Ghost Town

I'm in London for the brilliantly-named London Calling 2007 conference. It's fine, a bit unnecessary, but I've had some constructive-ish meetings, and more importantly, London is amazing. These ladies cannot get enough of my bearded face and dry American humor. Well, not really, but there's no knocking chatting about politics at your local on a sunny afternoon over a nice Staropramen. Plus I went a little apeshit at Muji's 50% off sale. Did I really need a new alarm clock? Apparently I did.

Apropos of something, here's this rough but enjoyable footage of the reformed Specials doing "Gangsters*" at Glastonbury with the still-charming** Lily Allen. Worth it for Billy Bragg's skanking alone.

Saturday I'm going to see Dan's band Ghost Cat in Camden. Other highlights, Gail is going to work for the excellent Monocle, and the perennial London fave, drinking to excess with one Alex Watt.

* no "Gangsters" on ITS for some reason, so that's the link to "Little Bitch." Same smell, different nostril.
** She teeters on the edge of annoying me, but is still hanging on. For now. Step it up, Lily! Oh wait, you did.

Bom Biddly Biddly Biddly Bom

Kingston's Mavado has been around for a minute, but never really stood out from any other gravely-voiced West Indians until this song, which is basically what would have happened if Depeche Mode had grown up in Jamaica. Overwrought electronic effects swirl around vaguely menacing lyrics, drum machines go apeshit, and I feel slightly uncomfortable. Good times. Buy this nice pirate-themed comp from iTunes here.

As a general matter, Fader continues to step up their game, particularly on the blog front (and good for them, that whole marketing company confluence thing was getting annoying).

(Photos of Mavado floating around the internet are either of his Mortal Kombat namesake, or of him trying to look scary, so I ran with this one of Captain America playing the tambourine instead)

Peace Pigs II

I got a sweetass email in response to the Pigs of Peace post from my buddy CJ in Hendersonville, North Carolina, (yes, the same Hendersonville that is home of Hot Dog World). He sent me the above image of a delicious yet doomed swine that he found at the suicide food blog. Is it wrong that they make me hungry? Oh, and CJ, in answer to your question: yes, vinegar based North Carolina style BBQ, not mustard based South Carolina style. Duh.

Pound, the enjoyable but totally unnecessary short film

Here's a short film about two guys shaking hands (not a sexual euphemism in this case). I knew that guy Evan Bernard briefly back in the 90s, he did some videos for JSBX, I think. Nice guy. Once jumped up on stage at the Mercury Lounge with a Yoda mask on if I recall correctly. Beat is by Squeak E Clean, aka Sam Spiegal, aka Spike Jonze's brother, and is nice enough.

The thing I don't get is why or how this exists. Is this what it's like to be rich, you get to just make incredibly elaborate art projects for no reason? I kind of wish they'd built the world's biggest hoagie or something instead.

(via Boing Boing)

(Note, my plan had been to link directly to You Tube, but it's fucking up, so here's a picture of a hippo skeleton instead)

130 year old whale just called you a pussy

This whale cruised around for 100 years with a bomb lance fragment in his neck. In a related story, I got a papercut from a post-it note on my desk but Isaac gave me a cookie so I stopped crying. For now.

Magic Fingers

This clip is going to be pretty inescapable for the next 24 hours, please allow me to join your lemming hordes. Stella! If you've not seen the documentary, it's very amazing. Theremin (the man) married a black lady in the 40s, made a giant theremin (the machine) for ballet dancing in, and was kidnapped by the KGB. It's that kind of flick.

Elephantine

In addition to paying for my contact lenses and therapeutic "massages," IODA has a snazzy service called Promonet. In a nutshell, bloggers (who now worship me as their leader) get access to tracks earmarked by our labels for promotional usage, ie free giveaways. Yay. Ba Da Bing is a nice record label run by a nice guy named Ben. Beirut are a great band, and I say that very rarely about anything that doesn't have bongos in it. "Elephant Gun" also has an enjoyable video.

Download "Elephant Gun" (mp3)
from "Lon Gisland EP"
by Beirut
Ba Da Bing!

• Buy at Insound
• Stream from Rhapsody

Pigs of Peace

I didn't realize Big Eye wanted this blog to be about things we eat but i'm cool with that because I like to eat and I like to talk about myself. Yesterday was the NY barbecue festival and I finagled a free VIP pass out of a friend of mine. I spent the afternoon adrift on a sea of tender meat and icy beer. Each tiny meat-dom was ruled by a tyrannical and enormous Texan whose underlings scurried about with plates of various smoky meat treats bathed in various coatings of mysterious and well guarded origins. Such treats include but are not limited to baby back ribs, brisket, sausage, chicken, coleslaw, creole cassoulet, pulled pork shoulder, pecan pie and blessedly cold beer) . After several hours I waddled away unsteadily, my fingers sticky, my shirt ruined, my midsection turgid and my heart at peace (if beating with some difficulty). This sense of ease washed over me like so much Carolina hot-sauce as North and South came together in perfect harmony in the United Nations of my innards. I'm not saying I can fix the world's problems (especially when I'm this full and drunk), I'm just saying that meat and beer can.

Is There Anything She Can't Do??

You'll be pleased to know that creepy-face J-eating champ "Gal" Sone (ギャル 曽根) has finally launched her singing career. Something about this chick really weirds me out, and it's not just that she can eat 11 bowls of ramen in one sitting. Check out how mortified dude in the picture is. The science of how these freaks do it is actually quite interesting. I managed 34 years without watching an x-ray of 14 pounds of curry rice being digested by an 80 lb woman, how I do not know.

In related news, I just ran four miles and ate a giant bowl of bun at PPQ on Irving. Rehydrating with water is for suckers! A cold 33 was what gave the Viet Cong the edge, you know. And those black pajamas and sandals were truly a marriage of form and function. I would illustrate said wedding here if a search for Viet Cong in Google Images yielded something other than video game stills. I weep for our youth! Anyhoo, only the anti-fascists in the Spanish Civil War looked cooler.

On griffins and oysters

As this sciencey diagram of an oyster indicates, griffins of the Jeffersonian persuasion are preferred across the board. While it is billygoats who fear my brother's 4 footed, multi-taloned attack, it is the girl-griffins who are powerless against my flowing locks and wise elder statesmanship. Just ask VH1.

Wait, does my griffin have back hair? not cool, man.

Vampire Weekend

In just two short days, my blogging experiment has already devolved to this, posting about a band from Brooklyn who amalgamate the requisite disparate styles (Indie Nerd x Graceland-era South Africa, sort of), and then linking to their myspace page, no less. It's terribly cliche, I know. Chen, who knows about this and all things, says I was like six months too late and that their (reportedly excellent) live shows have long been awash with A&R types. So I'm forming my own fake highlife band, which you may join if you can play all the instruments (I am but a figurehead).

Get thither for more afro-betterness.

Billygoats the world over fear my razor sharp talons

Ivan and his fancy facial hair are going to join us. This image is a good representation of our fraternity, with me as kickass half-lion, half-eagle gryphon thing, and him as pigeon with Thomas Jefferson's face on it. BTW, if you google his full name, the only thing that comes up is his filmography a hundred times, and it says on VH-1 that his sphere of expertise is "romance." Believe it, ladies!

I will eat an animal out of spite

Because I am incredibly manly, I just don't go in for cutesy animal videos. So the posting of young otters in love is mitigated by the fact that otters are generally pretty cool, especially those sexy river otters. Those guys just want to have fun, and their coats are terribly sleek (unlike my poo magnet of a cat, Mimi). They rank very high, those river otters, in my Top Ten animals, which I will elaborate on at a later date. Let's just say the orangutan may make a surprise comeback after last year's award ceremony debacle.

Now sea otters, those fat shits, I'm not so into them. Ivan used to do an impression of a sea otter cracking open a clam using a rock for my grandparents when he was maybe five or so. Is it any wonder he turned out the way he did?? Sheesh.

Baffling addendum, that otter clip is like the fifth most blogged about thing in Japan last month. The entire country needs to get out more.

Farai vs Russell

In addition to looking increasingly like a zombie, Russell Simmons seems like kind of a dick.

Ge Ge Ge

Honestly, I don't really even remember watching all that much of ゲゲゲの鬼太郎, Gegege no Kitarō in 9th grade. It was much more about 北斗の拳, and to a lesser degree Dragon Ball (pre-Z), and to a far greater degree, nudity on Japanese television. Bear in mind, I was 14, and this was before we got cable in New York, or even a VCR, so my only experience along those lines had been Interludes After Midnight on Channel J at Chuma's house in like 1983. Anyways, I'm pretty excited about the Gegege no Kitaro movie.

I couldn't find any pervy links to Japanese TV in the 80s, only a treasure trove of music footage, including this, the best creepy song ever.

Blogging is hard. I'm going for a drink. , Gegege no Kitarō

Five Minutes of Patience

Can I make it through the 300 seconds of concentration required to figure how to set this up? It seems less than likely.