Urban Locks Gators Out Of Locker Room

GatorSports posted an article today about the fact that Urban Meyer is locking the Gator football team out of the home team locker room in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The players will have to earn their way back into the locker room by working hard during summer workouts. The more I hear about Meyer the more I like the guy. If nothing else we're going to have a lot tougher team this year than we have had in a long while.

Books #1-20

Here's a quick recap of the first twenty books of my 2005 50 book challenge.

1. What's the Matter with Kansas - Thomas Frank
2. How We Are Hungry - Dave Eggers
3. The Wilco Book - Wilco
4. The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby
5. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
6. Ticket To Ride - Larry Kane
7. Hobart #4 - Various
8. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #15 - Various
9. Forced Entries - Jim Carroll
10. Imperial Hubris - Michael Scheuer
11. The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
12. Platform - Michel Houellebecq
13. Slapstick - Kurt Vonnegut
14. Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby
15. Poets on the Peaks - John Suiter
16. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
17. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman
18. Waxwings - Jonathan Raban
19. So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star - Jacob Slichter
20. Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

If I had to pick, I'd say my 5 favorites so far would be (in no particular order):

1. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
2. The Plot Against America
3. Everything Is Illuminated
4. Slapstick
5. Waxwings

Everything Is Illuminated

Book #20 of 2005 was Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (is this blog real?). The book is a fictional account of Foer's real-life trip to the Ukraine to visit his Jewish roots and search for information about the grandfather that he never knew. The story is told in two voices, one that of our hero the author and the other the hilariously challenged English of Alex Perchov, the Ukranian translator who guides Foer along on his journey. The book weaves between time periods, narrators and characters (including the slobbering dog Sammy Davis Jr., Jr.) to build a story that all converges towards the end of the book. One good description I saw of the book compared it to the movie Donnie Darko, basically saying it's one of those books that's tough to explain and can really only be appreciated by reading it.

This is another one of those books that's been reviewed online a bazillion times already. To learn more about it, I'd recommend Francine Prose's glowing New York Times review, the more even handed Salon review or the official reader's guide.

If you're too lazy to read the book, it looks like it's already been made into a movie (starring Elijah Wood and Jason Schwartzman) set to release in August this year.

Streaming Cold Roses

Scenestars is streaming the entirety of Ryan Adams' new record Cold Roses. From what I've heard so far, it sounds like a return to the old Ry-Ry that we all know and love! The album should be available in stores next Tuesday.

Bubb Rubb - Whistle Fan

This is a really old link, but it's one of my all-time favorites so I thought I'd resurrect it today. One day I'd like to hire this guy to be an intern at my office. I think having him 'Woooo Woooo' up and down the halls all day would vastly improve team morale. Bubb, if you're reading this call me...

You gotta love local news stories!

Sarah Vowell Interview

Salon has posted the transcript of Death Cab For Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla interviewing Sarah Vowell about her new book Assassination Vacation. I'm getting excited as we'll be seeing her read at the Elliott Bay Book Company this Friday.

Tony Stevens - American Hero

I played high school baseball against Tony Stevens, the ex-Twins minor league shortstop turned Marine. If you missed it, Stevens recently returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq where he survived nine seperate bombings! Stevens was honored by the Twins before Sunday's game getting to throw out the honorary first pitch.

Thanks to Todd for giving me the scoop on this one.

Photos, Photos Everywhere

There are tons of great photography websites on the web, but if you have time here are four of the cooler ones I've seen lately:

• David LaChappelle
• Naomi Harris
• Walter Iooss
• Elliott Landy

2005 NFL Draft - Day #2

Two more Gators were selected today, with Ciatrick Fason going in the 4th round to the Minnesota Vikings and Reynaldo Hill surprisingly selected in the 7th round by the Tennessee Titans. The Vikings could be a good fit for Fason as he could push for some playing time if he has a good training camp.

With all the talk about players who were drafted it's easy to overlook some of the big name players who never got the call. These possible future CFL stars include:

• QB Brock Berlin, Miami
• QB Jason White, Oklahoma - Heisman Award Winner
• QB Timmy Chang, Hawaii - All Time NCAA leading passer
• QB Chris Rix, FSU
• RB Kay Jay-Harris, West Virginia
• RB Cedric Houston, Tennessee
• RB T.A. McLendon, North Carolina St.
• RB Walter Reyes, Syracuse
• FB Zach Tuiasosopo, Washington
• WR Chauncey Stovall, FSU
• WR Geoff McArthur, Cal
• WR Taylor Stubblefield, Purdue
• WR Charles Frederick, Washington
• T Michael Munoz, Tennessee - Son of Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz

2005 NFL Draft

The NFL Draft today was a tough one to watch. Only one Gator went in the first three rounds, Channing Crowder at #70 to Miami. Ciatrick Fason will have to wait until day two, and it's questionable whether any of the other Gators will even be picked.

I had a feeling things wouldn't go well for the Gators today, so I was hoping the Seahawks would come through and make things worth watching. Instead they had one in my opinion had to be of the worst draft days of any team. Their picks were as follows:

1. Chris Spencer C Ole Miss (1st round, #26 overall) - Spencer was a safe pick as he's a talented Offensive Lineman and bound to be a solid performer. However, it's rare to see a Center go in the first round and most people had him projected as a mid-to-late second round pick, so picking him here was a bit of a stretch . Top that off with the fact that vetrean Robbie Tobeck is returning at this position and it makes you wonder if this is really the best they could've done at this spot. All in all this pick wasn't too bad, but other potential picks I would've liked to have seen here include: WR Roddy White, DT Shaun Cody, and OLB Kevin Burnett.
2. Lofa Tatupu LB USC (2nd round, #45 overall) - This is where things started going downhill. Tatupu was projected to go in the 4th-5th round due to his size. He may turn out to be a decent player, but you have to wonder if they could've waited to get him. Other guys who were available at this spot that would've been good fits include: Dan Cody DE, Odell Thurman ILB, and Matt Roth DE.
3. David Greene QB Georgia (3rd round, #85 overall) - Ick. David Greene? Most people had Kyle Orton and Adrian McPherson rated higher at QB, and McPherson definitely has more upside than Greene. If you don't go QB here, OLB Darryl Blackstock, DT Anttaj Hawthorne, and HB Marion Barber were all still available.
4. Leroy Hill OLB Clemson (3rd round, #98 overall) - CNN/SI had this guy projected to go in the mid-7th round. Hawthorne and Barber were still available at this point, as well as OLB Michael Boley.

The NBA All Ugly Team

The folks at Phat Phree present The NBA All Ugly Team, headed by Gheorghe Muresan. No Kurt Rambis?

So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star

Book #19 of 2005 for me was So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life by Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter. You may remember Semisonic from such classic songs as "Closing Time" and um well....did I mention "Closing Time" already? Seriously though, that was a great song...

This book isn't your average rock n' roll memoir filled with stereotypical rock n' roll stories about sex and drugs. Slichter, a Harvard graduate, gives an honest portrait of what it's like to be a normal, intelligent guy who happens to be in a rock band that hits it big. He writes about his initial fears of playing in front of crowds, his insecurities around his own song-writing, the difficulties of trying to look like a rock star, and the luxuries of the rock and roll lifestyle that just served as constant reminders that despite the band's platinum selling album they would never earn enough money on album sales to pay back their recoupable debt to MCA. As you read through the book you'll find out what it's like to sign a record deal, record an album, shoot a video, perform on Conan O'Brien, perform at the Grammys, get your song onto the radio, tour Europe, and much more.

If you want to learn more about the book, check out John Strausbaugh's Washington Post review which is available here.

This is one of the better music industry books I've read, especially if you're just a music fan looking to learn more about the business. If you're looking for something more business oriented or more targeted at people trying to make it into the business, I'd recommend Moses Avalon's Confessions of a Record Producer.

Is IHS Bound For Glory?

Wow! My old high school has been selected as a semi-finalist for a new ESPN reality show called Bound For Glory. The show is looking for a rural school with an athletic program that has not had much success in recent years. Apparently Interlachen (population 1,500), its one stop light and its 2-58 record in football over the last 6 years meets the bill.

"Tiffany told me they were going to bring Dick Butkus on to help, I had to tell her that she needed to understand that Bobby Humphries is our coach, not Dick." -- IHS Athletic Director Doug Feltner

If everything works out this would definitely be more impressive than the previous biggest story to come out of our town, the infamous Dale Earnhardt Goat.

Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book Sale

On Saturday, I cleaned up at the Friends of the Seattle Public Library Booksale. The booksale is held twice-a-year at Magnuson Park and features over 125,000 items donated by the library, private individuals, and book stores. All proceeds go to benefit the Seattle Public Library system.

Here's what I managed to score for a mere $20!:

1. Johnny Cash - Man In Black
2. Richard Clarke - Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
3. Joseph Ellis - Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
4. Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
5. David Halberstam - Summer of '49
6. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
7. Molly Ivins - Who Let The Dogs In: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known
8. Robert F. Kennedy - 13 Days
9. Jonathan Lethem - The Fortress of Solitude
10. Patrick Neate - Where You're At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet
11. Thomas Powers - Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda
12. Jonathan Raban - Bad Land: An American Romance
13. T.H. White - The Once and Future King
14. Bob Woodward - Plan of Attack

The next sale won't come around until September, but I for one am putting it on my calendar now.

2005 World Barista Championship

Jill and I went to the opening rounds of the 2005 World Barista Championship this weekend. The WBC is basically the Olympics of espresso making if you can picture that. During the contest, each contestant gets 15 minutes to set a table for their judges, prepare 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos, and then serve 4 of their own "signature" drinks. The signature drink is the barista's own concoction and is judged based on taste and creativity.

6 of the roughly 40 contestants participating this weekend were selected to move on to finals which will be held tomorrow. Unfortunately, the USA's Phoung Tran who hails from Washington and trains baristas for my favorite local coffeehouse Zoka Coffee, didn't make the final cut.

Shot In the Fanny Pack

KOMO has this article (and accompanying QuickTime video) of a man trying to rob one our local banks and shooting himself in his fanny pack in the process.

"He should be considered armed and dangerous and willing to do stupid things. He's not a very smart guy." -- FBI spokesman Ray Lauer

Hit #4527

Today my site got hit #4527 officially making me the new all-time hits leader. In your face Pete Rose!

It's okay Pete, #2 isn't so bad.

Bushisms

I have a desk calendar of funny quotes from G-Dub. The calendar is put out every year by Jacob Weisberg, the same guy who does the on-line Bushisms on Slate. Here are a few of my favorites quotes from the past month or so:

"One of the great things about books is somethimes there are some fantastic pictures." - U.S. News and World Report - 1/3/00

"There's an old saying in Tennessee--I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee--that says, fool me once, shame on--shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again." - Nashville, TN 9/17/02

[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling." - Washington D.C. 1/23/04

"Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican." - Declining to answer reporters' questions at the Summit of the Americas - 4/21/01

Super Mario Bros. Music

Face it, the music from Super Mario Bros. ruled. These clips prove it:

Here's a guy covering the songs from each level on piano.

Here's a guy playing a Mario medley on electric guitar.

And here's an a capella group doing it vocal-style, complete with goofy re-enactments.

Florida = The Wild West?

The State of Florida recently approved legislation that now gives residents the right to open fire in public against anyone they perceive as a threat. The old law required you to at least make an attempt to avoid conflict before capping someone.

Ah, Florida you never cease to amaze me.

Buzztracker

Buzztracker is a cool site which visualizes frequencies and relationships between locations mentioned in articles on Google News. The image below should get updated daily to show where the latest news is happening.

Waxwings

I just finished book #18 of the year, Waxwings by Jonathan Raban. I'd been meaning to get around to getting this one for awhile, as it came highly recommended and received very good reviews. The book was even selected as the Washington Post and the Seattle P-I's best book of the year in 2003 and in 2004 was adapted into a screen play by Julie Beckman for a production at Seattle's Book-It Repertory Theatre.

Waxwings was a very enjoyable read. The coolest thing about it to me is that it's set in 1999 in Seattle, which is about the same time I moved to the city ('98). Raban interweaves pieces of local history, such as the WTO Riots, MyLackey.com, HomeGrocer.com, the trade of Ken Griffey Jr. to the Reds, and the crash of Alaska Air Flight 261 with the fictional events in his story. You can see Raban's background as a non-fiction writer (this was his first novel in 18 years) shining through as he paints a remarkably accurate image of what it was like to be here (and work here) during the dot-com era.

If you want a detailed break-down on what the book is about, I'd recommend checking out the Seattle P-I's review of the book here or the Washington Post's review here.

John Darnielle's Blog

I just learned that John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has a blog. Cool.

The Boondocks...I'd Hit It

Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks is one of my favorite comics. Today's was particularly amusing. Here's a definition of "I'd Hit It" for the hip slang-challenged out there, and here's a link to Andew Teman's blog post (with pictures) about the very same McDonald's ad.

Click image above to see comic in full-size

Recovering From Microsoft Office Hangs

Cool, check it out, one of my tips on how to recover from hangs in Microsoft Office applications got posted on Lifehacker. Go me :-)

Indoor Soccer

Tonight was the first game for the new indoor soccer team I'm playing on. We're playing in the Arena Sports league in Redmond. The fields we play on are pretty cool. They look a lot like the Seattle one which you can see here.

While I was warming up for the game, I realized that I haven't played indoor soccer in over 15 years! There's rusty and then there's r-u-s-t-y. We'll see how it goes, but it should be fun. Biggest observation from game one...soccer makes you tired.

Cold Roses

Ryan Adams' new two-disc album Cold Roses is due out May 3rd and is already available for pre-order on Amazon. Be sure to check out the About the Artist section of the Amazon page which has goodies like:

"Ryan likes Dokken a lot, unapologetically, not that anyone would have to apologize for that. He is currently looking for the deeper meaning in things, trying to belong to the light and not give into meaningless ego drivel. He really hopes for the best. "

NME reports that Ryan's new band the Cardinals consists of JP Bowersock and Cindy Cashdollar on guitar, Catherine Popper on bass, and Brad Pemberton on drums.

You can check out a couple of MP3 tracks from the new album here.

50 Foot River Club Sampler

Picked up a few new discs at the Sonic Boom today:

• Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy - Picked this one up after listening to a few songs at the listening booth. Black Sheep Boy is a concept album built around a song of the same name by 60's folk-singer Tim Hardin. Album description and sample MP3s available here. RIYL: Iron and Wine, Damien Jurado, Songs:Ohia.
• 50 Foot Wave - 50 Foot Wave EP - Debut EP by Kristin Hersh's new band. The Pitchfork review is available here. You can check out videos for several songs including "Clara Bow" here. Also be sure to check out Kristin's recent solo acoustic performance on KEXP. They haven't posted it to the performance archive yet, but for now you can find it by going to the streaming archive and choosing Thursday, April 07, 2005 - 9 am. RIYL: Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh, Kim Deal.
• Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away - Excellent debut EP from a local band. You can listen to several of the songs and their recent KEXP performance here. Be sure to check out "Sixteen and Pretty". RIYL: The Shins, Belle and Sebastian.
• Anticon Sampler: 1999-2004 - Good hip-hop compilation for $6.99, you can't beat that with a bat. RIYL: Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Hip-hop without the bling.

Blog Under Attack

Help! My site is under attack.

Fun With Early Season Stats

Despite the early projections, it's now looking less likely that Richie Sexson is going to hit 324 home runs this year. After his torrid two-for-two start, he's homerless (and much more human looking) in his last 17 ABs.

My new early season projection bandwagon, the mighty Ichiro who has 10 hits in 5 games so far, on pace for 324 hits and a .526 batting average this year. Viva La Ichiro!

Go Orange!

The Gators concluded their spring football season today with the annual Orange and Blue game. Florida fans showed out in full force drawing a bigger crowd (50,000+) for the practice game than Urban Meyer ever drew for a home game as coach at Utah.

According to The Florida Times-Union, members of the Blue team, which lost the game 34-28, now get to spend next Saturday participating in a community service project, planting 100 trees along Gainesville's Radio Road. Better luck next time boys. Go Orange!

Top 10 Albums of 2005 (so far)

Here's a quick stab at my top 10 albums of the year so far:

Best Albums Released in 2005

1. Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust
2. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
3. Clem Snide - End of Love
4. Damien Jurado - On My Way To Absence
5. Scott H. Biram - The Dirty Old One Man Band
6. M. Ward - Transistor Radio
7. Beck - Guero
8. Magnolia Electric Company - What Comes After the Blues
9. Decemberists - Picaresque
10. Fiery Furnaces - EP

Best Live Albums:

1. MF Doom - Live From Planet X
2. Magnolia Electric Company - Trials and Errors
3. Death Cab For Cutie - The John Byrd EP

Best Re-issues: Drive-By Truckers - Pizza Deliverance and Gangstabilly

Best old album I've bought this year: Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst

R.I.P. Saul Bellow

Noble Prize winning author Saul Bellow passed away today. He's written several great novels including Henderson the Rain King, which is one of my all-time favorites and was the inspiration for the name of this blog. We'll miss you Saul.

"Together they [Bellow and William Faulkner] are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century" -- Philip Roth

"He was the 20th century's literary wizard, who fused the intellect and the imagination in glorious and comic language that we'd never heard before." -- William Kennedy

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

Book #17 of my 2005 for me was Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman. I read Klosterman's first book Fargo Rock City about a year ago, and while I found it very entertaining at times, I also felt the topic (Heavy Metal) started to get a bit tedious as the pages wore on. With SD&CP, Klosterman has fixed the formula by making each chapter an each essay on a fresh topic. The result is a hilarious collection of pop culture goodness that will keep you laughing from the first page to the last.

To give you an idea of the kinds of things Klosterman writes about, here's a quick summary of some of the topics addressed in each essay:

• Chapter 1 - How mass media ruined our concept of a healthy relationship
• Chapter 2 - Why The Sims is post-modern art
• Chapter 3 - Why everyone acts like characters from MTV's The Real World
• Chapter 4 - Why Billy Joel is great
• Chapter 5- Why being in a Guns N' Roses cover band is a good gig
• Chapter 6 - Why Pamela Anderson is our generation's Marilyn Monroe
• Chapter 7 - Why soccer sucks
• Chapter 8 - How the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 80's is a metaphor for everything in life
• Chapter 9 - How porn drives technology
• Chapter 10 - The relationship between cold cereal and sexual frustration
• Chapter 11 - Why Saved By The Bell rules
• Chapter 12 - Why Star Wars is overrated
• Chapter 13 - Why Vanilla Sky didn't suck as much as everyone thought
• Chapter 14 - Why the Dixie Chicks are the new Van Halen
• Chapter 15 - What's it like to go to high school with a future serial killer?
• Chapter 16 - Why there is no conspiracy in the media
• Chapter 17 - Debunking the EMP Pop Music Studies conference
• Chapter 18 - The rapture and why being a fundamentalist would be pretty cool.

Ryan and Parker No More?

If there's one thing you read my site for it's got to be the top-notch celebrity gossip. You know I've always got the goods. Today's scoop via the NY Post is that Ryan Adams and Parker Posey are no more. Say it ain't so.

"Hipsters, it's open season: Indie actress Parker Posey and her singer boyfriend, Ryan Adams, have split, a source close to him says. The 30-year-old Grammy winner made Posey, 36, his leading lady about two years ago, and they were a regular celeb sighting for residents of the East Village." -- Elisa Lipsky-Karasz, NY Post

Alas, if it's in the Post, it's gotta be true.

Don't Be Sad

Ichiro Starbucks Card

Starbucks has created an exclusive prepaid Ichiro Starbucks card commemorating his record-breaking 2004 season. The card costs $10 and is good for $10 in drinks at any Starbucks location. $2 of their proceeds from each card will be donated to the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. Ichiro, coffee, and charity. Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Opening Day

I was fortunate enough to be at Safeco Field today to see the Mariners kick off their 2005 season with a 5-1 win against the Minnesota Twins. After starting off last season 0-5, it was nice to kick off the new year with a win. Hope springs eternal.

Here were some of my observations from the game:

Positives

• The M's won! With the win they're in 1st place for the first time since 2003. If only the playoffs started today...
• Richie Sexson's shoulder must be doing pretty well as he became the first Mariner player ever to homer in his first two Mariner at-bats. Both were shots too (just like I was hoping for). At this pace he'll finish the season with 324 home runs and 810 RBIs! :-)
• Ichiro was Ichiro, starting off the year with two more hits.
• New 3rd Baseman Adrian Beltre got off to a good start scoring two runs and rapping a solid single up the middle.
• "Everyday" Eddie Guardado pitched a solid 9th inning, striking out the first two batters...and he didn't get hurt. Way to go Eddie!
• Jamie Moyer got his first ever opening day win. It wasn't his best game ever, but he did a good job of keeping the Twins from getting any big hits.
• Edgar Martinez threw out the first pitch.
• Former Mariner Mark McLemore was broadcasting the game for ESPN2. Apparently he's a sportscaster now, who knew?

Negatives

• Is Wilson Valdez seriously our opening day Shortstop? Ouch.
• Although the M's scored 5 runs, they only had 5 hits (2 by Ichiro, 2 by Sexson, and one from Beltre). Unless Sexson really does hit 300 homers, we're going to need some other guys to produce.
• Bret Boone looked really slow chasing a soft liner to short right field, and then when he managed to get there he let the ball bounce off of his glove for an error.
• Miguel Olivo picked up where he left off last season, striking out twice and looking completely clueless at the plate.
• We found out today that Jose Lopez is going to need surgery on his hand.

"Time begins on Opening Day." - Thomas Boswell.

Opening Day Ceremonies at Safeco Field

Sin City

I saw Robert Rodriguez's new film Sin City today. The movie is based on Frank Miller's comic of the same name (he even got a controversial credit as co-director), and is probably the best film adaptation of a comic that I've seen. Rodriguez's cinematography is really well executed and very visually stimulating. The whole film is shot in black and white with splotches of color mixed in, similar to the style used by Gary Ross in Pleasantville (although the city of Pleasantville and Sin City couldn't be more diametrically opposed). Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, and Clive Owen are featured as the three main 'good guys' along with an ensemble cast that includes Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood (as a serial killer/cannibal), Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Josh Harnett, Michael Madsen, Jaime King, and a surprisingly not as annoying as usual Brittany Murphy.

Sin City is not a film for the faint of heart as it contains more than it's fair share of Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez style ultra-violence. Benicio Del Toro gets nearly as much screen time as a severed head as he does fully intact. More than once I found myself saying 'There's no way they're actually going to show ' only to find out that yes indeed they did in fact plan on showing it in all its painful detail.

While Sin City isn't a classic, if you can make it through the violence, you'll find you've been rewarded by seeing a film that's different from any you've seen before. In my mind that in and of itself makes it worth seeing.

If you'd like to read more about the film, Salon has posted a review.

MF Doom In Wire Magazine

The ever elusive MF Doom (aka Viktor Vaughn, aka King Geedorah, aka Zev Love X, aka Daniel Dumile) is on the cover of the March edition of Wire magazine. The cover article is available online here and an interview transcript is available here.

I'm an author. It just so happens that what I write is in rhythmic form and it's over music. So for me to get different points across, just like an author would in a novel, I come with different characters." -- Daniel Dumile

"Bound to go three-plat/Came to destroy rap"

Too Many New CDs

I've been on a bit of a CD shopping spree the last week or so. Today I picked up the following:

• Beck - Guero
• Damien Jurado - On My Way To Absence **very excited about this one**
• Decemberists - Picaresque
• Magnolia Electric Company - What Comes After the Blues
• Scott H. Biram - The Dirty Old One Man Band

Before that I'd picked up:

• MF Doom - Live From Planet X
• Dr. Ocatagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
• Kool Keith - Black Elvis/Lost In Space
• Ben Kweller - On My Way
• Jay Farrar - Live EP
• Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
• Anyide Howell - American Hero Vol. 1 - My Life In LP

As soon as I get a chance to listen to all of them I'll post my Top 10 from 2005 (so far). Insound has already published theirs.

Jonesing for Some Baseball

Just two more days until the Mariners' season kicks off at Safeco Field. I've got my tickets and am all ready to go, in fact I'm having a hard time keeping myself from heading down to the stadium and just camping out there. Opening Day ceremonies are expectedto include Edgar Martinez throwing out the first pitch, and a performance by The Presidents of the United States of America. My hope is the game itself will include a Richie Sexson moonshot along the lines of this one.

Klosterman on Cool

Chuck Klosterman has a short piece in this month's Spin Magazine about Ashlee Simpson and her desperate attempts to be cool. The article starts off with a reference to her infamous Orange Bowl performance which I previously blogged about here, and even manages to work in a Ryan Adams compliment.

LDC's Art Show

LDC and her Art Squad are having a show on April 7th. The show is part of the First Thursdays Art Walk that happen every month in Seattle's Pioneer Square.