Favorite albums, movies, and concerts of 2007
Current mood: handsome
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Okay, i finally compiled my list of my favorite films, shows, and albums of 2007. Here it is:

best ten albums of 2007:
1. The National - Boxer
2. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
3. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, etc - Once (Music from the motion picture)
4. Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
5. Sigur Ros - Hvarf/Heim
6. Radiohead - In Rainbows
7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
8. Rogue Wave - Asleep at Heaven's Gate
9. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
10. Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War

Almost made the list:
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Brunettes - Structure and Cosmetics
Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Young Galaxy - s/t
Tegan and Sara - The Con

best movies released in 2007 (three-way tie for 1):
1. There Will Be Blood
1. Once
1. Juno
4. Across The Universe
5. Superbad
6. Knocked Up
7. No Country for Old Men
8. The Simpsons Movie
9. Eastern Promises
10. Zodiac

Films I haven't seen yet, but I suspect might make the list eventually:
Michael Clayton
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Atonement
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Into The Wild

best live act of 2007:
1. Spiritualized at the Vista
2. The National at The El Rey and The Wiltern
3. Arcade Fire at the Hollywood Bowl
4. Midlake at the Troubadour
5. Decemberists at the Hollywood Bowl
6. Wilco at the Greek
7. Yo La Tengo at the Ivar
8. Hot Chip at the Fonda
9. Spoon at the Fonda
10. Air Supply at the Canyon Club (You know that I'm not kidding)

What were your faves from last year?

Currently listening : Phantom Power By Super Furry Animals Release date: 22 July, 2003

6:48 PM - 5 Comments - 9 Kudos - Add Comment

Starburst
Current mood: giggly
Category: Food and Restaurants

So, I was watching a DVD tonight ("The Kingdom", which was better than I expected), and had all of the living room lights off during the movie, when I started craving candy. I found a mini-pack of Starburst in a bag of goodies my nephew gave me on Xmas, opened the package while focusing on the movie and popped a candy into my mouth. I kept thinking that this Starburst was chewier than usual, but there were explosions galore and action action action on my TV, and I became distracted.

When the movie ended I turned on my lights and immediately figured out what happened:

I forgot to take off the stupid candy wrapper before I put the Starburst in my mouth.

I ate the fucking wrapper.

I am retarded.

Currently listening : Friend By Grizzly Bear Release date: 06 November, 2007

1:25 AM - 9 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment

Sopranos finale...what did you think of it?
Current mood: pirate
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I finally watched the series finale of The Sopranos (thank you, Netflix), and it took me a while to decide how I felt about it.

After mulling it over, I think it was brilliant. Yep.

What did you think of it?

Currently listening : Asleep at Heaven’s Gate By Rogue Wave Release date: 18 September, 2007

12:20 AM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
Current mood: relaxed

Hey everybody,

Happy Thanksgiving, yo.

I'm trying to spend more time on MySpace, but it's getting difficult. My job is keeping me so busy that I have very little time to fuck around online during the workday. Which means that at times I have a backlog of 500+ MySpace messages to go through; it's rather time-consuming.

I still have a bunch of messages in my Saved Mail folder to respond to, so please don't feel ignored if you haven't heard back from me.

Anyhoo, four days off work makes me very happy. Sleeeeeeeep! That's the most important thing on my agenda. Today, I head out to the Pomona area for family Thanksgiving; Friday I'm off to San Diego for Thanksgiving The Sequel with some of my closest friends, Saturday is sleep-in and spend hours online day...and perhaps movie night, and Sunday I'm seeing the play Damn Yankees...directed by Jason Alexander (Seinfeld's George Costanza......schweeeeet!).

Busy Steve. I like it like that.

Currently listening : 16 Lovers Lane By The Go-Betweens Release date: 09 November, 2004

11:36 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Ah, the fake MySpacers send the best messages
Current mood: Kind of weirded out, actually

Wow.

Just wow:




She (probably not a she, actually; more likely some guy in the russian mafia trying to con me out of some moolah) wants an honest and caring man so she "can give birth to him."

Amazing.

Gives Labor Day a whole new meaning.

Currently listening : Under the Blacklight By Rilo Kiley Release date: 21 August, 2007

12:21 AM - 23 Comments - 27 Kudos - Add Comment

MySpace modifying friends count
Current mood: curious
Category: MySpace

So, MySpace is in the process of deleting all closed accounts from people's friends list. This is a good thing, but I'm sure it will dramatically affect my friend count.

Right now, I have a little more than 71,000 MySpace friends. Any guesses on how low that number will go after all the closed accounts are removed? 60,000 maybe? Lower?

Hmmmmmm. We'll see.

Currently listening : Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Limited Edition Bonus Disc) By Spoon Release date: 10 July, 2007

6:27 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Air Supply?
Current mood: uncomfortable

So, um, I'm seeing Air Supply tonight. Because I'm retarded.

Actually, Jayson and I have been joking about seeing Air Supply for over a year now, and after a few beers we actually bought tix (bought them from Jayson's iPhone last month while waiting for Peter Bjorn and John to go onstage at the Henry Fonda Theatre...because we're that fuckin' cutting-edge......yeah!). And, um, now the day has finally arrived. Kind of terrifying.

Here's how Jayson described it in his blog:

So yeah, I'm going to see a show on Friday night...Air Supply.  Yep, I said it: Air Supply.  Sounds gay, right?  Yep, but here's the plan: We (a couple of friends and I) are going to see how wrecked we can get, and perhaps get thrown out.  Seriously, if we get booted from an Air Supply show, there's some bragging rights right there.

Yep.

And this is my reply to his blog post:

I kinda see the Air Supply show as our very own version of Jackass. We will endure things that would disgust normal people. We will amuse our friends with tales of the misery and suffering and agony we experienced. Elitist snobs will look down on us with disgust...because they just don't understand.

It's all about the shock value. Yeah!

And we'll probably sing along loudly to every song because we already know all the words.

Yep, pretty much sums it up. Wish me luck, people.

Currently listening : Structure and Cosmetics By The Brunettes Release date: 07 August, 2007

12:04 AM - 8 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

State of the Steve: Harry P, TPC and PB&J, dental procedures, and more
Current mood: dorky
Category: Life

I'm listening to Guns N' Roses right now. Not sure why. But it amuses me.

Here's what I've been up to for the last few weeks:

Harry Potter (don't worry...no spoilers here):
Okay, I'm very much a fan of the Harry Potter series. There's no shame in admitting that, right? Right?

Right!

So, when the sixth book was released a few years ago, some moron on a Coachella message board posted a spoiler in big flashing letters, revealing the details of the climactic scene in the book. Totally ruined the reading experience for me. I was pissed! Why do people post spoilers? I don't understand how someone can take pleasure in ruining things for other people? Is it a power issue? Makes them feel like a big man? Compensates for their insecurities about having a small pee-pee? I dunno. But it's retarded.

But I was determined not to let any morons ruin Book 7 for me. So, I avoided the internet completely beginning the Wednesday before the book was released. That was harder than quitting smoking. I waited in line at Borders with 400 other people at midnight, fnally reached the register and bought the book at 1:30 am, went home and read like a maniac. I cancelled all plans for the weekend so I could finish the book before going outside or going back online. It's sad that I had to take such extreme measures. But it worked. I finished the book without having any of the plot spoiled for me. And I loved it. Much more satisfying than I had expected. Made for a great weekend. Yeah!

Shows:
Okay, what else? I went to two shows recently: Tokyo Police Club and Peter Bjorn and John. Really enjoyed them both. The opening act for TPC was a band called  Dappled Cities who really kinda blew me away. Their sound is sort of surreal indie pop; their new album was produced by Grandaddy's Jim Fairfield and shares a similar quirky sensibility with that band. Check 'em out. Me likey. PB&J were really good too; the Swedes actually rocked it much more than I thought they would.

My choppers:
The only other major development of note was that I had to get a lot of dental work done recently, involving sharp scrapy thingies and needles full of novacaine. My teeth are fine now (years of grinding them when I sleep made my gums start to hate me). I figured that while I was there, I might as well be vain and have them re-whiten my teeth (I had them whitened a decade ago, but ten years of coffee, cigarettes, red wine, and other stainy-substances made my smile a little less sparkly). So, they sat me in front of a laser for an hour. They made me wear protective glasses and put this creepy device in my mouth that guaranteed maximum laser exposure to my teeth. I looked like an alien:



See?



Wow.



Sexy?



You betcha:

Currently listening : Greatest Hits By Guns N’ Roses Release date: 23 March, 2004

6:21 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Royal Flush
Current mood: hungry
Category: Travel and Places

Ummm....Vegas was good to me.

This happened:



I got a Royal Flush on a video poker machine. Holy crap! I won $1,000!!

It was a good weekend :)

Now I have money to plan a real vacation. Gonna visit some friends in Toronto in October, and I'll probably visit other friends on the east coast on the same trip. Should be fun.

Currently listening : We Are the Night By The Chemical Brothers Release date: 17 July, 2007

6:32 PM - 6 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment

Vegas this weekend
Current mood: optimistic
Category: Travel and Places

It's either going to be awesome or horrible, and I can't predict which.

I'm flying to Las Vegas on Saturday with two very good friends as a last hurrah before one of them moves his family to Spain later this summer. Our flight leaves very early in the morning (I'm picking my friends up at 5:15 am on Saturday) and we return to LA around 8 pm on Sunday. Sleep will not be my friend this weekend.

It turns out that we will be staying at the Hooters Casino. Embarrassing, to say the least. The last time we all went to Vegas, my friend booked a room for us at Excaliber; I'm not sure which is worse...Excaliber or Hooters. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

This weekend's weather will be


Hotttttttt!

Should be a fun weekend. And a memorable weekend. And most likely a ridiculous weekend.

Currently watching : Danielson - A Family Movie Release date: 10 April, 2007

11:44 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment