Decisions

Mos Def on January 9th at Highline, or Mark Olson and Gary Louris on February 7th at Canegie Hall? I can't afford two $40+ dollar shows (plus train fare) in two months when I probably won't be employed full-time starting next year. On the other hand, since my workplace is reducing my hours in January, I could probably make Mark and Gary's show on February 9th in Sellersville.

The real problem is convincing anyone my own age to come see two sort of folksy guys -- one of whom is old enough to be my father -- touring in support of their reunion CD which is 100% sappy love songs.

( YouTubin' - There are actually videos up now! So exciting )

That's the last you guys'll hear from me on this front, I swear. (Until February anyway.)

blip.fm (bi)weekly roundup

Missed a week but that's probably a good thing. ^^;

• Someday I will make the Syaoran/Sakura music video this song always reminds me of. Link.
  
• Another by Fastball. (Familiar opening!) Link.
  
• Free Amazon download...Link
  
• ...reminds me of this. CHECK OUT THE YTUBE VID, it's got their charismatic frontman staring at you from like two feet away. Link.
  
• Long car trip wherein my parents revisted John vs. Paul: Stupid rhymes, no substance! (Dad) v. There is MUSICAL substance you philistine! (Mom) Link.
  
• (Speaking of hippies) Jupiter really IS aligned with Mars: http://tinyurl.com/5fkrpb. Won't happen again until 2052 - go see it! Link.
  
• But imagine the emotional catharsis of TEN THOUSAND POP FANS singing "get through it" with you. Link.
  
• I was in marching band in HS - we used to play the hook at football games, until the director told us we had to stop. Link
  
• nostalgia trip pt II. Link.
  
• pt III. Link.
  
  

Clarks, Mainichi Seiten!, Honey and Clover, SD

Saw the Clarks with apintrix in NYC last Friday. If the object was to pick a semi-decent band we could see cheaply + whose fans would not be younger than us, we succeeded.

Also met up with fiendery and picked up Silver Diamond, Mainichi Seiten! at Kino. Whoever rewrote the SD translation did a fantastic job -- it reads really naturally.* Mainichi Seiten, on the other hand....XD;; It's bad enough that this manga is adapted from a novel and is full of significant pauses and unspoken thoughts. Combine that with an overly-literal translation, and it's not always clear WHAT, exactly, is being implied when the characters exchange Meaningful Looks.

One thing I really like about this series though, and which isn't ENTIRELY destroyed by the mediocre translation, is the way the characters will go off on these marathon slapstick sessions - exaggerated accusations and childish squabbles - and you assume it's comic license, until someone says something really cutting and the whole thing comes crashing down. At that point what seemed normal, like a literary/manga convention, suddenly becomes heartbreaking, because now you are being invited to evaluate the characters' actions in light of the way real people behave.

Also read Honey and Clover volumes 1-4. So far so great. XD Mayama's my favorite, I think. Something about the way he looks like he should be popular and successful - and he is successful - and yet he is still so needy, it's ridiculous.

*But the adaption would be perfect if the notes explaining the untranslatable puns were on the same page and not stuck at the back.