In addition to that, there is plenty other findings I need to get out to the world. For our vegetarian loving friends, there is another Opinionator blog contribution from Mark Bittman. He brilliantly brings up the comparison of house pet treatment against and farm animal treatment. Why is it okay to beat a pig or a cow before you eat it but not okay to beat your dog, cat (or in this case, a hamster)?  The treatment of farm animals and house pets should always be in the same conversation. Bittman does it well (in anything he does). If you’ve seen any footage from investigative food industry reporting (be it documentary or online) you can see the harsh lives these animals live every day. It makes you think, shouldn’t  you be treating the animals you consume every day the same way you treat your house pets? 

For our friends at Team Coco, there is a new documentary about him. It chronicles the backstage life and life of the Legally Prohibited from Being on Television Tour from last summer. Which I did see with my dad in Atlantic City. It was pretty funny. But it dragged in the end. (Even before his fame I didn’t think Reggie Watts was very funny.) The tour seemed like Conan wanted something to do with himself. Instead of doing nothing. Which is why his ‘dark’ side coming out isn’t surprising. Although I cannot feel bad for him since he was given like, what - 30 million? to leave The Tonight Show. It’s the writers and the rest of us I feel bad for. The previous for moving their lives to get (literally) nothing and the latter for having to sit and listen to it.

And now there is my still current obsession with the press surrounding the Strokes. You can stream their whole album on their website until it comes out next Tuesday, the 22nd. I haven’t heard most of it. Just the first track (and the single that you hear everywhere.) But when Angeline sent me this, I started raging. David Fricke can call them the band that lead the beginning of revival of garage rock. (I guess he can.) But in no way shape or form is it okay to compare the debuting of the Strokes to the debuting of the Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground is one of the most important bands. It is because of their content, timing, experiments with music, instruments, sound and their poetry. There is plenty of literature on the subject. And it’s not hard to find.  Being compared to the Velvets is unusual. Almost unheard of. And of all places to be found, for this to be published in Rolling Stone, the paralleling really dumbs down the Velvet Underground. (The Strokes are the last band that ever deserves that comparison.) I’m not sure who I would even compare the Velvets to. The Strokes have a new sound, but in no way did they start a revolution for freaks, junkies, artists, poets or musicians. I can’t stop reading, but the more I do the more irritated I become at the undeserving pedestal the Strokes are on.

I haven’t read it yet (it hasn’t come in the mail) but I can only assume that this Week’s New Yorker Profile of Alec Baldwin is great.

I’m in the process of compiling my favorite live albums. Also I’ve found a way for you to stream MP3s right from our site, while you read. Stay tuned!

Also, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. As my mother said to me today via email, please drink responsibly.

The Strokes were on SNL and Julian Casablancas in the end of their first performance said something along the line of “oh fuck!” or “fuckers.” Which I’m sure will piss off Lorne Michaels more than he already is. Pitchfork did this. A nice little retrospective of of their career. “Nowhere to go but out of style,” where have I heard this before?

Lady Gaga can do something right. And speaking of New York magazine, when I was home this weekend my dad told me that Frank Rich was leaving his post as the New York Times Op-Ed Sunday essayist for New York Magazine. He wants to do more with radio and television, and surprise surprise, nytimes wont let him. Go figure.

One of my favorite bands from senior year that I’m always sure no one has heard of, Beach Fossils, just released a new EP. Go here to download it. Almost every night I’ve been downloading more and more music, updating and re-updating my ipod, and dropboxing among people to find more music. Its no longer something that needs a reminder, it just is. Thank god.

Here is more New Yorker fun with Tina Fey. I’m pretty sure the only person who doesn’t find Tina Fey funny is my dad. His comedic appreciation level stopped at Seinfeld. Doesn’t even branch out to Curb Your Enthusiasm, poor thing. How can you hate Larry David and love Seinfeld? The man is a mystery.

I’ve started eating plain oatmeal every day for breakfast at work. Instead of instant packets. Since I read this, and fallen completely in love with Mark Bittman, I found more ways to hate McDonalds. It not only keeps me full for longer, but also is an appetite suppressant.

And for my next trick, I’ll pay too much for CAKE tickets. May be the last tour. I got them for the last of a three night sold out stand at the 930 club here in the district. Excited? You bet I am.

I won’t mention Charlie Sheen. Instead I’ll tell you that I impulsively cut off all my hair. It’s too short to put in a pony tail. I’ve even taking a liking to wearing earrings so I don’t look like a 12 year old boy. I think it’s growing on me.

Friday afternoon jams: Star Slinger’s Mornin’. Which I am failing at embedding here.

Also, the Black And Yellow dude, Wiz Khalifa, is in my office. RIGHT NOW, actually. Manny, my cubemate, was going to have him sign his bong. Instead he just came back with a pack of Wiz Khalifa rolling papers.

It’s a lovely day in the District. But I’m headed home to the dirty jerz for the weekend. Kickin’ it with my mom, errands, getting my vinyl, and a dental visit.

Right now, my office is so quiet, it’s scary.

Have you seen this? Apatow and Paul Feig (Freaks And Geeks lovers unite) teamed up to make a female version of the Hangover. Literally, a wild trip to Vegas is involved and your basic shnenanigans. Apparently it’s a toss up between outright sluttage and boredum. Who knew?

March is Women’s History Month. Do your part.

Then, I picked up the next copy and saw our (funny? not funny?) friend Demetri Martin had been the Shouts & Murmurs contributor. Pleasant, funny and with interesting structure to it, I laughed outloud on the Metro (while, gag, traveling to work to deal with Voice Tracks on a Saturday morning). It made my ride much shorter, especially since the red line had (always has) track maintenece delaying it.

I love the New Yorker. Easily, it’s my favorite magazine. I love to read David Denby tear people a new one and Anthony Lane be sympathetic to mainstream comedies.

Yesterday the new issue came in the mail. Overlooked at first, during my second entire flip through I noticed the fiction by David Foster Wallace. His last novel is being published this Spring. Angeline asked me where he lives. I replied, “He’s dead. He killed himself in 2008.” Actually, was good friends with Jonathan Franzen and Dave Eggers. I hear genius-assholes travel in packs.

And if you haven’t gotten your fill of Scientology, this article is FASCINATING. It’s long. In a nut – it’s about a man named Paul Haggis. He was one of the highest-up leaders of the Church of Scientology. Reccently stepped down because the church refused to speak out against the repeal of the Prop 8 decision in California.  It not only chronicles his story (he wrote Million Dollar Baby and Crash) but a detailed history (like I said, it’s long) of Scientology in Hollywood, which is gripping.

I sent this around to few, and can’t remember if I’ve mentioned Tom Ewing before. He’s the Poptimist columnist at Pitchfork. The most recent contributition of his discusses Lady Gaga, her popularity, idiocy and genius. We might hate her, or love her. But she is doing something right, right? (Aside from the meat dress.) I don’t like her, and I barely can list her songs let alone sing along to any of them. Honestly. Although I do believe there is something to be said about her.

Also, thanks for this Mary.

yup

The "Bomb" from the "Hero King" of Queens

It’s got ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, cheese (provolone and American) lettuce, tomato, roasted red peppers, mayonnaise and oil on a thirteen inch sesame seed loaf. Plus the old-fashioned soda. The reviews for Sal, Kris, & Charlie’s Deli do not disappoint.

Two kids, three instruments. Great use of orifices.

These two kids, whom I assume hail from NYU, were performing near Union Square Park. I caught them playing “Yesterday” by the Beatles, followed by a Tom Petty song which escapes me now, but what really matters after such a great ballad. I just hope those recorders aren’t donated to first grade classrooms in Harlem. These kids aren’t even busking… or at least hadn’t acquired any donations yet.

When we see hipsters everywhere we know them, and can pick our their type. There’s no need to pick them out of a crowd, for they are the crowd. I’ve had many conversations about who and where they’ve come from and what we can compare them to in our past. Because, let’s face it. That’s what we do. We look at something in our lives and take a look at history and try to explain it through something familiar to us. It’s how we function, usually.

At first you could say they are comparative to the hippie. But the hippie fought for something right? Peace…..free love….weed. They were fighting for something then, being constructive and demanding. It wasn’t something everyone else made fun of. It was envied and thought of as new. Then I thought, maybe they could be like the Beats- people who have an intellectualism going for themselves. Then I remembered that hipsters aren’t too intellectual and just wear a same brand of strange clothes like the beats did. Then this article (see above link) was presented to me, and it makes perfect sense.

“An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.”

When you see another Christmas sweater, or go into Urban Outfitters thinking it’s going to be a good choice (when it’s not) or when you move to Brooklyn to take photos with your fish eye and go see Best Coast, think again. What’s really going on here?

Check out this lovely new thing from the nytimes.

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Many artists of the past have changes their appearances just for shock value, and for stranger reasons (ahhem Michael Jackson- its almost the one year anny. of his death-weird!) but that doesn’t make her more like great artists of the past. Or does it? I mean Madonna did it. (Maybe in future decades Gaga will bring us religion crazes too?) I know Lady Gaga can make a great pop song that ya’ll enjoy while dancing in whatever club you go dancing in- but her crazy behavior should make you think a little more than usual, right? I don’t get the face hiding and the Kermit the Frog dress and I don’t get that crazy look in her eye. Maybe someone can explain it one day.

Until then, whose in??

I’ve been reading. Now, as I plan not to go on to graduate school (anytime soon) I can read whatever I want. Since we graduated I’ve read three books, one of which was To Kill A Mockingbird. Something I was supposed to read in 9th grade for Mrs. Stass, but never finished. Its the first novel I’ve read in over a year and I thought I would read Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye too, but got through ten pages of Holden’s whining and couldn’t take it any more, just like the times before. Since my birthday passed and usually all I receive is books, that’s all I’m doing now. THANKFULLY (and finally) I’ve discovered David Foster Wallace and I am taking my time with one of his collections of essays, Consider the Lobster. (Riley- check it out.) I’m also blown away by this book Angeline gave me called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. He’s the guy who wrote Everything is Illuminated- which I’ve never read. Foer’s writing is excellent and the subject matter discusses food and the idea of eating animals- I just read the section where he makes a perfectly normal case of why eating dogs should be accepted in America and would fix some serious problems- is interesting to everyone. Because everyone loves food and everyone eats food. So this concerns you. I’m also part way through a book called Closing Time, about a guy who grew up in the Philadelphia housing projects in the early 60s. I’ve never seen a vocabulary like this, it made me feel bad about myself and I had to put it down for a while. His writing structure is also overwhelming. Not to mention the subject matter is heavy.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well let me just way one more thing. I am interested in Infinite Jest the 900+ page novel by David Foster Wallace. I’m going to go hand out in Borders today and read it, see if I can do it. (If anyone wants to book-club it with me, lets talk.) I think I can do it, but then again, its also a novel. And we all know how I feel about fiction. I can handle To Kill A Mockingbird because it’s excellent. And probably one of the only classics I’ll ever truly love. In fact, he’s a story about how wonderful it is and why maybe you should get a 50th anniversary copy of it yourself and read a good story, again, or maybe for the first time. It’s just a suggestion.

I have one on my fridge. 10 bucks!

Everyone should be outraged at the new Sex and the City movie. In addition to the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker is still not remotely attractive, its full of let downs. I saw the first one- it was decent (and always on HBO, just like I presume the second will be) but I can’t bring myself to spend over two hours watching this movie. Absurdities are going on! Abu Dhabi is a city where women can’t show their faces because of shame, meanwhile these four already rich women go there, no doubt to help promote Western to Eastern commerce (meanwhile it was shot in Morocco), and flaunt their bodies. They should be spending their $10 million costume budget to build a school for women or a hospital for rape victims. I’m sure you have not heard of this book. My mother and sister Kyle are both reading it. The stories mom shares with me are disturbing- even to a true crime and devout nonfiction reader. People say that it wouldn’t be famous just for Sheryl WuDunn’s name. Nicholas Kristof (the awesome NYTimes columnist and WuDunn’s partner) helped it get to where it is now. Let me just rant a bit…. Women are still being killed every day and murdered and raped, in our own country (I don’t want to even talk about the rest of the world.) All it takes is that fact my mother taught me when I was in junior high school: 1 in 4 women in their life will be raped. Lesson: BE FUCKING SAFE. Okay, I’m done.

see what i mean....

It’s the 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. (Truman Capote’s best friend. Some say he wrote it….I love a good unknown fact.) I was supposed to read it, according to Mrs. Stass’ 9th grade English class, but never finished it. I just watched the movie. We all know the conversation about it in Almost Famous in the opening scenes (I should really re-watch that movie. It’s been almost six months- too long.) I’m a chapter in. My dad had a Borders coupon and I now have a beautiful hardback copy of it. One of many summer projects: tackle fiction and novels. Only the good ones: Catcher in the Rye (something I’ve never been able to get through, I just could never stand it) and The Great Gatsby. Read it in 10th grade with no appreciation. Other goals: get down to the bottom of high school teachers assigning books for shit-head high school kids who have no concept of time, history, culture and have no appreciation for the literature forced on them.

Comedy Central bought syndication rights to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Monday nights, for two hours-I think. Hilarity ensues. Also, I FINALLY read Russell Brand’s memoir, My Booky Wook. It took me probably no more than a day. Who’s in? I know, he’s a strange bird. But he’s been through a lot. Brand can actually write and I’ve always been fascinated by him.

Most: it’s Ithaca Festival. If you’re here, let’s stuff our faces. If not- shame. I got all excited to see Jon Hilton play bass in his band on the commons last night with Kelley, only to find out he’s in CA doing god knows what. Unknown hits from the Birds and b-side Beatles songs would be better with the self-deprecating Hilton. Either way I still knew all the words while straight Ithaca-festers followed Terkel’s advice, my favorite line of the day, “Take off…or tighten up your Tevas!” Ladies and Gentlemen, that is EXACTLY what happened. I wish I had a photo.