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brianlovesthis: So I went to the Swell Season’s first show in...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:57:42 -0500

So I went to the Swell Season’s first show in LA last night (they’re on again tonight), and got the treat of a lifetime — Jason Segel came out to perform a balls-out hilarious song he wrote about trying to sleep with a Swell Season fan. The video above is thankfully not-terrible quality.

For those who don’t know, the Swell Season are Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the movie Once, along with Hansard’s regular band The Frames backing them up. The movie’s amazing, and if you haven’t seen it, you should. The band is just as amazing.

It’s a strange show to see. Once, and the soundtrack to it, narrates Glen and Marketa’s blossoming relationship, as you watch and hear them become romantically involved. Their just-released follow-up album, Strict Joy, was written in the midst of their breakup. So in concert, you get both effects, mixed in with each other. You hear “Fallen From The Sky” to open and think “oh god, they’re so cute together.” Then you hear “Low Rising” and realize they’re not together anymore. And later you hear something else and want to scream out: “DON’T YOU SEE YOU LOVE EACH OTHER??”

Because ultimately, they’re singing these songs to each other, in real time. Singing about how much they love each other, or how much they’ve grown apart, but going through all the emotions on stage in front of you. Bizarre. But breathtaking.

Emily noted it was like The Swell Season Variety Hour, and it was; the Frames’ fiddle player did a traditional Irish ballad, Marketa brought a family friend on stage and sang a traditional Czech song in honor of the recent anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Glen told incredible story after incredible story, from an old woman in Chicago with a beautiful coat to dealing with a side project from the band you’ve been involved with for twenty years.

But best of all, somehow, was Jason Segel. Completely out of nowhere, Glen tells about meeting Jason and Paul Rudd, and then introduces Jason. And then we get this truly phenomenal song. Not just a great tune, but absolutely hilarious.

Probably the best single concert moment of my life. Just awesome.

Jealous.

Unabashedly excited for The Carrie Diaries. Don’t even...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:23:00 -0500

Unabashedly excited for The Carrie Diaries. Don’t even pretend you’re not.

Did the photographer who made these two pose together realize...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:05:56 -0500

Did the photographer who made these two pose together realize that the tribulations of their respective fictional lives basically took up all of my post-adolescence/pre-adulthood not-so-free time?

pic from GQ men of the year party

Back at Columbia library for fact-checking purposes, and it feels more like Iike I'm "walking through the halls of my high school" and I "wanna scream at the top of my lungs"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:21:35 -0500

because you know why? I’ve found out there IS “such a thing as the real world” and it’s not just “a lie we’re gonna rise above.”

‘via john mayer’

Photo

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:39:49 -0500

maura: lol blogging (ht chris)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:26:56 -0500

maura:

lol blogging

(ht chris)

(via sometimesagreatnotion)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:45:09 -0500

(via sometimesagreatnotion)

Blame the recession for: Lady Gaga, Lady Palin, Twilightz, etc. The mass-market & over-the-top carnal allure is what sells, but now more than ever is the ONLY thing that sells, thus why it’s being jammed down our throats. Thoughts?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:47:25 -0500

cliche/can’t afford/don’t care

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:18:17 -0500

cliche/can’t afford/don’t care

"Blair threatens to tell “the town crier in nowheresville Vermont” about Vanessa’s..."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:34:00 -0500

“Blair threatens to tell “the town crier in nowheresville Vermont” about Vanessa’s threesome with Dan and Olivia.  Plus 1, because she would.”

- I definitely assumed that Vanessa’s parents’ hometown newspaper was actually called The Town Crier.

"While we might be irked that our favorite band has sold a song to VW or McDonald’s, we can..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:11:00 -0500

“

While we might be irked that our favorite band has sold a song to VW or McDonald’s, we can instantly decontextualize and remove that song from its annoying commercial counterpart. When we don’t buy full albums anyway, when we don’t care about album sequence (which is all about intention) or look at the band’s artwork or the label they’re on (again, all intentional decisions), and when all of the songs we want are free-floating in the ether untethered, then advertisements aren’t a source or means of “selling out.” Instead, they’re the new radio.

So, is it possible for a musician or band to sell out anymore? Probably. I think the bigger question is, why do we no longer care?

”

- author and musician Carrie Brownstien of Sleater-Kinney on NPR’s Monitor Mix

Photo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:02:53 -0500

"This is how it looks to have a television network pressuring President Obama from the left."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:25:34 -0500

"This is how it looks to have a television network pressuring President Obama from the left.":

thedeadline:

If you’ll allow me to excerpt from my own story for a moment…

This is why the rise of opinion media matters in the United States:

MSNBC’s liberal points of view have made the channel an occasional thorn in the side of G.E., but the channel has also fostered a diversity of opinions that people like Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, say were lacking in the past.

“There’s been a huge market void for a long time,” Mr. Green said. Speaking of the MSNBC hosts, he said, “They are creating an environment where progressive thinkers and activists can thrive.”

Rachel Maddow, not surprisingly, agrees. “What looks like the middle of the country ought to look like the middle on TV,” she said in an interview this month.

She paused and added, “Maybe that would have helped us make better policy decisions in the country in the past.”

If I said things like “Style Icon!” ….

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:05:05 -0500

If I said things like “Style Icon!” ….

day, made. via synecdoche

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:02:57 -0500

day, made.

via synecdoche

Best follow-up email ever.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:29:00 -0500

“Also, Fern, what you wrote reminds me of something out of Dostoevsky, because it posits you as a furiously self-questioning and possibly unreliable narrator.

(I dig it.)”

this is funny because i'll never be thirty! ha! ha!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:32:00 -0500

my boss: why does everyone think the world is going to end in 2012?

me: it’s from the Mayan calendar.

boss: well, it’s also the year I turn 30. so the world may as well just end.

What’s worse: Her flirty approach to “the...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:49:00 -0500

What’s worse: Her flirty approach to “the boys” fighting for our country? Or the fact that she was THE ONLY ONE out of the twenty-or-so celebrities that volunteered their kiss stamps who wrote them an actual note?

"It’s surprising how many people seem to judge decades based on who was President. But does the..."

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:37:35 -0500

“It’s surprising how many people seem to judge decades based on who was President. But does the nature of a whole country really depend on who holds national office? Every time a governor is elected, does the heart and soul of that state change?”

- Stillman, Whit. The Last Days of Disco: With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. (via dpdsprings)

“During my only visit to the divided Berlin, in 1988, I had experienced the city in all its...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:35:00 -0500

“During my only visit to the divided Berlin, in 1988, I had experienced the city in all its terrifying absurdity. I vividly recall the so-called ghost stations of the subway: Some Western subway lines passed through Eastern territory, resulting in a surreal commute. Imagine getting on the uptown 6 train at Union Square, but instead of stopping at 23rd, 28th and 33rd Streets, the train just slows down, and you are peeking out at dimly lit platforms patrolled by heavily armed soldiers from an enemy army. Then you get off at Grand Central to buy the paper and a bagel as if nothing had happened.”

— Over the Wall // Abstract City Blog, NYT