jeremy paul gordon

branduponthebrain: hearomaofbagels: where do you manage to see all these movies? mostly netflix...

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:37:01 -0500

hearomaofbagels:

where do you manage to see all these movies?

mostly netflix and torrents or in theaters.

wow, i knew i wasnt the only one. doesnt the quality of torrents bother you at all? it annoys the hell out of me

Yeah, the quality is annoying. I try to see films in theaters or on dvd if possible, and I have an all region dvd player, but there are still films I really want to see that aren’t available on DVD or that I can’t access and that’s when I’ll watch a torrent.

I went to Paris to track down a copy of Love Streams on DVD*. Work for that shit!

Pat Benatar covering Kate Bush. I know, I couldn’t stop...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:43:07 -0500

Pat Benatar covering Kate Bush. I know, I couldn’t stop laughing after the piano hits in the first second either.

Blogger's Dilemma

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:13:51 -0500

Matthew (12:10:11 AM): god
Matthew (12:10:13 AM): instead of watching
Matthew (12:10:20 AM): all of these smart, accomplished people
Matthew (12:10:24 AM): talk
Matthew (12:10:29 AM): i should do something productive
Matthew (12:10:44 AM): like
Matthew (12:10:49 AM): review a cd by a bloggable band
Matthew (12:10:56 AM): *takes life*

What Rolling Stone Means To Me

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:14:53 -0500

The Top 10 on the best-of-decade album lists from Rolling Stone - known as the “dinosaur” magazine, even twenty years ago, and Pitchfork - known as the “hipster waif” website - actually overlapped by five albums: Kid A, Is This It?, The Blueprint, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Funeral. They shared the same #1 - Kid A - and yet, Rolling Stone is thought of as more musically irrelevant. I don’t know how quantitatively that can be proved, but I did read a comment along the lines of, “The only thing worse than an AFI list is a list by Rolling Stone” on Tumblr, so I don’t think it’s a myth that Rolling Stone has the image of being a big stodgy when it comes to tunes.

When I told my friend that I realized in the hospital that Rolling Stone was the only music magazine that mattered, he asked, Why? My answer was a rambling hodge-podge of the following: In a world of press agents, Rolling Stone is the only youth culture publication with total access to the people it writes about, its brand of rampant liberalism is buoyed by good enough writing to avoid emulative the worst of reactive Daily Kos articles (Matt Taibbi, when he’s not being a dick, is usually making a good point), and most importantly, people read it. I suppose most people get into journalism to spread ideas to people, and Rolling Stone does that better than any other music publication.

The articles on America can’t be fucked with. The writers are too good, the embedding too deep - Evan Wright’s articles prove this - and they’re writing with a voice that few other publications have. But when it comes to music, Rolling Stone is seen as trendy by classic rock fans and square by indie rock fans. What I’ve realized is that RS writes about not what you should know - it doesn’t set trends anymore - but it writes about what people already know.

While Pitchfork and Spin may be for the insider - the person who reads blogs, has a giant iTunes collection, and has listened to every album on Metacritic’s Top 100 before the year is over - Rolling Stone is for the person who cares but not enough to make it their life. There’s not a bad selection on Rolling Stone’s list, but more importantly, if you wanted to write about music that mattered this decade, the list would be an accurate reflection of that. There’s indie rock, classic rock, pop artists, rappers, no country music but their list is a more accurate summation of what was culturally important this decade. While Pitchfork’s list may be more aesthetically pleasing, no one is pretending that Person Pitch or Silent Shout set the world on fire, even though I like listening to the latter way more than either of the Bob Dylan albums that cracked RS’s top 15.

A year ago I made fun of the magazine in a journalism class, asking my classmates, Who really cares about any of this coverage? I certainly didn’t, and my friends didn’t. But we’re not music consumers - we read daily news coverage, we find 3,000 word treatises on the importance of Grizzly Bear absolutely riveting, none of which is meant to say that we care more, but we’re willing to devote more of our time to thinking about these things. But Rolling Stone isn’t for the reader who wants deep coverage - it’s for the reader who wants any coverage, and if I was locked in a vault for a decade then Rolling Stone’s list would sum up the decade better than anyone, good taste be damned (I’d also be dead). I can’t wait to try to work there when I graduate.

Weather Report

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:00:26 -0500

alexbalk:

Today, Nuts up in your sternum, windy. Tonight, nuts exit your body altogether. Tomorrow, nuts slightly lower in sternum, not as windy. Details, go outside.

NO WIND IN NEW YORK, NO GOD

???

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:00:08 -0500

agrammar:

All of which is to say that when a “like 30” guy writes a song about providing for his wife and baby daughter, it is pretty normal for a married music critic of (I think) generally similar age to see a precipice there. For lots of people, I think, reaching 30 and no longer feeling any precipice of big changes and commitments wouldn’t be an accomplishment, it would be a total bummer.

"Much like I Love You, Beth Cooper, this cheerleading comedy also forgoes the gentle self-deprecation..."

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:52:34 -0500

“Much like I Love You, Beth Cooper, this cheerleading comedy also forgoes the gentle self-deprecation of the Apatow school in favor of retro-’80s crassness, but in the slobs-vs.-snobs divide, it squarely falls on the side of the snobs. The spectacularly obnoxious horndogs in Fired Up, played by Nicholas D’Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen, are cool, confident football stars and skirt-chasers, like two proto-Van Wilders joined at the hip. Their decision to forego athletics in order to attend cheerleading camp—figuring, not unwisely, that the male-to-female ratio will tilt heavily in their favor—leads to a creepily predatory comedy where the boys more or less have the run of the place. (Only the head cheerleader resists; the other 299 are open for business.) The silver lining: The film’s box-office failure insured that “You have to risk it to get the biscuit” was not the catchphrase on everyone’s lips in 2009.”

- The AV Club on Fired Up. Reminded of when Peej and I saw this biscuit.

At a Columbia College party

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:30:38 -0500

Matthew: That girl with the red hair and the winter cardigan is too cute. I can't believe she has a boyfriend. I just want to make him realize it.
Jeremy: Don't do it.
Matthew *to hipster guy*: Excuse me, are you Wavves?
Jeremy: I'm really sorry.
Matthew: I just want to know.
HG: To be fair, I was asking for it.

I saw Alexa Chung dancing along to “Bulletproof” in a NYC story, so La Roux must be doing something right, right? The angular rhythms of songs like “In For The Kill” and “I’m Not Your Toy” provided the best scoff faces to dance with in 2009, and I once referred to the lead singer’s hair as the “anti-Wavves” of music. Then I dove into a tar pit and swam until I couldn’t breathe.

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:07:00 -0500

I saw Alexa Chung dancing along to “Bulletproof” in a NYC story, so La Roux must be doing something right, right? The angular rhythms of songs like “In For The Kill” and “I’m Not Your Toy” provided the best scoff faces to dance with in 2009, and I once referred to the lead singer’s hair as the “anti-Wavves” of music. Then I dove into a tar pit and swam until I couldn’t breathe. :

My annual “We’re Always Right” awards for music in 2009, up at Taintbrush NOW.

"Nobody much cared when Kanye West interrupted Simian Mobile Disco at that awards show a few years..."

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:49:00 -0500

“Nobody much cared when Kanye West interrupted Simian Mobile Disco at that awards show a few years back, but when he talked his shit to Taylor Swift at this year’s VMAs, the PR apocalypse sent him crying to Jay Leno. There’s a reason for that; Swift may be the most flat-out likable pop star to emerge in recent memory. Case in point: “You Belong With Me”. Musically, the track finds some expert gazillion-dollar middle ground between simple, expressive assembly-line Nashville country and exploding-chorus Kelly Clarkson radio-pop. But Taylor’s is-he-really-going-out-with-her narrative links the track to the most fragile, heartbroken strains of twee indie pop.”

- Tom Breihan writing about Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” for Pitchfork’s best of 2009 music list. Tay-Tay made #69 with this song. Fuck yes.

EDIT: Aside from the music writing, the reason this song rules is because I heard it in a cab while blacked out and said, “Excuse me, can you make this louder? It’s quite a song” before launching into a sing-a-long, then removed my testicles with an ice cream scooper.

jaimiehwang: “The bill itself does a lot to bring 30 million people into the system, we don’t need...

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:31:47 -0500

jaimiehwang:

“The bill itself does a lot to bring 30 million people into the system, we don’t need to keep adding onto the back of this horse, or we’re going to break the horse’s back and get nothing done.” — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

“I’m a bad Jew.” - Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

"Greg Ginn is rolling in his grave, and he’s not even dead. This is so awful. Google..."

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:32:51 -0500

“Greg Ginn is rolling in his grave, and he’s not even dead. This is so awful. Google ‘Black Flag,’ you hipster waifs.”

- Youtube comment on “Police Story” by The Dirty Projectors, originally by Black Flag (you dorks)

A Single Man is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year, up there with The Road and New...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:37:28 -0500

A Single Man is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year, up there with The Road and New Moon.

desnoise: wasted-efforts: If Grizzly Bear is an entitled #1...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:02:22 -0500

desnoise:

wasted-efforts:

If Grizzly Bear is an entitled #1 draft pick then The XX are the Jon Starks of music. They’re Scrappy! They are young and unproven. They didn’t have the hype machine working for them the way Grizzly Bear did.

(emphasis mine would be a good name for a tumblog)

(emphasis mine is THE WORST ANALOGY I HAVE EVER READ ON TUMBLR)

desnoise: piercethenight: (via coketalk)

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:08:15 -0500

desnoise:

piercethenight:

(via coketalk)

A great acoustic version of “Bang!” by The...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:02:00 -0500

A great acoustic version of “Bang!” by The Raveonettes. One of my favorite songs of the year.

stufftotelljillian: Today I also learned that if you do this...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:27:39 -0500

stufftotelljillian:

Today I also learned that if you do this magic series of keys on Facebook:

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Enter key, then click anywhere on the page

THIS HAPPENS. Why would you want these circles to appear any time you click anything, you ask? Because it is glorious.

1. It’s a lens flare.

2. It’s not random keys. It’s the Konami Code. It’s called an “easter egg.”

(via sunshinemoonbeam)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:26:40 -0500

(via sunshinemoonbeam)

Irony.

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:34:28 -0500

After making fun of the panic surrounding swine flu last Friday, I think I have it. And it SUCKS.

The best Bulls/80s music skit you’ll ever watch.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:59:41 -0500

The best Bulls/80s music skit you’ll ever watch.

jeremy paul gordon

branduponthebrain: hearomaofbagels: where do you manage to see all these movies? mostly netflix...

Pat Benatar covering Kate Bush. I know, I couldn’t stop...

Blogger's Dilemma

What Rolling Stone Means To Me

Weather Report

???

"Much like I Love You, Beth Cooper, this cheerleading comedy also forgoes the gentle self-deprecation..."

At a Columbia College party

"Nobody much cared when Kanye West interrupted Simian Mobile Disco at that awards show a few years..."

jaimiehwang: “The bill itself does a lot to bring 30 million people into the system, we don’t need...

"Greg Ginn is rolling in his grave, and he’s not even dead. This is so﻿ awful. Google..."

A Single Man is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year, up there with The Road and New...

desnoise: wasted-efforts: If Grizzly Bear is an entitled #1...

desnoise: piercethenight: (via coketalk)

A great acoustic version of “Bang!” by The...

stufftotelljillian: Today I also learned that if you do this...

(via sunshinemoonbeam)

Irony.

The best Bulls/80s music skit you’ll ever watch.

"Greg Ginn is rolling in his grave, and he’s not even dead. This is so awful. Google..."