Define Tigers

NATION OF GO!

2010-01-26T07:14:00.001-08:00

It's Happy Hour!!!!!!!

2009-04-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Time to climb in your favorite bathtub, put on your best hat, and act like an asshole!!!!

"I'm not cool enough to be a Mac person"

2009-03-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has decided that Apple has won. The Mac vs. PC spots that have become a part of pop culture set out to cement the conceit that PCs are not cool and Macs are. They didn't beat around the bush either. They concisely laid out their position and didn't pull any punches.

A couple of years late, Microsoft decided to strike back with a baffling series of advertising messages that employed everyone from Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld to Pharrel Williams and a bunch of cute little kids. Their newest commercial is a lame version of a reality show/mini documentary where they're following a girl with very specific needs in a new computer.

This redheaded lady, ostensibly chosen because of her slightly geek-ish, unassuming look, desires a 17" laptop for under $1000 dollars. Hmm. How many people are looking for 17" monitor on their laptop (full disclosure: I'm writing this on a 10" HP Mini)? Well, typically those are going to be designers or video editors i.e. people that buy Macs. After we get the setup, the first place the girl goes to look is, shockingly enough, the Apple store. The next big shock is that Apple doesn't sell a 17" laptop for under $1000. In fact, they only have a 13" for that price.

Then comes the big line, the "stinger" for Apple: "I guess I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." So the coolness quotient is directly tied to the amount of money you're willing to spend on a computer? The next obvious question: why would Microsoft directly support the claim that Apple has made for years?

Ah, that's because their operating system comes on cheaper computers. Its okay to not be cool if you're cheap. Am I right?

Here's my problem with this whole strategy: if Microsoft wants to talk price, where it certainly has an advantage over Apple, why make it sound like you have to sacrifice being cool in order to save money? Why not address the only growing segment of computer sales (read the full disclosure above) and talk about netbooks? Why not have some cool kid who is looking for a cheap computer to get on Facebook and Twitter and do all the cool shit kids do on the web and say, "Hey, kid, here's a netbook with Windows running on it and its $300. How about that shit?"

Okay, that's enough I think. Back to watching Duke get manhandled in this game.

2009-03-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sidetaker

2009-03-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.sidetaker.com/index.php

I get in arguments on a daily basis. I fight with random strangers on the street. You think the new Kanye West album was shit? REALLY? I'll get in your face about it. No doubt.

Sidetaker gives my arguments (and your arguments) an audience. After both parties tell their sides of the story, the other users weigh in and tell you if you're right or massively in the wrong. They show this with comments and a nice graphic that lays out your level or wrongness (or rightness!) in percentage points.

If only all of our parents had this when we were younger :(

Quarantine: Infect Yourself!

2009-02-25T10:19:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

2008-11-18T09:52:00.001-08:00

Build your own Blingee

Mah Blingees

2008-11-18T08:28:00.001-08:00

Crumbelievable

2008-09-23T13:24:00.001-07:00

LET'S GET READY TO CRUMBLE!

Hip Hop Broke My Heart

2008-09-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

Got an awesome late birthday present from my boo...nothing but love for you girl!

I have few pleasures in life

2008-09-11T09:11:00.001-07:00

I have few remaining pleasures in life. I ask for very little. My friends and family know this about me but it has never been something we've discussed, until now. Its true that I am humble and barely deserving of much but what I ask for is a very small thing.

Between the hours of 8am and 8:30am, I like to watch Grace Under Fire on the Oxygen network. Brett Butler's zippy one-liners, Dave Thomas's grounded, straight-faced comedy, and the familiar southern colloquialisms give me the shot of optimism and hope that I desperately need at 8 in the morning. Some, like my ungrateful husband, Bo, deride Brett Butler's Grace Kelly as an unrealstic, one-liner dispenser. Pish-posh, I say. She's under fire, hence, she fires back. He likes to sip his Sam's Club brand dark roast coffee and make snide remarks about the storylines and, as he calls it, the "vaseline-on-the-lens title sequence". I just sit in my white robe on our pleather couch and try to block out his incessent snickering.

I ask for so little so why can't he let me enjoy my Grace Under Fire??? Because he's a bastard, that's why. If my one pleasure in life was to cook meatloaf and wear short skirts, he'd be in hog heaven! But, unfortunately for him, I was cut from the Brett Butler/Grace Kelly mold.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I support Sarah Palin's bid for vice president. Shoot that moose!!!!

Noel Gallagher Assaulted/Owned at Virgin Fest

2008-09-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

Either some dude really hates him some vintage Oasis or just really hates him some Noel Gallagher. The latter is probably more likely as Noel gets ejected from the stage in hilarious fashion. Scroll to 01:30 in to the video and larf it up.

Akon is more punk than your shitty band

2008-09-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

Akon Punches Chick Out At Concert - Watch more free videos
First, he simulated sex on stage with a 15 year old girl (the daughter of a preacher, nonetheless), then he body slammed some poor sap at a show in New York, now, Akon is out to slap South American women. R&B's response to G.G. Allin or just a guy with a lot of anger towards women?

Donde Esta La Playa

2008-08-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

Walking down the street the other day, headed back to work, listening to the new Walkmen album. Its pretty similar to their first album in a lot of ways: cold, delayed guitar and keyboards that sound miles away from the rest of the band, Hamilton Leithauser's crooning vocals (you can imagine that he probably has his eyes shut the entire time he's in the booth), booming, slightly overdriven drums. Their albums do an incredible job of creating a very tangible space for the Walkmen to inhabit.

I also realized that The Walkmen are like the older, more aloof brother to Vampire Weekend. They moved to New York City too young, became jaded and overly self-aware, dated dark-haired girls they met through friends, worked 10 different jobs in 2 years time. Vampire Weekend, the younger brother, got the college fund, spent spring break in San Francisco, ultimately chose an Ivy League school, not yet married but was close several times, interning at a very prestigious investment firm, has 1 cat (a tabby), doesn't want kids. Listen to them back to back, you'll hear it.

Donde Esta La Playa - The Walkmen

Boston - Vampire Weekend

Best license plate in VA

2008-08-29T19:23:00.001-07:00

I Wanna Party

2008-08-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post about this band, 28 Degrees Taurus, for some time as they were nice enough to send me their most recent disc, "How Do You Like Your Love?" The album is like a drunk, sexy dream that verges on becoming a night terror. I think I see it that way because I have these recurring dreams where I feel extremely drunk and everything is way too dark. There's this sensation of being out of control and attempting to push even that level of craziness to the hilt. 28 Degrees Taurus is kind of like that but sexier and very much in control. The guitars delay out into the stratosphere but their tight rhythm section grounds everything, allowing Karina and Jinsen's vocals to float and wither somewhere in the middle.

Listen and buy.

WANT

2008-08-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

NOW. K? Thx. Check out all of String Republic's stuff here.

Scanner Camera

2008-08-24T15:43:00.001-07:00

Found an article on Makezine that seemed intriguing: turn a typical flatbed scanner into a medium format digital camera. You can read the article here. The Cliff's Notes version: you attach a 7"x7" square box to your scanner and put a magnifying glass at the end. When you hit scan, you take a pretty wacky looking picture. Because of the nature of the scanning process, any movement becomes distorted. Pictures of the camera and the fun it produces:

TRAINING WAY FTW!

2008-08-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

YES WE WON THE ATOM SHOWDOWN! WHY SO SERIOUS!!! BURN BABY BURN!!! ATTICA!!!!!

08.10.08 - 1:50am

2008-08-09T23:06:00.001-07:00

I’m sitting out on my new, pseudo-balcony. It’s an 8x6 slab of rooftop with a door attached. Its last call at the local bars that populate this stretch of Main Street and young, drunk kids are funneling out. I notice this couple that is in the middle of a typical spat; impossible to tell the details but its certainly a familiar scenario. The girl has planted herself on the stoop of a stranger’s house and the man, a fellow named Wes, is pacing back and forth, unable to make a firm decision on leaving this girl or hearing her out. He leans against another stranger’s car for a few moments as she yells at him. I still can’t tell what this argument is about. Eventually, the guy storms off amid the cries of his girl: “WES! WEEEESSS! YOU’RE GOING TO LEAVE ME HERE??!??” In fact, it appears as if he is doing just that. Wes disappears from my view as the girl begins searching her cell phone for anyone she can call. Throughout this entire time, she has remained in the pitch black shade of a tall tree but I can tell she is slightly overweight and unattractive. There’s something in the way that she speaks that makes these traits unmistakable. After a couple of minutes of angry dialing, a rickshaw pulls up on the street, Wes seated in the back. He signals her with a hand motion that says, “Get in this wacky little rickshaw and come with me.”
She yells at him, “Who are you?” She says it like she really doesn’t know who he is but she’s actually just angry and hurt. She screams again, “Who are you??!?”
At this point, Wes nudges the pilot of the rickshaw and he yells, “Andy!” This is clearly not what the girl was looking for.
“No, who are you??!?” she screams. Wes just signals for her to come to him. Its really sad and gross because there was never any doubt that she would come, even to me, a novice at this relationship that these two share. Predictably, she trots over in a bizarre dress and heels, and jumps in the back of the rickshaw next to Wes. She even puts her arm around him before quickly removing it from his shoulder. The two ride off, tethered to the back of Andy’s bike. I really feel the worst for Andy, because he’s going to hear horrible, ridiculous things tonight. I guess that could be fun but, for a guy pulling a rickshaw at last call, it sounds just awful.

TRAINING WAY

2008-07-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

Did the 48 Hour Film Project this past weekend with fellow Martin Agency crew. We concepted, wrote, shot, edited, and finished a short film (6 minutes in length) in the course of 48 hours. We probably could've done it in 46 hours, maybe quicker, thanks to the wonderful RED One camera. This thing is a danger to celluloid far and wide. It produces film quality images at a resolution that no TV can handle (4k). We cut the resolution in half just to edit and ultimately finished in SD per the specs of the film project. Which is a shame because it looks incredible in HD. The RED is changing the game...can't wait for the Scarlet to come out in '09.

Also, saw Dark Knight last, um, night. Dressed up as the Penguin then had a terrible realization about half way through. Stood up, yelled, "This is bullshit!" and stormed out of the theater. Got to see the Watchmen trailer beforehand though. My Mr. Manhattan costume is going to be balls out awesomeness.

Random Spirit Lover.

2007-11-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since I last posted...I'm assuming that's true, anyway. Actually, its completely accurate: I've given up driving a car COMPLETELY in favor of a bicycle. Take that, Al Gore! I've also discovered that listening to music while biking is incredibly powerful and far more relevant than listening in a car. The tactile experience of traveling without the assistance of a complex machine gives you a greater appreciation for your environment which is inexplicably connected to sound. Long, extremely wordy story short, I've fallen in love with an album. I thought it was going to be Radiohead's "In Rainbows" that would rule my Fall listening but the mighty UK troupe have fallen at the hands of a bunch of Canadians.

I hereby declare Sunset Rubdown's "Random Spirit Lover" the best record of 2007. And believe you me, there has been a shitload of great music this year. I've been obsessed with Lil Wayne's mixtape output (the quality of which is phenomenal and downright shocking for someone that releases new material every other hour), an album by a bunch of alien rockers called Black Moth Super Rainbow, and, yes, "In Rainbows" is amazing. Somehow, I've connected with "Random Spirit Lover" in a way that only happens once every year or so. On a totally random note, I'm also finding a similar connection with Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", but for totally different reasons.

"Random Spirit Lover" is a complex, baffling, and heartbreaking work in the vein of my last favorite album, Joanna Newsom's "Ys". The two have nothing in common on a sonic level but structurally, they find a certain kinship. Both are comprised of melodies that are immediately gripping yet labrythine enough to require multiple listens. They speak in languages that are archiac yet familiar. And though neither are necessarily "concept albums", they seem to move through their own premeditated narratives; in other words, there is no "shuffle" mode.

Sunset Rubdown's record seems to have been built for the vinyl listening experience, in that each side of the 4 sides are a cohesive structure comprising a larger story. The way "The Mending of the Gown", "Magic vs. Midas", and "Upon Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days" meld together on side A is almost completely seamless and is as striking in its composition as it is in execution. If all records were like this, well, I wouldn't have time for much else.

I don't even want to post a few tracks from this album as it robs the record of its overall impact. Just buy/download it ASAP and we won't have to fight about it.

Sunday Come Undone

2007-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Its been a mad busy week. It was a week that saw several 10-12 hour days and one 15 hour day that included a trip to DC to get my expedited passport. I'm heading to Montreal for a shoot next week so if anyone knows of some good shows going on in the area between September 4-7, drop me a line. Professor Murder played last week which would've been great to see. Oh well.

One discovery that I made on that 15 hour day was Thrushes. Casey Harvey, guitar player in the band, sent a couple of their mp3s my way and its f'in beautiful. I've only heard the first two tracks from their debut release "Sun Come Undone" but I'm really excited to hear what else this Baltimore four-piece has put together. I started looking through their website and found that I almost attended one of their shows here in Richmond. A friend's band, The Silent Type, was playing with Thrushes but for some odd reason or another, I didn't end up going. This is what we call a mistake in the industry.

"Aidan Quinn" begins with a giant, solitary beat. Airy guitar and thick bass slide in alongside Anna Conner's breathy vocals. A tiny piano line accentuates the melody. Everything drops out, guitars explode, and suddenly you're laying in a green field on a ranch somewhere in Texas, staring at the stars and more than a little buzzed.

"Heartbeats" also begins with a giant, solitary beat, though this one is a little more familiar. Its the beat from "Be My Baby" and "Just Like Honey" but its more closely related to The Jesus & Mary Chain than The Ronettes. Whereas The Jesus & Mary Chain were purposefully abrasive with their guitar sound, Thrushes applies a gorgeous, reverb and distortion drenched wall of sound over the booming drums. One could easily tag this as shoegaze but I think that Thrushes distinguish themselves with their rhythm section. Much of the shoegaze aesthetic revolves around an almost formless sound but Matt Davis's drums and Rachel Tracy's bass really propel "Heartbeats" past the simple shoegaze label. Think The Twilight Sad without the accent.

Joyous sounds abound:

Heartbeats - http://www.morphius.com/label/mp3/thrushes_heartbeats.mp3

Aidan Quinn - http://www.morphius.com/label/mp3/thrushes_aidanquinn.mp3

www.myspace.com/thrushes

http://www.thrushesrule.com

Are there no heroes left in man?

2007-08-19T19:09:00.001-07:00

Hey! How the hell are you buddy? Wow, me too, I mean, its quite a time we're having, right?

God you look good.

Yes, its true, this is my first post but lets not make a big deal out of it, okay? Lets just forget about the typical getting-to-know-you bullshit and just get on with it, eh? Hey, there's no reason to yell.

First up, those attractive young folks above me are a duo that go by the name of Screen Vinyl Image. I found them on another blog but I don't recall where. At any rate, it doesn't matter because that blog described them terribly and didn't get to the heart of what Screen Vinyl Image is all about. These kids are like the best Depeche Mode songs put through an intense echo chamber effect, wrapped in leather, and shot across a black highway. There's also the feeling of intense red neon there too but I'm not sure how that plays into that ridiculous analogy. I actually hate it when people talk about music like that but sometimes its the only way.

Screen Vinyl Image - Roaming Spirit Freedom

Nextly, The Protomen. If you've heard of these guys and you ever owned a Nintendo, there's a good chance that you like them. If you've also seen them live, upgrade that "like" to "want to blow them". For the rest of you, here's the lowdown: The Protomen have written a rock opera that tells the story of the video game Megaman. This is not just another Nintendo rock band like The Advantage meaning that they don't use any music from the game. Its all original songs that tell this epic, um, tale. There's like eight or nine people in this group that do all kinds of ridiculous things on stage including a guy in a mask who just rocks out and holds up a Megaman helmet. They have a few surprises in store for you at the live show which I don't want to ruin but what the hell, I'll ruin them anyway. The best is when Megaman and Protoman (they're brothers, for those of you that don't know) are reunited on stage. Megaman is led to the stage by one of the members of the band's entourage, an XLR cable is plugged into the back of his helmet (everyone in the band is either behelmeted or has their face painted in true theatrical fashion), and then he does a duet with his brother. There were technical difficulties in the show that I was at which led to some hilarious stage banter that didn't break character! These guys are true professionals and deserve a hell of a lot more attention than they are getting.

The Protomen - Vengeance

I'm also going to throw up a couple more songs that I'm into lately. Here they are, vomited on to the web for your pleasure. This She, Sir song has had a revival for me in recent weeks because of its close proximity to Screen Vinyl Image on my iTunes library. Its also perfect shoegaze.

She, Sir - The Clandestine

And then the lovely St. Vincent. I don't think she should have chose that bizarre picture of herself to go along with the album title "Marry Me". It just makes me feel bad for her every time I see it. Poor thing. You don't have to put yourself out there like that. Someone will marry you, I guess. Okay, maybe not.

St. Vincent - Now. Now.