clear rants

Thursday night we went to Kate Nash’s second concert at Webster Hall. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting much. Sure, her songs are catchy and dance-inducing but due to my recent lackluster concert experiences, I wasn’t about to get my hopes up.

First of all, the opening band, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, describe themselves as a “indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop band.” Did I mention that the band is made up of a father, mother and their fifteen year old daughter? If that doesn’t sound like a gimmick I don’t know what does. As visions of Arrested Development’s family band, “Dr. Fünke’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family-Band Solution” danced in my head, I kept my expectations super low.

Yes, the band was a total gimmick. But that was the best part. I found myself laughing out loud almost during the entire performance. That Papa Trachtenburg is one eccentric and funny fellow. The little Trachtenburg was a delight to see performing although at times, she did look a little bored on stage. I couldn’t help but think perhaps she longed for a normal teenage lifestyle. But shit, their 45 minute performance was an utter delight to see. And be seen it must, I can’t imagine their music having any meaning at all if not experienced at a live performance. Also, I might add, EGGS!

There we were, in a sea of gingers (are there normally that many redheads in the population?) waiting for Ms. Nash to arrive on stage, and BAM! Kate Nash in neon lights. How fan-fucking-tabulous. As Kate strolled out in her oh-so-bloody-cute dress, I knew my fears were unwarranted. And when she started banging on those ivory keys like it was 1999? I was in love. I barely took my eyes off of her for the rest of the night.

Sure, the girls in the audience were in love with her hottie bassist and guitarist, but man, oh man, I only had eyes for Ms. Nash. When she told everybody to shut up for her quiet song, I swooned. Here was the sassy girl I’ve been looking for all my life. Did I mention she has a wicked British accent? God. And who else but the cheeky Kate Nash could come up with a chorus, “You don’t have to suck dick to succeed.” She is a freaking genius.

A bloody, gorgeous genius.

Hi, my name is Clarence and I’m addicted to television.

Last night, A asked me to go out and get some soup dumplings with her. I told her I couldn’t. There was a  new episode of Gossip Girl (finally!) at 8 and I really didn’t want to miss it. But then I thought about it, was I really choosing a TV show (which I regularly coughdownloadcough) over hanging out with a friend? What a douche I am! And that’s what I realized I hit bottom.

So I texted her that I would be honored to slurp some dumplings with her and made sure as hell that when I got home I downloaded that new GG episode.

I didn’t play Call of Duty 4 tonight.

Instead, I had some good conversations with people I’ve been inadvertently ignoring since I’ve gotten the game. I also got a chance to catch up on some music and listen to some muxtapes (Maryanne’s, The pursuit of happiness and fuckingrad).

It was a good night.

Have you ever run into those profile pictures where you just can’t help but click on their profiles? What is it about the picture that makes you just want to find out more about them? Aside from the obvious ‘attractiveness’ cue, there’s one thing that always gets me: the chin-and-below-shot.

You know, that picture that frames their chin, neck, and below. Well, sometimes they include a smile too, which is not an unwelcome addition. No, I don’t have a chin or neck fetish. It’s the mystery of not knowing what the rest of their face looks like. It’s a subtle tease and it makes you want to know more. I think it’s the fact that I can’t see their eyes that draws me in.

There’s nothing sexier than a bit of mystery.

Hi, my name is Clarence, and I’m addicted to video games.

I thought I had kicked the habit years ago. But the dragon has come back. And I have to chase it. My current addiction is Call of Duty 4, and it looks like I’m in for the long haul. I haven’t played this much since my glory days back with CS. How awful. How old am I again? And with Grand Theft Auto 4 looming over the horizon, it looks like I’ll be spending a lot more time with my 360.

A thought occurred to me the other day, though. Am I substituting video games for a girlfriend? I remember when I wasn’t single, aside from the casual game of minesweeper here and there, I didn’t really play any video games. But now, it seems like it’s all I want to do–perhaps, from lack of a satisfying alternative? I don’t know. But playing video games every waking hour that I am not at work sure takes its toll on my creative juices. I mean, what am I supposed to write about? The twenty eight terrorists I killed in one round? Great. You’re life is just chock full of fun times isn’t it, Clarence?

In other news, I wrote a couple paragraphs of something. It was kind of supposed to be a short story, but maybe I want to make it longer. Who knows? All I know is that it’ll probably never get written due to my sickness. That’s right, addiction is a disease.

I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far, but I must say, the HBO miniseries John Adams is a work of cinematic genius. I’m sure dramatic embellishments have been applied to John Adams’s history, but regardless of such, John Adams is powerful and even inspirational.

I am not overtly patriotic. I don’t even vote. However, seeing our nation formed through the eyes of Paul Giamatti’s John Adams, I can’t help but stand up and be proud to be a American. Paul Giamatti plays the proud Adams well, his portly stature belies his eloquence, intelligence and passion. While he may have been an unexpected choice for the statesman, I cannot now see anybody else helming the role.

I have to add that I may be biased. It seems I have begun to develop a little crush on Laura Linney. Or perhaps, my admiration is for her portrayal of the strong, loyal and beautiful Abigail Adams. I’ll have to watch more of her work to be sure. But this much I know, Laura Linney is one beautiful woman–it’s a quiet beauty, but powerful enough to steal the screen.

Those of you on Facebook may have noticed the new (as of last week) module on your homepage titled “Friends you may know.” You may have also noticed that this script is pretty damn good at predicting whether you know a person or not. The principle behind it is pretty simple: if you have so many friends in common with Person A then there’s a good chance you know them too. However, when you see a list of people you “may” know and see a lot of familiar names, it’s a little eerie.

At first, I gave it a simple eyebrow raise and ignored it. But today, boredom took the reins and drove me to  see if I could generate an entire list of people I didn’t know. After about 5 tries of refreshing and adding everybody I did know (to get them out of the way), Facebook warned me that I was spamming friend requests and that if I continued such abhorrent behavior, my account would be disabled.

So, like a petulant child, I stopped. There goes that experiment. Possibly to be continued…

This series is good. If you can get past the sex scenes (which are mostly downright hilarious and not gratuitous at all), there’s a bunch of humor to be found in this Showtime gem. Described by many as a man’s “Sex and the City,” Californication follows the antics of blocked writer Hank Moody and his quest to write again, get his ex-wife to fall in love with him again and be a father to his daughter.

Oh yeah, there’s a lot of sex in it.

But I digress. It’s a damn funny show. And might I add, it makes me want to be the character of Hank Moody. He’s simply a man’s man. He doesn’t act macho just to be macho. If he punches you in the face, you probably deserved it. But more often than not, he’ll just make fun of you and laugh in your face, because that’s how he do. But anyway, check it out when you get a chance. You won’t be disappointed. The Season 1 DVD comes out June 9th or thenabouts.

A asked about the Mosquito Sound last night at dinner. I remember senior year, listening to the sound myself, and being overjoyed that I could hear it. Then I subsequently forwarded the song to everybody and their mother. A lot of people my age could still hear it, while people younger than me couldn’t. It was nice to know that I was still young, and hadn’t gone over the hill yet. I was still one of those rambunctious youths meant to be kept from loitering and committing acts of tomfoolery.

Two years have passed since then, and when A brought it up last night, I was curious as to whether I could still hear it. It’s supposed to be a teenage-only thing and here I was, long out of my teenage years. I’ve been feeling the weight of my years slowly, and still being able to hear the sound would have boosted my self-esteem a bit. We listened to the sound on youtube later on, and much to my chagrin, I couldn’t hear it. Nothing at all! But I was determined not to let this get me down, youtube is infamous for their joke videos.

Tonight, I looked up the mosquito sound. I rechecked the BBC article (a reputable source!) where I had originally found it and listened to it again. Thank God. I’m still young. Although I do believe listening to the sound now starts to give me one hell of a headache. I guess I am getting old–but not too old.

Listen to the sound here.

Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind. I mean, shit, I posted there for over 3 years and I never coughed up a dime for those poor motheruffers. It’s really just so I can import all my xanga entries over here. After spending $4 for a month of premium, I went to export an archive of my posts/comments and lo, and behold, what do they tell me? I’ll have to wait a DAY for it to be made? When was the last time I had to wait for something on the internet? Apparently xanga still thinks it’s 1999. I’m glad I’m done with those poor bastards.

In other news, since I was logged in trying to get all this tedious shit done, I decided to check if people were still posting. THEY ARE. The audacity! I can’t believe people are still “blogging” on xanga. Grow up and get a real blog, people. Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are two fine options. Welcome to the 21st century.