a woman of nearly 60

today my mother would be just barely holding onto her youth, her hair getting frostier & frostier when at its roots it was a perfect jet black, far darker than my own. she also has a widow's peak-a true sign of natural beauty-something missing from my own forehead. i just shaved my head (too tight) recently. so tight that six days later i can still see the scar; most can't unless looking, but i always can. from most any angle. mostly on the right side, but know that it reeks havoc on my left side (my knee and ankle specifically have the feeling of being on pins & needles all the time ever since.). i think i have shin splints on that left leg now b/c of all the walking and running, but i surely can't tell/feel it. for now...i love my mother.

real world berkeley hills

here i am, high atop the cliffs and canyons of the berkeley bay area...and loving it! i have an exciting show to attend on friday at the mezzezine (NEON INDIAN), and saturday a dear old friend is wishing herself off to dreary old manhattan. good luck, ella. i'll be honest; i'm a little initmidated by these leggy, model types, especially here and now blowing and extracting snot bubbles from my nasal cavity. toodles for now! by the by---i shaved my head, and not in a travis bickle kind of way but a good way.

movies of the aughts

so i recently found a list that i must have comprised

YOU & ME & EVERYTHING WE BLOG

this is it. this is way i'm here now. thank you jj causteau, and thank you wes anderson for digging it up, thank you max fischer for finding it buried in a book about oceanagraphy, thank you miss cross for donating it to rushmore academy, and, most importantly, thank you edward appleby, a friend of a friend. and thank you wes anderson/owen wilson for putting it in the most important movie of the 1990s: RUSHMORE.

whenever one man, for

whatever reason has the

opportunity to lead an extraordinary life

he has no right to keep

to himself.

DEAD RINGER

in case none of y'all noticed, Derek Jeter is the Black Situation, minus the situation. with that in mind, i now pronounce Derek Jeter Queen of the Quidettes. and that also makes Joe Girardi a 'spoiled little ginny' (sorry thats carlo talking to connie, not me to you. i would never hurt you. you know that right. its just some times...).

just a few things

so i had a few things rattling round my head. what'd ya think?

can a man my age wear a beard and still be taken seriously?

why do all the hot girls only work at the chachi bars in college towns?

idk...

here's a few more tips:

-if you ask someone if you can smoke in their car, and they reply, "not cigarettes." they're a douche. cause i mean seriously if i have to ask, i'm probably not just gonna start smoking drugs in your backseat.

-if you're at a party and your on east campus, you're smoking and you can't find an ashtray. go ahead. it's east campus; you can ash anywhere!

-if you're talking to a hipster, don't ask him/her something stupid like, "do you like Radiohead?" b/c the answer is inevitably, "of course i like radiohead."

here's a few observations on popculture:

-the artists of the 50s and 60s are really over-valued right now. warhol, fl wright, dylan's cultural impact are so totally inflated right now. and i don't really understand why.

-watch the godfather, and pay close attention to jimmy caan in an undershirt. his arms are freakishly long. the man has ape arms.

here's a few things about my roman catholic family:

-my cousin joecostello will always say, "where's michael? we can't take the picture without michael." (ala the godfather). to which someone will call me 'college boy' and someone else will ask, "still?"

-my uncle joe always takes the pictures b/c he's the only one who ever brings a camera not attached to his phone. so he always takes two these days. one with everyone, and one where there are no 'outlaws' as he calls them. not in-laws, but outlaws. b/c my cousins have to get married to dudes who like dudes also, or chics who also want to sleep with the best man.

here's a few things about dudes:

-what's the one thing chics are good for?

a_watchin the door while i F dudes!

-what's the one thing better than dudes?

a_chics with...well...

EAT.SLEEP.DUDES

a few things about this jesus fellow i'm always hering so much about:

-to worship one man above all other men is ridiculous idolatry.

-the jews had nothing to do with jesus's death, that's just a smear job perpetrated by roman historians. i mean it says "jesus of nazereth, king of the jews above his head if anyone would bother learning latin anymore.

-the immaculate conception celebrates anne's pregnancy of the virgin mary. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS. Christ! read an f'ing bible.

The Avett Bros @ The Missouri Theatre 3.2.10-BLAST OFF!!!

A view from the sidewalk. A seat in the street. A glimmer from down in the gutter. At this point the article is strictly going to read as a logue from outside the show my editor was too stupid or lazy or whatever to get me credentialed. So I’m here now sitting in rod-iron patio furniture in front of one of the fifteen new yogurt shops in columbia since last I lived here. This one happens to be called yogoluv. How delectable; how delectable indeed. The show has started already and the only people walking by at this point are silly little sorority girls who couldn’t identify signs of life in the amazon. I will say though, of the hipster kids I see coming and going, curly hair is very much of the moment in the midwest. I’m not sure the same could be said about the left coast. And now that I mention it, I could have been back in LA watching the sunset in the santa monica sands. But instead I’m freezing my mantitties off here in the muddle of missouri. Seriously, do you want to know the number of layers I have on. The depths of my devices. And unfortunately its all for not. I am not comfotable. I’m gonna be honest; I really don’t know how long I can keep this up…at this point, I need a miracle as the hippie kids say. At this stage in the evening, I’d probably be happy with shorts on your newp. for cereal.

So here I swot at Travis’s merch table contemplating a t-shirt purchase to solidify the look of a concert goer post-encore, pre-last call. I cant really buy the t with the tour dates on the back now can i. why is it that I prefer the designs on the girlie and baby doll t’s. f it. Not gonna waste my scratch on any of this nonsense. And travis is looking to catch a minute of the show before he preps for the post-show rush and the aftershow breaking down, packing up.
Holy snikes! So some lame ass kids left an hour befor ethe show was over, I took their tix, but duder at the door wasn’t havin’ it. I did however cvonvince him that I wanted to purchase a t-shirt from the show I couldn’t properly hear. But hey, lets be honest, I can hear pretty well. Pretty well. And yeah, I’m not gonna buy a t-shirt. I did however procure a very nice linoleum block print going for a tidy little some. She couldn’t take it with her but wanted it shipped to her bf’s place in trenton, mo. That’s in the 660 area code for those who don’t know.
Millie—booker for the bluenote has just made sure that I get into the second set. I love you in the face, miss millie.
So here I am in row j and the crowd is reswtless. Ready to explode. They should really start doing some pickin’ and grinin’…and here we go.
So now this has totally turned into a fratrock singalong. Much like heariung wilco play YHF for the fifteenth time. Take that tweedy. Dad-rocker.Here’s a toss-up for all you tossers. Which is worse: stupid hippies or psuedo intellectual hipsters. ‘cause that basically all that’s here. Oh, lets not forget the aging hipsters and dad-rockers. T-3 minutes until pumpkin time for these interlopers.
And in all seriousness, the band, the crew, and the blue note staff were so great tonight. wonderful musicianship, helpful staffers, and really chill people in and around the venue tonight. i just have one parting piece of advice: if you're at a show were people are allowed to record the audio, like tonight, please don't sing along. it really ruins the audio. trust me; i've 20 wilco shows were you can better hear the five guys around our pole than tweedy and the boys!

pop rocks!

so i'm just gonna put it out there; believe me, don't. don't really care.

POP MUSIC is the best its been the toxic-era of britney, justin, and that whole train of popstars. with the like of ke$sha, lady gaga, florence + the machine, jj, charlotte gainsborough, lil wayne. and to a lesser extent corrine bailey rae, shakira, bishop allen, discovery, la roux, & little boots.

there thats plently of danceable indie pop to keep you disco-ing through this dark winter.

hipsterBottoms

being a hipster doesn’t necessarily meaning doing what’s really cool & really current, but rather having a certain style, look & feel about you. for instance- right now during these 2010 winter games i am wearing shawn white audio skate shoes. right now, today, cooler than any pair of nike SBs on the planet, right?but i’m not afraid to change out of these tight grey banana republic chinos and white skateshoes for mesh lacrosse shorts and cole-haan driving shoes. not cool. at all. but it sounds alright to me, and it matches well with my personality, especially sitting around the kitchen peninsula drinking red (not blue) cool-aid & listening to laRoux. as a matter of fact, i’ll be right back...

the YETi

peep this noise.
the YETi: Young Ecumenical Tekkie
& unlike apple products that start with "i," this idea ends with you. it's up to you to unleash the beast within. the yeti is a mythical snow monster, and, let's be honest, they don't really exists. but this new guerilla warrior can be spotted on any corner of the Roscoe Village in Chicago or Williamsburg, Brooklyn.