nouvelle vague

usually i'm not a big fan of 'cover albums'...the only bands that do covers that come to mind that i actually care anything for are catpower and anything yo la tengo covers.
but i recently ran across this strange bossanova group called nouvelle vague, with a cover album of songs that we all love...definitely check them out.
especially love the cover of 'making plans for nigel' by xtc, and 'too drunk to fuck' by the dead kennedys (and, of course, 'forest' by the cure, because that song just makes me want to be all teenage and pale and depressed and lie face down on the carpet in my bedroom...but no, it's bossanova!).

recently, currently etc...

recently finished reading everything is illuminted by jonathan safran foer. i neglected reading this when it was being so completely overhyped, as i so often 'neglect' to read things that are overhyped. but this book, i am happy to say, lives up to most of the hype. it's been quite some time since i've read someone with such a feel for storytelling. it's overly emotional, but you don't notice...it's overly quippy, but you don't notice that either...the only thing i noticed was how completely wrapped up in the story and the writing i became, before i was even aware of it. highly recommended.
also recently finished pan by knut hamson. first things first, if you've not read hunger by knut hamson, go now, buy it, and read it, immediately. with that said, if you have read already read 'hunger', and liked it (of course, who wouldn't? honestly.), then please, move on to 'pan'...and that bit of non information, is all your getting about that one.

currently reading ask the dust by john fante. bukowski was a big fan, so i thought i would give him a try. because of the entirely too slow mass bay transportation authority, i was able to read 30 pages of this book as soon as i bought it. and i can see, why bukowski liked him, why i like bukowski, and why i'm probably not going to like this book.

currently listening to:

gogol bordello "underdog world strike"

...i really can't say enough about this band. their live show will kick your ass, leave you deaf for days, and bring out the roma blood in all of us. up to, and including, not bathing, ceaseless and senseless traveling, jangly jewelry, and dancing like mad until all hours of the morning.

there is no better way to spend a sunday than on a beach in new england. 

stealing is wrong

this is my lovely friend kristin. 

i would just like to say that stealing personal property is very very wrong. on her 23rd birthday my beautiful friend kristin had her bike stolen from her front stoop. on her birthday, no less. now, we've all done our share of teenage shop lifting from large corperate stores to get back at someone somewhere for making us live in a two bit town with one walmart, (ahem, not me, of course)...but, stealing personal property from people who work hard for it, and might not have a way to get another one soon, is completely inhuman.
so to whomever stole kristin's bike, i hope your life is as miserable as your deed.

slightly disgruntled with this tribute

let me start by saying that i'm probably a bigger fan of the magnetic fields than any normal human being should be. my obsession with mr. stephin merritt is a bit on the absurd side, and i would gladly be his faghag at any place on any day.
so, you can see how happy i am when i find out that anyone, anywhere is paying tribute to this amazingly witty and beautiful man....and i was, i "was" very happy.
many of you may have been aware of a little website to which you could send your own versions of magnetic fields songs, if you happen to be a local indie, or minimally famous indie (i.e. 'mentioned once on catbirdseat') band. if you aren't aware (i.e. you have a family, or a life to take care of), then check it out...but please please please, for the love of all things, please do not go to this site if you have never heard these particular magnetic fields songs!!!! go listen to the originals first. the versions that you will hear on this site are completely void of all sense of originality and beauty that is the magnetic fields. souless, i would say. yes, i said it, the covers are completely souless. i know it's harsh, but really, these poor kids really shouldn't have let the belle and sebastian's of the world get so deeply inside their heads. (example, this version of 'the luckiest guy on the lower east side' , so very sad)
please don't take this to mean that i think that i, personally, could have done a better job at covering a magnetic fields song;
i know i can't, and that's why I DON'T.
simple. advice for all of us.

sunset, at a canadian truckstop...imagine this sky, with these colors, surrounding you in all directions, and that's what we were seeing.. 

by accident, i used the flash on this photo, turning it into, what i think, is one of the most erotic pictures of an orchid that i've ever seen...eat your heart out maplethorpe! 

a tiny little bonzai oasis... 

parts of the chinese garden, montreal botanical gardens... 

BONZAI!!!! 

some pics from the montreal botanical gardens...otherwise known as the most beautiful place i've ever been so far in my life... 

the fainting couch...pics by pam pritzker