Wednesday, February 24, 2010

NJ Transit is the spawn of Satan.

The bus I was coming home from school today broke down about a mile away from the bus station. I, along with everyone else on the bus, walked the rest of the way back, which involved crossing a highway going both ways. That was fun.

On the bus ride home I listened to all of This Is a Stick Up... Don't Make It a Murder. There is a journal entry from May 12, 2006 that I found online but I know it's from about a month or so earlier that year. I know this because that album was released April 11, 2006 and this was soon after it was released. I evidently was listening to it while lying on a radiator in computer class freshman year. It reminds me of you, even though I don't think you particularly liked or disliked them.

I think I have figured out my clapping problem. I remember almost every day of freshman year you used to clap all the time during science class (actually, I think it was during most classes I had with you). Sometimes you did it to the tune of Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease". I think I caught that from you.

I still wonder sometimes what happened during the summer of 2004. I know I should not, and I am one hundred percent sure I do not need closure on this, but I do wonder. That is all.

In other news, Shutter Island was a complete and crushing disappointment. A.O. Scott is pretty much spot on when he says "the plot of which does not so much thicken as clog and coagulate". With such a stacked cast, including the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, and Patricia Clarkson, you wonder what went wrong. I don't want to pour all the blame on the likes of Scorsese, because I'm pretty sure the screenplay, written by Laeta Kalogridis, is a big source of the problem. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I am the master of astronomy.

I saw a woman who resembled my eleventh grade English teacher reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being on the 6 train today. It made me smile. I came home to a package from Drag City today; yes, it is the new Joanna Newsom record, Have One On Me. I cannot wait to listen to it in its entirety. I wonder if it will knock Heartland off the top spot of my favorite album of the year thus far. I also convinced Karyn to buy House of Leaves today from Borders. I am excited to see what her reaction to it will be. I have plans to see Shutter Island on Wednesday with a few people. The wait has been, and is still killing me. Until then...

Bonus: Grizzly Bear covered Hot Chip's "Boy From School" - mp3 (thanks to prettymuchamazing)

Monday, February 15, 2010

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski.

Y g g
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a
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What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
It's roots must hold the sky.

O