Billy Corgan

So, I was watching my DVD of Smashing Pumpkins videos yesterday while I was cleaning my room and I was thinking about Billy Corgan's ego.

I have a very special place in my heart for the Smashing Pumpkins. They were the band that I wrote lyrics for on my notebook in school. And the thing that's always kind of bugged me has been all the stories about BC's control-freak, egotistical attitude.

And then I realized that I feel the exact same way about Kanye West. I think he is so talented, but his actions in the media always make me SO embarrassed.

And I guess the thing is that there can be a difference between an artist's personality and the music they make.

Which, I suppose is what I'm always saying about Michael Jackson. He made some really great music, regardless of what he was doing in his personal life. It doesn't excuse anything he did, but I feel like I can enjoy the songs....

Anyways, back to Billy and Kanye. I'm thinking that maybe I like music that comes from egotistical Chicagoans. Which brings me to my question: Is Jeff Tweedy egotistical? If he is, then I may need to get a hold of some Wilco, ASAP.

In other news, Billy Corgan (as Smashing Pumpkins) is going to release 44 songs for free as 11 4-song EP's. FOR FREE. And it starts around Halloween. Then I guess they're going to release the whole thing as a box set. The album is going to be called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.

Which is SUCH a Billy Corgan title. :)

Silence!!!!; or The Return of My Desperately and Hysterically Laughing Until I Cry

So, "How I Met Your Mother" started again tonight. This season it's an hour earlier (Mondays at 8 on CBS), so we watched half of it live, having caught up to it on the DVR by skipping commercials. And it's just as good as ever. I love this freaking show and I would heartily recommend it to you. It is consistently original in how the episodes unfold and that is something I have loved from the very first episode.

We also watched the series premieres of Bored to Death (Sundays at 9:30 on HBO) and Accidentally on Purpose (Mondays at 8:30 on CBS).

Bored to Death could be a very hilarious and wonderful show. It was a very good premiere with lots of good lines and a compelling and almost believable plot. Jason Schwartzmann is really good as he usually tends to be. We'll see how it goes next week.

Accidentally on Purpose was only ok. This is kind of the caliber I expect from a Series Premiere. The jokes are ALMOST there, but not quite. The one complaint I had was with Ashley Jensen. She's a Scottish actress who should have been really funny, but her delivery was just awful. It was like "setup setup setup JOOOOOOOOKE" constantly. Every time she had a line. And so I'm ready to wish her off the show. But then I remember another actor who delivered his lines in a similar manner at the start of the series. Matthew Perry from Friends. And he went on to revolutionize, for me at least, the idea of how a joke could be delivered. So who knows? Maybe I'll pull for Ms. Jensen to get her act together (I was going to laugh at my own little joke, but then I realized that that's exactly what that phrase is ABOUT).

Phew!

In conclusion, really excited about TV starting this season! HIMYM is back! Woohoo!!!!

Hold on to your hats; or, 20 minutes of Distraction

Alright everyone. Here's my first go at a podcast. I'm not going to fuss with doing the whole iTunes thing yet, but I do have another episode in mind and I hope that you will send any suggestions about what I could improve upon, what you like, or what you'd like to hear in the future!



My First Podcast

Heard This on the Radio Tonight

Our Lady Peace - All You Did Was Save My Life

I thought it was pretty good!

Podcast

So, I have this microphone. And this software program named Audacity. Well, I suppose the program isn't NAMED Audacity. That's like saying my name is "Human".....

Anyways.

If I record my voice and have some songs in between stretches of me talking about things, and then I save it to a file sharing site and post it on here, is that a podcast?

How do you get it to show up on iTunes?

What are the legalities involved with playing songs on a podcast (What can I get away with?)

I think I would be interested in doing something like this, but I need more info...

Why I Bought a LOT of Apple Shampoo when I was slightly younger than I am now....

So. Here we are. Nearing the end of August. Still no new computer for me, but I did go back to my old job. For 150% more money, and at an hourly rate (which means OVERTIME counts again! woo!). It's a "Temporary" employment status, which means that either the company or I can say "Hey, um, tomorrow, James isn't going to be working here anymore." It would be weird for me to speak about myself in the third-person like that, but not beyond the realm of possibility....

And yeah, I'm still looking for jobs, though it is decidedly harder to do when it's not the ONLY thing I'm doing. But I'm still relatively optimistic.

Now. Apple Shampoo. Are you dying of curiosity at such an idiosyncratic post title!??! Well, here comes the answer all up in your face!

I'm going to go see Blink-182 with my sister in October. She'll be 15 1/2ish then and so, you might be saying "Aw, what a good big brother, indulging his kid sister's whimsical pop-punk fluff." But you would be wrong to say something like that. Dead wrong. This was my idea. I've seen Blink something like 4 or 5 times in my life and was fairly saddened to learn that they were going on indefinite hiatus. But that also means I was fairly pleased, excited, even, to learn that they were getting back together, putting out a new single, going on tour, and releasing an album. I got into Blink when I was 15 or 16 and I still really enjoy listening to the inappropriate jokes and fast, simple pop-punk.

"But James," you're probably saying, "what the HELL does that have to do with Apple Shampoo? And why do you keep capitalizing the A and the S in Apple Shampoo? It's probably a Blink-182 song, right? A favorite song of theirs that you've never gotten to hear them play live? If that's it, then I don't know if I can continue reading this 'blog' of yours."

If you're saying that, then....well, I'd like to thank you for stopping by and I hope you'll check out my list of blogs that are a lot better than mine :)

Yes, Apple Shampoo is Track 9 on Dude Ranch and it is one of my favorite songs that they have released and I've NEVER seen them perform it live....well, that, I know of. See, the first time I saw them, I wasn't familiar with any of their stuff. Which worries me, because that would have been the time when they were MOST likely to play it. I don't anticipate that they'll bust it out this tour, either, but hey, Less Than Jake played "Scott Farcas" this summer. Anything could happen.

There's a lot more that I could say about Blink-182 and the show that's coming up, and maybe I will sometime soon, but not tonight. If you're still reading, you've already read enough about this topic for tonight. I'm not going to get greedy.

But I do have some more stuff I want to talk about. And that's all I want to say tonight. I still need to talk about Alan Wilkis's new EP which is funky and danceable and just fantastic. And I still need to talk about The Dimes who are so chill I can hardly believe it, AND they have a John Lennon cover on their EP, but both of those will have to wait.

Goodnight, or good morning.....or good afternoon.....or.......Happy Noon.

Where Have I Been?

Well, I haven't been getting much exercise in since I last posted.

That's mostly because I lost my job. They called me in, said there was not enough work and that they were letting me go. Seems kind of fishy that, as far as I have been able to ascertain, I was one of only three people let go. But regardless of any unspoken motives, I have a paper saying that I'm awesome and that I was leaving in good standing. So I've been trying not to dwell on any paranoia that comes with this sort of thing.

I'm trying to treat this as an opportunity to get a better-paying, less-frustrating job that doesn't feel like a sinking ship. (I did get to dodge the bullet of having to be present for the apparently excruciating audit that they went through a week after I left. They knew it was coming and everything, it's just that only a couple of people were actually preparing for it. So I'm glad that I didn't have to go through that!)

(Perhaps that last parenthetical bit should have gotten its own un-parenthetical paragraph...)

So, yeah. If you know of any jobs in the DC/Metro area that a chemist with laboratory experience would be good at, let me know!

Also, if you are in the music industry and you want to pay someone, like, $50,000 a year to go to shows and write about them, let me know, too. I can do that. If you need a writing sample, I'm going to Warped Tour on the 14th, so I could whip something up about that.

I have a couple of songs that bands have sent me that I want to post, but I'm going to save that for another post when we can all focus on the sheer funkiness of the one and the quiet reflection of the other. Intrigued? Stay tuned.