclusion in their parents’ basements after they graduate.

As you might expect, the fashion and ID students think they are waaaaay better than the dorks. I don't know what's worse - the dorkiness of the dorks or the arrogance the ID and fashion students. And I guess not all the students are as terrible as I’m making them out to be - the photography students are just odd, and the fashion girls are, well, fashion girls. Most of the ID students are normal-ish, though if I have to hear one more "I just love hgtv" story I think I'll stab them with a T-square. The photog, fashion and ID students are their own brand of odd – ID we’ve talked about already, and I don’t have the patience to even start on the fashion students. But, the focus of this post is really the dorks.

Most of them hang out in groups, sitting in the deli playing trading card games - magic and pokemon and who knows what else. There are black market type trades going on - 2 of these for 1 of those and 1 of these. Binders full of cards, passing envious looks and jealousy tinged congratulations on ‘new release day’ when someone gets a rare card. They have strategy and training sessions. There are intense matches (battles? fights?) at the tables, crowds gathered to watch. Post game analysis sessions and alternative play reenactments. And, what I find particularly amusing is that there is a clear rift between groups - despite the fact that they all look the same, act the same, and are all former high school outcasts, the pokemon group clearly has nothing but disdain for the magic group, and vice-versa. I want to take them aside and tell them they need to stick together, that it will only improve their numbers, but I’m half afraid that they would band together and overtake me.

And, I really, really get a kick out of watching them.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Take Your Mama [Scissor Sisters]

music friday on a saturday? i know, lame. But, it's a good one.

these guys (and dolls) remind of disco, george michael, elton john and maybe something else. and you cant help but get into their songs. this one is from their first album, which i still think is their best - but they've had more singles released from albums two and three.

enjoy.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Dentist! [Little Shop of Horrors]

RE: my last post - more stories about crazy josh in the store. this is a direct copy/paste from an email I sent to karen (pre-dallas adventure) about a trip to the dentist, and the grocery store.

------------------------------------
so, the dentist was not awesome. i mean, he's fine and all, but the experience was sub-par. the cavity was a.) not filled well, 2.) not fully removed, and iii.) waaaaay close to the root. so close that while he was digging/drilling out the old filling, we had to stop for another shot. i couldn't even tell him it hurt because it hurt so much, but he stopped cause he saw my eyes tear up. so i got a bonus shot of novocaine, and he said I'd probably be numb in the tongue till 2 or so, and numb in the jaw till dinner, maybe. he cleaned it up, filled it in, and gave me permission to have a milkshake for lunch. I might have soup, cause soup's for lunch, but I might go get a shake, too. depends on if I want to risk wearing it.

shopping was better. the good news is that it's thursday, and we hit $50, so we saved $10 automatically. the bad news is that we started with a $17 list. also, it's thursday, so I had to deal with people. and a surprising number of mustachioed ladies. I looked a mess, being hungry, and mouth/tongue numb, and having crazy disheveled sink rinsed haired. I'm standing in the aisle, weighing the options of different food stuffs with a slight bit of drool coming out of my mouth, frustrated cause I can't eat anything, trying to be good about buying stuff (so that means picking it up, putting it back, picking it up, putting it in the cart, then going halfway back down the aisle to put it back finally) I'm sure the people were just wondering where my caretaker was.

and, I'd like to go on the record again about being uncomfortable picking eggs by myself. I didn't like any of the cartons, but I didn't want to do a create your own sampler, cause there were lots of people around. after about 15 cartons, I just picked the best one. also, grade a large my butt - some of these eggs looked tiny. I think the egg farm needs a new QC staff.

see you when you get home. prepare yourself for possible milkshake dinner!!

-------------------------------

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Storytelling [Belle & Sebastian]

Today I learned that Brian Jacques, the author of the Redwall series, passed away the over the weekend. I never did get into Watership Down, but hand me a Redwall book and I was hooked. I've read every book - even though I "outgrew them" a long time ago. I love the accents, the storytelling, the imagery, all of it.

http://citypaper.net/blogs/criticalmass/2011/02/09/in-memoriam-brian-jacques/

Laugh About It [N.E.R.D.]

so karen and I have a pretty unusual policy when it comes to holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. basically, we have a window of time around any date that serves as a buffer - so if you're a little late or early with a gift or celebration, then it's still cool. we believe that gifts should be personal and meaningful (always) and you can't always make that happen by a certain time. especially if life has handed you lemons lately. We spent our first two anniversaries unemployed, and one christmas with 1/2 the household income, and now this little adventure. so our buffer has come in handy lately.

even though we have the buffer, since i'm going home this weekend i thought i might try to be on the ball with valentines day. so while i was in the store (target) doing some general shopping, i stopped to see what valentine's cards they had. as i looked through the selection, picking up any/most cards that said "to my wife..." i grabbed one and it was decidedly different than the rest - it was..... ethnically oriented. apparently they have a whole collection of cards for the african american community, called 'cards in harmony' or something like that. i put the card back, but the though struck me that it might be funny if i got one for karen. so then i started to laugh about the idea, and i couldn't stop giggling. i was laughing so hard that i actually frightened the ladies away who were shopping for cards at the time - which made me laugh harder. people must have though i was nuts. not that first time that's happened in a store (i'll share that later) but it was happy touch to an otherwise so-so day.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Mudfootball (for Moe Lerner) [Jack Johnson]

I don't want this to become a habit, but I have to share another overheard conversation. This time, it was between one of the interior design instructors and one of the fashion instructors. the only background you need is that the id instructor is a 60+ year old fake doctor, and that the fashion instructor likes to let you know how much things cost, and just how 'connected' she is to people/places around Dallas.

f - "did you see the game yesterday?"
id - "not much, but we did watch the halftime show."
f - "wasn't that amazing?"
id - "yeah, i think they did a great job."
f - "I think it might have been the best half time show I've seen in like 10 years."
id - "I just love the black eyed peas"
f - "oh, also one of our daughter's friends was in that group of dancers, so that was cool - we know someone at the superbowl."
--they went on to discuss the game a little bit, and some of the commericals.

----------------------------

It seems to me that all the fashion lady wanted out of the conversation was to bring up the connection to the dancer during the halftime show. why she couldn't just come out with that, I don't know. Secondly, I don't know what game these people watched, but I felt like the halftime show was lame, and it seems that everyone I've talked to agrees - even if they love the the black eyed peas. overall it was pretty lackluster, and sometimes even painful. and lastly, neither one of these two made any mention of what's her face's botched attempt at the national anthem.


I have at tendency to be negative, but add that to the distance and all the other stuff associated with this adventure, and that could be a disaster. so, I'm trying my best to be positive and think positive while I'm down here. Plus, as Karen will tell you, Target Josh was no fun, and Dallas Josh could easily be the same - we already went through a year of that, we don't need any more of it. That being said, I wonder if my co-workers feel the same about me as I do about them, which is generally "wow - I can't believe you're a teacher."

Say "Ten" [Reel Big Fish]

I keep meaning to tell you more about school, but I've been feeling overwhelmed with my classes (and the new schedule came out for next quarter - more on that later)

So instead of school stories, you get more random stories. this one is fun, though. and it really happened.

Overheard at Subway this afternoon. when I say lady it means crazy cat-lady wackadoo that was in line in front of me. and subway means subway employee.

lady: "I'll have the veggie delight, 6". But put turkey and cheese on it."
subway: "So you want a 6" turkey?"
lady: "No a 6" veggie with turkey and cheese."
subway: "Ma'am, they're the same thing."
lady: "I just want a 6" veggie with turkey and cheese. charge me extra, that's fine."
subway: "We don't have that button. There is no 'add meat' button. Why don't you order a turkey sandwich?"
lady: "because it's not that same. what I want is a veggie, with turkey and cheese on it."

at this point, we had pretty much exhausted all the patience and knowledge of english that the subway employee had. So I stepped in.

me: "actually, ma'am, they are the same thing."
lady: "no, because the turkey has something else on it."
me: "it has whatever you want to put on it. the same as every sandwich. it's how this place works. you pick a meat and then you add vegetables on top."
lady: "but the veggie sandwich has/" (i interrupted, so sue me)
me: "ma'am, the veggie has as many or as few of those (pointing) as you want to put on your sandwich. just the same as the turkey, or the cold cut combo, or the bacon chicken whatever. you pick your meat and then you add stuff to it."
lady: "but it says up there that the turkey has something else."
me: "where. I see a picture of a sandwich that says turkey, and it has some vegetables on it. how is that different than what you want."
lady: "oh, I see now. I was looking over here, where it says turkey and ham."

-------------
Are you kidding me? all of that, because she can't read the full menu. I thought the guy behind me was going to go through the roof. Then she went on about gluten free breads. It's not like this a is a complicated fast food place - if it's that challenging, then don't eat here. and if you really care about gluten free bread, maybe ask about that first.

so from the time I walked in to the time I walked out, 10+ minutes elapsed, because some nut-job doesn't know how to order in a subway restaurant. Happy Monday, everyone.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Protection [Massive Attack]

Fun fact about Dallas - I can leave my apartment and within 5 minutes arrive at a condom store. Technically, I have my pick of about 15 different stores.

There are two different 'condom store' chains operating around here - Condom Sense and Condoms To Go. Basically, these are 'adult-oriented novelty shops' It seems that until recently, the conservatives in Texas (big surprise there) didn't want to believe that people frequented these types of stores, so they were outlawed. To get around that, some geniuses found a loophole that lets you operate stores intended to sell condoms, while having a collection of adult novelties as well. as long as the store was clearly marketed as an access to preventative measures, then the other stuff was ancillary. In the past few years, they finally repealed the ban on adult stores, so now there places that are blatant about the items they sell - but the condom stores have hung around.

I did a quick google map search for the two condom stores, and within 5 miles there are 16 locations I can get to. Awesome. It's a good thing my grandma has no intention of visiting me while I'm down here. "look grandma - that's the building where I work, there's my grocery store, there's a condom store, there's the book store. That place has great tacos, there's another condom store, a different condom store, some illegal day workers, a condom store, and here's my apartment!!"

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Falling Slowly [Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova]

"take this sinking boat and point it home
we've still got time....."




**I felt like yesterday's music friday was a bit cheap, so I'm adding this one in there, although youtube wont let me link to the actual 'authorized' video, so you get this one.

Picture [Sheryl Crow & Kid Rock]

So, yet another snow day yesterday - Dallas got 5" of snow, OMG can U believe it?!?!

Anyway - I took a break from playing all those video games to spend some time "organizing" files and whatnot on the computer. Since college, I've amassed a collection of probably 100+ CDs of pure junk. many of them are duplicate copies of in-progress portfolio files, misc word documents, etc. Some of them came from driving back and forth to St.L to visit KTO while I was in school. I didn't trust jump drives (or flash drives, or pin drives, or whatever term you use) so I would burn a disc, dump it onto her computer, then burn a new one to go home with. crazy, I know.

As for the files and info, I haven't needed any of it recently, but I like to double/triple/quadruple check before I just junk them. So, when I moved to Dallas I brought them all with me, and I told myself I would finally organize and sort them. I haven't really done that thus far, and I haven't done it today or yesterday. What I did do, though, is go through and dump all the various stuff into a folder on my computer, which I then sorted into a few folders to burn new CDs or DVDs. So while I haven't yet gotten rid of any files, I have reduced the quantity of disks. There is a pile of CDs on the floor that I intend to scratch up, then pitch them. Or stack them neatly and see if I can find a place to recycle them or something.

What is amazing is that in all those discs, there are tons and tons of copies of the exact same files - date and size the same, no changes. just stuff I felt the need to duplicate over and over. I have a DVD full of AutoCAD stuff - files, settings, etc. There is also a whole DVD's worth of portfolio stuff. Again, much of it the same, but you never know, so I'm putting it all in one place.

Still Fighting It [Ben Folds Five]

Since last week's post was so huge, this week's music friday is short, and not really "music"

Some of you may remember that I sent this around a while ago. It's still annoyingly catchy, so here you go - try to get it out of your head. I hate myself for digging it up for you.



these next few are random cartoon songs that are also catchy. Crabs, Dugongs, Narwhals and Kenya. have fun. While none of these are totally inappropriate, there are one or two bad words, and they're created by a guy who clearly has a warped sense of humor.







Thursday, February 03, 2011

Fair [Ben Folds]

Continuing the theme of the last post, I'm going to give a few more points to the job. Now, the score is still nowhere near even, but I think the pro category can use any points I'm willing to give.

And what happened to earn these points, you ask? Two words:

SNOW DAYS.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both full on snow days. Today was a 1/2 snow day. Awesome. Now, I have Tuesdays and Fridays off. But, both my classes were called off Wednesday, and tonight's class was canceled. So when you look at my work schedule, that means that I taught Monday night, and I taught this afternoon. This week I put in maybe 12 hours of work, and that's it. Now tell me when that happens at a real job? Never, that's when.

The funniest/most ridiculous part of it all is that it isn't even that bad out. It's just that nobody knows know to deal with snow/ice/anything, so we get time off for dumb behavior.

If you need me, I'll be in bed, staying warm.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Not Fair [Lily Allen]

The thought occurred to me the other day that while having this "adventure" I'm not being totally fair to Dallas. I mean, sure they have a high rate of tornadoes (and leftover tropical storms from the coast) and the temperature is generally above 110 for months during the summer. and there is no snow in the winter. and the roads aren't built to withstand rain (so flooding occurs all the time) and they don't have basements (which doesn't help the tornado issue) and they have a relatively high crime rate that is spread throughout the city, and not just localized to one area. And there is a sizable homeless population. and Texas is a red state. and there is an over-abundance of big hair and fake personalities. and waaaaaay too many country radio stations.

But, Dallas does have a relatively progressive architecture/design scene, and some pretty good thrift/consignment stores. and there is a super awesome chain of stores called 1/2 price books, which are basically like borders-sized used book stores. i could spend all day in one, and still want to go back the next day.

so, the score as it stands is:

cons of being in dallas - 1,000
pros of being in dallas - 5 or 10