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The Walkmen: You & Me

I'm pretty surprised by how much I enjoy the new Walkmen album, You & Me, never having been much of a fan in the past. It's big, and nostalgic, and kind of dark.

Kind of like the season one finale of Mad Men, which we just watched a couple of weeks ago. The best part, where Don is leading the Kodak people through the campaign for the slide projector, while showing slides of his family:

It goes backwards and forwards, and it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called "The Wheel"; it's called "The Carousel". It lets us travel around and around and back home again.

As Mena said, at the time: "can I slit my wrists, now?"

Anyway, You & Me is out August 19, but you can buy it now for $5 (5 dollars!) from Amie Street. And in so doing, you'll be helping kids with cancer. So, you know, you'd sort of have to hate music and kids not to buy this album.

"... A new sheriff in town, in the world of hair" [1]

Okay, so American Idol tonight? The contestants can choose from any song in the 2000s—and what do these connoisseurs of fine modern pop choose? Creed, Tim McGraw, & a boring Beyoncé song. [2]

Now, so: I understand there are licensing issues, &c.

But seriously, what the fuck?

So, dear future—or current—Idol contestants, should this particular challenge week ever again rear its ugly head, here are some suggestions [3].

Annie, “Chewing Gum” (Listen)

(Or the Hey Willpower + Annie version thereof.) Perhaps not a particularly tough vocal, but still a nice combination of a sort of charm & sexuality. Kellie, perhaps, but it may be too far out of her country comfort zone.

Backstreet Boys, “Shape of my Heart” (Listen)

So, I know that Backstreet Boys specifically—& boy pop in general—aren’t exactly in vogue, but seriously: this is brilliant pop music, and I’d expect someone like Ace to be able to pull this off, synchronized camera pouts & all.

Eamon, “Fuck It” (Listen)

Now this: I could see Elliot just eating this up. It’s a novelty song, sure, but it’s got that wannabe-Stevie-but-angry-&-nasty thing going on.

Girls Aloud, “Biology” [4] (Listen)

It’s not a competition without Girls Aloud! Honestly, I don’t know who could do this justice. Maybe it’d have to be a group thing, like those strange group performances they do from time to time.

Jamie Lidell, “When I Come Back Around”

Taylor, I’m looking at you, you symbol of prematurely gray neo-soul! Plus, miming the keyboard solo would win anyone total points in my book.

Ms. Dynamite, “Dy-Na-Mi-Tee” (Listen)

Paris!

She’s my favorite, and while some of these picks are motivated by a sort of morbid curiosity, I would really, really like to hear Paris sing this.

Scissor Sisters, “Return to Oz” (Listen)

Now, this just might have the right sense of melodrama & bombast to win the crowd ever. If someone like Chris Daughtry were to sing it, it might elevate him from the sub-Stone Temple Pilots rut he’s got himself into now.

Will Young, “Leave Right Now”

Perhaps a bit of an obvious pick, considering his start in the pop business, but this is a top pop song.

& there’s so much more! Justin Timberlake; Shakira; Hey Willpower; Gwen Stefani; Robbie Williams; &c.

And I’ll just say this: if any contestant were to ever sing a chapter of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet”, he/she would be my favorite vote forever, and I would probably be compelled to write some silly application that would vote a million times for that contestant. Or something.

[1] “But who wants to shoot the sheriff?” Oh, Blow Out.

[2] The only inspired choice was Katherine’s choice of Christina Aguilera’s “The Voice Within,” which was just okay in terms of her performance, but it’s hard to ruin that song.

[3] Though if last’s season’s butchering of Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘em Up Style (Oops)” is any indication, the idols-in-training aren’t exactly stellar w/ good pop songs, either.

[4] Well, really, part of the reason I included this song is just so I had an excuse to listen to it, again.

I've got so much to say ("tell us about it Green")

• SO disappointed! I feel as if I've wasted so many hours, now, for it all to have come down to Chloe. I would've been happy with either Santino or Daniel (as strange & bitchy as Daniel got towards the end of the show, I still liked him), but Chloe? I have nothing more to say.


• But through the despair... a ray of hope, coming March 21. How can they possibly follow up the amazing Season 2? Who will be this season's Scott/Brandon-level villain? How will Jonathan adjust to domestic life & parenthood? Are Jonathan and Sescie married yet? [1] Is Jonathan still in therapy? So many questions!


• God, I fucking love Front Row. I love it most for its music-playing abilities, while hooked up to a television, & the way it shows off the album covers. I've been playing a playlist from a party a couple of months ago, & watching the beautiful album covers come across the screen is just mesmerizing.


• I finally bought Scritti Politti's Provision—the only Scritti album I didn't yet have—and am loving "Overnite". I can't get enough of Green Gartside ballads!

[1] The other night, Mena, who didn't watch Season 2, asked something about Jonathan's girlfriend, and both Krissy & I were like, "Sescie!" I didn't know whether to feel proud or dismayed that I've used up part of my memory for that knowledge.

But I settled on proud!

Amazon knows me so well!

See:

Buy some Jonathan Product at the Sephora Store on Amazon.

It's a motherfucking drinking game! [1]

So, per my last post: Having found a sufficiently interesting drinking game, Mena, Krissy, & I decided to have a wild night of watching Project Runway & drinking Pomegranate cosmos.

Fearing that the drinking game as written might leave all of us a bit too drunk for a work night, Mena thought of a nice twist: after eliminating all of the no-longer-relevant prompts, we printed out the remaining ones in enlarged type, cut them up, and put them into a bag (a Jay McCarroll bag, no less!), then selected one by one our individual prompts, thus dividing up about 40 prompts between the three of us.

Some prompts, of course—e.g., Tim says, "Make it work"—are better than others. We each ended up with about 12, half of which turned out to be relevant in this week's episode.

Mena's ready!

Having selected the prompts, we headed to the television with a pitcher (yes, a pitcher!) of pomegranate cosmos & three glasses [2].

About 20 minutes later, the pizza arrived!

Some notes on the game:

• A good prompt that we didn't have, and which you should include in your PR drinking game, if & when you decide to play it: Tim says, "Gather round, everyone."


• It's surprising how mentally exhausting it is to play a drinking game! We were fiercely concentrating for the entire episode, watching out for both our own & one another's prompts. It was a real team effort.


• One of the prompts I had was A designer's sketch is shown. This turned out to be surprisingly popular, because there's a segment of the show where they basically show every fucking designer's sketch, like four times each! That was a fun part of the show, for me.


• Another popular one: Tim looks concerned. When doesn't Tim look concerned?


• As a bonus, we saw a commercial for the new season of Blow Out. I'm so excited!

Drinking games are so fun!

[1] See this. Thanks to Mena & Krissy for the title!

[2] Mena decided that tumblers would be better than martini glasses, since the latter tend to be fairly easily spillable, & really not right for a drinking game.

"Absolve, absolve, absolve..."

This post is for Mena & Krissy. [1]

I fear I've been remiss—& now quite publicly scolded—in my lack of Project Runway blogging. There is a notion, it seems—quite unjustified, but I suppose not entirely unfounded—that I'm keeping many wonderful links and/or posts to myself, rather than sharing them around. Specifically, w/ the above.

& here, I do so make my penance.

• Krissy made a request for a Tim Gunn drinking game [2]. I don't have a great drinking game of my own to offer, but I do have this link to a PR drinking game, which is, at least, a start. The biggest problem w/ this game, frankly, is that it offers so many drinking opportunities that anyone would end up with alcohol poisoning by the end of an episode. A more finely-tuned game is definitely needed.


• The Project Runway LJ community is incredibly vibrant—10-15 posts per day, hundreds of comments, &c.


• The greatest userpic in all of history, capturing one of the best quotes of the season: "It's a motherfucking walk-off!"


• And, finally, for anyone wishing to buy some PR gear, check out this CafePress store for Project Runway shirts, &c.. "Obey Tim Gunn!"

[1] & also, all of the others at the office who watch Project Runway, a total which is just somewhat incredible to me. It seems that any conversation in the last couple of days will eventually turn round to "OMG Nick, no really!" or "Andrae & Tim at Red Lobster, oh noes!" It's quite fun.

[2] &, btw, is now the top Google result for "tim gunn drinking game".

Zombie Head!

While watching Survivor tonight, & seeing that the reward for the first challenge was the ever-familiar spear & fishing gear, I thought of what would make a great reward for a reward challenge:

A gun!

So many interesting things could happen!

"That's my song..."

Tonight Mena & I were watching "Skating with Celebrities" [1] and about some particular skater, she said, "He's good," and I laughed, and then she said, "Wait, what's that from?", and then we both said "Snowbird!"

If you're not aware of the genius that is "Snowbird," read Mena's post from a couple of years ago. Briefly put, "Snowbird" was a short film by Bruce McCulloch (of Kids in the Hall fame) that aired on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1994/95, where Bruce played a struggling—but really great—karaoke singer whose special song was "Snowbird." And it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Then, one day, I lent it to Mena, and—here's where the story gets a bit hazy—she either lost it, or she taped over it, or her dad taped over it, or Augie ate it, or... & the list goes on.

And so, you know: I've got tapes of pretty much every episode of "Seinfeld" for about five seasons, of "Saturday Night Live" for about at least two seasons, of some fucking show with Randy Quaid & Jonathan Winters that I can't remember the name of, &c.

But that particular episode of SNL, with the best short film ever? It's lost, forever. And people, I need to see "Snowbird."

So Mena & I are collectively asking once again: does someone have "Snowbird" in digital form? Please?

Come on, internet! Don't let us down!

[1] Yes, really. I thought it might inspire a blog post in & of itself, but now, I'm not so sure. It was just kind of sad.

In particular, Todd Bridges. I was telling Mena that it was ironic that he was skating to "Jungle Boogie," considering the Daily Show interview a couple of years ago where he said he was planning a career comeback ala John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. So the thought of "Skating with Celebrities" being his "comeback" makes me very, very sad.

In case it's not clear, this isn't a compliment.

I was bored & watching SNL (redundant?) last night, and Death Cab for Cutie were playing as the musical guest. More specifically, they were playing their standard boring, OC-appealing, mopey MOR rock.

And this amazing, visionary realization came to me: Death Cab are the Gin Blossoms of 2005! [1]

[1] Or, if you prefer (though could you, possibly, have a preference between these?): the Toad the Wet Sprocket; the Better than Ezra; the Goo Goo Dolls; &c.

"I'm concerned."

I've had this post sitting round for a while but haven't posted it. Sometimes, that happens. But it gave me the chance to add on to it, every week, for the past couple of weeks of episodes! So it's a SuperPost, now.

So: Project Runway Season 2, hooray!

• That tagline on the website: "They sew... she cuts" It's like some cheesy seamstress horror movie!


• In the episode a couple of weeks ago, Guadalupe's sketch for her lingerie line (right). Pow! WTF? Most half-assed sketch ever!


• At first I liked Diana, because she seemed like a sad little science nerd ("OMG my magnets have lost their polarity!"), but lately she's started to bother me. So tonight was a moment of (double!) vindication.

& finally, a brief vignette. At one point a couple of weeks ago, I was telling Mena some juicy tidbit of knowledge about a Project Runway contestant, & why he received the old "you are out", and we were like:

Ben: So yeah, I heard he's really out because [some reason that I don't remember].
Mena: What the fuck? Where did you hear that?
Ben: Well, yeah, so I was listening to Tim Gunn's podcast...

And then I was like, to myself, oh—I listen to Tim Gunn's podcast. That was, you might say, my moment of realization that I'd crossed a certain line w/r/t reality television enjoyment.