How I Spent My Productive Workday

I asked my girlfriend what she thought this drawing said about me, psychologically, and she said "you're afraid of popping your balloon.' I thought that was pretty much right.

Supreme Spock

Even though I don't really give a shit about the whole Grokster Supreme Court case (since I'm too stupid/lazy to figure out how to download music off the internet these days), I did think it was funny that Justice Souter, in writing his judgement on the case, named-dropped Modest Mouse.

“We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties,” Justice David H. Souter wrote for the court.

“Each company (Grokster and StreamCast) showed itself to be aiming to satisfy a known source of demand for copyright infringement,’’ Justice Souter wrote. The companies distribute their software for free and make money by selling ads that are streamed to people while they use the software. The more people who use the products, the more the companies can charge for advertising. Justice Souter said it was clear that they benefited when their users download copyrighted works.

“Users seeking Top 40 songs, for example, or the latest release by Modest Mouse, are certain to be far more numerous than those seeking a free Decameron, and Grokster and StreamCast translated that demand into dollars,” he wrote.

Anyways you can read about the case here, since I guess it's pretty important or whatever.

This Week In Rock Photography

So yeah sometimes I like to pretend like I'm some sort of photographer. Mostly this is so I have an excuse to go to shows by myself and not feel like a total outcast. Plus having a camera always makes you look more important than you really are. Which helps. Anyway, here are some pictures I took this week. YAY


New York spocks The Double rock some chest hair. They were good, especially the part where the guy sings EXACTLY like the guy from Interpol. At least they weren't wearing black.






Circa Survive are basically the best wimpy emo-metal band in the entire world. Frontman Anthony Green's singing voice is somewhere in between Bjork and a 10-year-old boy. AMAZING.


Red Sparrowes are more or less the illest band of all time.

San Franpistol

So somehow I survived 3 days in San Francisco without perishing in an earthquake or having to take out a student loan to kick it. And despite my loathing for anything south of Willows, I actually had a pretty good time. Went and saw the actual parrots of Telegraph Hill, which were crunker than you would think; went and saw Red Sparrowes the band with dudes from Isis and Neurosis which sound pretty much like Isis and Neurosis, only heavier and with added awesomeness; went and saw Anberlin which was the physical embodiment of the term "yay!"; interviewed this band named Augustana who sounded a lot like Train but were super nice guys; hung out with Lania and Max Sidman and stacked cred $$$; went to Crissy Field; went to SF Moma and checked out Paul Klee and bought this print...



...ate a fucking assload of food, spent altogether too much money on stupid shit like :



and



and



and to top it off, I ate a big ass burritto at El Farolito on Mission Street and got ass wrecked.

Nike is Super Emo

Being an avid follower of generalized mall emo, I can't help but notice that lately, the genre as a whole is getting a of fucking money thrown at it. Of course there are the bands getting signed to major label deals and charting Top 10 and whatever, but there are other more subtle signs of this phenomena. One of the funniest, to me at least, is the fact that Nike, the shoe company most readily associated with basketball stars and hip-hop sneaker culture, is now starting to sponsor emo bands. What's even funnier is how the bands themselves still try to pull it off like its some sort of retro, thrift-store kind of shit like this contest for Vagrant Records band Emanuel, where they're giving away "custom" Emanuel hoodies.



But whereas the above hoodies at least maintain some semblance of the emo look, Tooth and Nail Records band Mae looks like they pretty much gave up with this contest for a Nike messenger bag.



Totally fucking sweet, bro. But I still entered both anyway. Free shit is free shit.

Shameless Self-Hype

Posting this flyer has a dual purpose. First of all, it will hopefully induce people living in the greater Chico, CA area to attend this show, which is an entirely good thing. Second of all, it will solidfy my standing amongst spocks worldwide as someone who performs with bands far more spock than myself. Thirdly, it showcases my amazing skills as a graphic designer (note the yellow stroking...genius!). Lastly, it makes me feel better about myself as a person, knowing that long after I'm dead, this post will be cached by google, for historians and archaeologists to contemplate and study. AHHHHH, to be part and parcel of history's gaping stretch!

The Best Band Ever In All Of Human History

So yeah my friends in Number One Gun are getting ready to put out their new record on July 19th. I'm excited. And if you're a fan of wonderfully happy music you should be too. If you want to listen to their new song go here and you can rest assured that there are other, far happier songs on the album. YAAAY for life.

Rossi Lips

There’s something about Chico in the summer — the night heat, the youthful mania that pervades the air when students finally realize that school is done for 3 whole months — that leads me to make exceptionally poor choices when it comes to nighttime activities. As opposed to my misspent teen years, I am now quite gainfully employed and financially capable of entertaining myself in any number of ways. But somehow I always end up going ghetto fabulous. Last night was a stellar example of this phenomenon. It was a beautiful evening; mild, yet snappy. There were a million and one options for spending some quality time: riding bikes in the park, going to a movie, scrapbooking, whatever. Yet somehow I found myself in the checkout line of Safeway, with a giant bottle of disgustingly cheap sake in one hand, and a party-sized jug of Carlo Rossi sangria in the other. You would think that, making the decision to partake in alcoholic beverages, which in and of itself is not necessarily a poor decision, that I would choose something more tasteful. But somehow I ended up kicking it with Carlo Rossi. Bad decision. Carlo is like that friend from high school who you don’t really talk to anymore, but every so often comes by, takes you to some shitty bar and gets you super drunk “for old time’s sake.” Then you always wake up the next day with no keys and a black eye, remembering why you don’t hang out with that dude anymore. Standing in the booze aisle, looking at the smiling countenance of Mr. Carlo Rossi beaming forth from the jug wine that bears his name, you never remember all the bad hangovers and bike wrecks; you just remember all the good shit that happened right before the bad shit. Purple-stained Rossi lips always seem like such a good idea, until you wake up wearing them, and have to go to work and write some shithead blog.

Art

So speaking of art and whatever, I just bought a gargantuan painting off my homie Matt Marsango. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but whatever. He also just painted the bathroom's here at our office, and the shit is fucking legit. I wish he had a web site, but he doesn't. However, you can rap at him at mmarsango@hotmail.com.

The Greatest Book Ever Written of All Time

So yeah the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia is pretty much the best book ever made. If you're crunk, or someday wish to be, you should get that shit like now.

A Day in the Life

Seize the Day

So I was looking through the endless vortex of the internet, and I saw this picture of this dead baby, and it totally made me eat the last piece of pizza that I left sitting there because I felt like eating it would make me a fucking fat ass.

Is that weird?

Oh yeah and if you want to see dead babies, go here. It will make you want to go grab a milkshake or at least finish of that case of budweiser in your frigerator. I'd post pictures but Brian usually gets pissed when I do shit like that.