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What is with all the fucking Red Sox fans showing up at A's games in Oakland? Same with Yankees fans, and they are always totally obnoxious. Most of them are transplants, who apparently didn't really love the northeast THAT much. OR they are just pitiful bandwagoneers who have been brainwashed by ESPN's constant NY/Boston coverage. It took me over two hours to get to work this morning. Much of this involved walking a mile down Market Street after the subway was closed. Muni can suck it. Speaking of that, new Kathy Griffin special tonight! Getting lots of compliments on the pink hair, which is very nice. :) New Spoon songs keep getting stuck in my head. Catchy bastards. I can't say enough how great this new record is. They make it sound so easy, but earworm melodies like these don't occur to most songwriters. I don't know where this gift comes from, if it's learned or inherited, but you, Mr Daniel, have it. Tags: baseball, muni, spoon
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This morning I left the house at around twenty past seven. It was cool and a high belt of fog was melting above my neighborhood. I walked north and queued up the new Spoon record on my iPod. Yeah, it's not out yet. Shhhh. As I walked through the park, avoiding the jets from the sprinklers, I listened to the whole thing, start to stop, in order. First impression was "good", which means it will only get better and better. It sounded polished, production-wise, but as usual, they left in a whole world of ambient sound -- voices chattering after the instruments have stopped, little pops from equipment being plugged in, squeaking chairs, other things that other bands erase from the mix. I don't know that there is any real moments of total silence on this record. The music itself is heavy, melodic, and tight. What you expect. The lyrics are clever and inscrutable, as always. The songs are shorter than on the last record -- nine of the ten clock in under four minutes. I like their brevity. There is a little experimentation, there is a lot of rock and roll. And what is it "about"? Who knows. As with all Spoon records, that's a dumb question with no answer. You can find meaning in the words, but it will be your own meaning, your own interpretation through your own filter. Britt Daniel has stated that he hates being asked about what his songs "mean," and if you listen long enough, you can see why. Just enjoy them for what they are, for their sound, or for the feeling they give you, even if it means nothing at all. Upon first listen, sometimes the moment will imprint itself on the song, so that whenever I listen to it thereafter, I will be able to remember where I was, what I was doing the first time I heard it. So for this record, those memories will be of wild water birds, clumps of yellow pollen hanging from evergreen trees, thickets of purple flowers, and the still green lake. I wanted it that way; it's by design that I saved this first listen for my morning walk. Tags: music, spoon
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My next research project is to find the names of common house plants. My favorite ones so far happen to be for two plants I actually own: monstera delicioso, and the spider plant. Today I didn't do much except write. The sun won't come out here. I looked over my shoulder every once in awhile to see if the gray had cleared, and it never wavered once. I watched the end of the Giants game, as they beat the hapless Cubs in Chicago. I gotta say, I do still love Chicago. I think my little crush on Seattle has really waned. Every time I visit, I love it again, but then after a few weeks, I can see all the cons clearly again. I just want to figure out what we are going to do. In the afternoon, we went out to coffee, though for me that meant tea. I got text messages from Whitney at the Spoon show up in Seattle, taunting me. Pfft. Later found out via josh's flickr that David Cross, one of my favorite people, dropped his pants on stage during their set. This pleased me immensely. Anyway, we walked home after a short trip to the inexpensive produce market. At our front door was a tiny, dying sparrow. I hoped that it was just disoriented, and put it into a shoebox to perhaps regain its bearings in the warmth and safety of our bathroom. But in a few minutes, it had died. Poor little bird. The cats were extremely curious, but we never let them see it. I put its body outside under a lemon tree. Tags: baseball, book, chicago, spoon
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I was going through a shoebox last night, looking at old postcards I've received, plane and train tickets, copies of my fanzine, and other artifacts. I came upon a ticket stub for the last show I attended at the Greek Theatre. Bizarrely, it was four years to the day from yesterday: August 10 2002. That was a hot, hot day. And yay for ticket stubs. Right under it was the one for the Elliott Smith show in 1999. Boo hoo. I also found my London Underground Travelcard ID from 1996, which features one of my favorite photos of myself. I will scan it later. I was very blonde and I look very mean, kind of a snarl on my red mouth. It looks like a mug shot. I love it. I'm not bringing my camera tonight. Photos taken from anywhere but right next to the stage at shows are 99% of the time not worth it. I am better off just enjoying myself than fumbling around with a camera so I can get a blurry, long-range, awkward photo of Spoon. Tags: music, spoon
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+ Boy am I glad our trip was last week and not this week. Looks like flying is about to get 1000 times shittier. Oh but I forgot, panicking is great for the economy! Especially when the waves of fear generated by the news broadcast are broken up every seven minutes by soothing, cheerful, glorious advertising. Don't you feel a little less scared now? Go buy a car! That's better. + Did you know that hearing aids are not covered by health insurance? Things that are covered: basic eyeglasses, Viagra, fertility treatment. If you lose your ability to hear though, well, you don't really NEED that, do you? Quit your whining! + (the above has to do with all the "research" I have been doing for my "novel.") + I brought my lunch to work every day this week. I reckon this saved me over $20. + Going to a show tomorrow. I imagine it will be pretty big -- it's at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, which is a big horrible outdoor venue. I kind of dislike big "concerts." I was spoiled for years by the sweet intimacy of incredible shows in basements or bars or wee indie clubs. So when the band is a few hundred feet away, I'm kind of like, eh. You better impress me if you're going to be that small. Plus I am short, so I am sort of anxious about not being able to see anything. GOD I am so old. Or maybe I'm just particular, and like I said, spoiled. + Sometimes I wish we were moving asap. San Francisco is just so played out for me now. And hating our landlady I guess doesn't help much. Here is something I noticed about walking around in Seattle: It's not incredibly filthy and covered with garbage and littered with drunk homeless people. The city I live in, however, has that going for it. You stay classy, San Francisco! + I've been using this stuff on my skin daily for a couple weeks. By gum, it works... Tags: book, music, san francisco, spoon
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Hey, I still feel crappy today, but at least I went to the gym. I love this new Calexico. It is in my iPod right now. Ooops, there it goes, and now I am listening to "Chips and Dip" for the 500th time. Mmm. Speaking of dip, last night as I was eating a huge artichoke, I started daydreaming about how cool it is that our (probably very hungry) ancestors got it into their heads to harvest this thorny, thistley flower, pull off the bitter, prickly petals, and find inside a soft and buttery treat that is edible only when steamed for almost an hour. Genius!  Looks like a sea anemone, doesn't it? Last night before bed I played some songs with Brian on my guitar. I played them very poorly, but you have to start somewhere. My goal is to be able to sing and play simultaneously. Singing comes much, much easier to me. Then this morning I dreamed I was at a Weezer show, but only a few of us knew it was Weezer. They were incognito! you see. I was standing there in the front row with my friend Seth Cohen Adam Brody, and I climbed up onto the stage and sat cross-legged. Tags: music, spoon
music: Lois - "Spray"
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The weather today and yesterday was outstanding. Just crazy, bizarre, warm, humid heat. But perfect in a way. We had a nice weekend. I finally got my desk in shape, and I'll be getting a new chair soon so that I can actually write in the office instead of the kitchen table. This afternoon I wanted to go for a walk to savor this sunshine a little longer. I took my iPod over to the softball fields and sat down in the grass for awhile, watching people play catch. It was idyllic. Everyone had that sleepy late picnic look, like they had been outdoors all day and needed a nap on the couch. Walked back home after buying strawberries and iced tea, then made a big ridiculous salad with chicken for dinner, watched Sopranos with Brian, saw the White Sox turn a triple play, and now I'm going to have berries and ice cream to cool off and hope the bedroom isn't too hot tonight because of course the window doesn't have a screen. Oh and Spoon was on PBS last night -- they showed a year-old episode of Austin City Limits that they did. I had to sit through the Killers first, but then I Tivo'd the rest. It was pretty fucking sweet. Of course. Listening to the Calexico that Dave gave me. I like it! Tags: music, san francisco, spoon
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