VAGUE SPACE

Labor Day Weekend

Happy Labor Day weekend.  Don't drink too much.  Enjoy your time off.  And wish me luck in my fantasy football draft.  And yes, I would much rather be spending the weekend in Vermont, but we're not going this year due to too many babies arriving this summer.  Oh well.  At least I can get Magic Hat in New Jersey now.  And I might get the chance to make up for some of a summer's long shortage of sleep.  Enjoy these "work"-related tracks, and a special summer's end blast of a video from the immortal Arcade Fire.

• Download DramaRama - "Work for Food".mp3
• Download R.E.M.- "The Finest Worksong".mp3
• Download Palace Brothers - "Work Hard, Play Hard".mp3
• Download Kepler - "A Workhorse".mp3

Arcade Fire - "Wake UP" (live)

Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causing rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

Entourage Finale

   

    Ari: "Why the fuck did you just tell him I had a more important lunch?"
    Lloyd:  "What did you want me to say?"
    Ari: "That I had a huge wart on my cock that needed to be removed would have been better."

The third season of the always entertaining but nervewrackingly erratic Entourage aired on Sunday, and the big news was the potential split between Ari and the actor that made him, one Vincent Chase, still annoyed at the loss of the Ramones movie deal, on the heels of the loss of the Medellin movie and Aquaman 2.  But Ari gets wind of the breakup and does his best to work all day to get Vince his deal back before he has a chance to tell Ari he's been fired.  Unfortunately, Ari's pissed off one too many people in the industry and is having big trouble trying to save his job.  In the meantime, Vince and the boys go agent shopping, to somewhat amusing results.   

    Drama: "They get a zero for service.  Didn't even offer us a drink."
    Turtle: "Well they get a 10 for amenities if they let me service that ass."

When the Levees Broke

Last year on this date the hurricane hit.  And last year on this date, the levees broke.  And last year on this date, our president was in Arizona making a speech about the Medicare drug benefit.  And last year on this date, hundreds of American citizens were dying in the flood from the aftermath of the hurricane and the breach of the levees.  And no one was there to help. 

    8PM CDT – GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.”

Last year on Tuesday, August 30th, a day after the levees broke, thousands of New Orleans residents were fighting for their lives in their attics and rooftops.  President Bush was giving a speech on Iraq in San Diego.  At 2 pm CDT, he was pictured playing guitar with country singer Mark Willis.   

    MASS LOOTING REPORTED, SECURITY SHORTAGE CITED: “The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked,” Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. “We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops.”

    TENS OF THOUSANDS TRAPPED IN SUPERDOME; CONDITIONS DETERIORATE:Los Angeles Times, 9/1/05] “A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. ‘We pee on the floor. We are like animals,’ said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. … There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming.”"

Cut Your Hair

I was getting my hair cut the other day when my hairdresser asked if I liked Whitney Houston.  It wasn't a random question, for one of her songs was playing on the lite FM/adult contempo/ pre-programmed pap radio station softly echoing off the faded tiled walls in the empty establishment.  I'm not sure what song it was actually.  I knew at the time I guess; I grew up listening to Ms. Houston and I'm sure when her music first came out I didn't mind it so much.  My brain was a lot mushier back then.

"No," I said without hesitation, followed by an awkward laugh to hide the abruptness of my response.  She was surprised I guess, and let out an audible gasp, pausing with her sharpened scissors near my ear while I reconsidered the remark.  She was a little flusterered and perhaps struggling with the language, giving me a chance to amend my statement, but I truly couldn't.  There isn't a single part of me left that can appreciate anything about Whitney Houston's music.

All My Little Words

As some of you are aware, I was recently accepted into graduate school, where I will be pursuing an MA in Writing.  Yes, a degree in what I'm doing write right now, and which I've been doing for 18 months on this blog.  I'd written a lot of fiction before starting this blog, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I hoped that Vague Space could help open up paying gigs in the publishing field, but it hasn't exactly made me any money yet, so I decided to go a more traditional route.  We'll see where it leads but for the immediate future, I will be enrolled in a graduate course, which will presumably demand a lot of my free time, especially the free time I spend writing.  So the casualty could be this blog, or the frequency of posting to the blog.  It's been going strong for 18 months, something I would never have believed when I started this thing, and it's grown from a miniscule following among a few friends to a success I couldn't have imagined - averaging 80 unique users and close to 200 total visits a day.  But it hasn't translated into success yet, or certainly not a career in the writing field, and that is something I want to pursue now that I have the chance.  So thank you to all my readers - frequent and otherwise, and I hope to keep posting as frequently as always, but after September 5th, you might see a significant decrease.  I can't really say for sure at this point, but that seems likely.  On the bright side, maybe the writing on the posts will improve.  And for that, we could all be thankful.

• Download The Magnetic Fields - "All My Little Words".mp3
• Download Belle & Sebastian - "Wrapped Up in Books".mp3
• Download Belle & Sebastian - "Put the Book Back on the Shelf".mp3
• Download Morrissey - "Reader Meet Author".mp3   

    Not if I could write for you, the sweetest song you ever heard.  It doesn't matter what I do, not for all my little words.

Philly Phever

Well I didn't actually write it in my scathing blog post after the horrendous Abreu/Lidle trade, but I'm pretty sure I declared to anyone who was listening that I was no longer following the Phillies this season, and would be turning my attention to the Mariners and Red Sox as of August 1st.  Since then, the Mariners lost 11 straight games to their AL West foes and the Red Sox got swept in a 5-game series to their AL East foes (who I cannot bring myself to mention by name), while the Phillies have been on a bit of a tear, pulling themselves above .500 for the first time since early June and moving to a tie for 2nd in the wild card race, 2 games back of the Reds (in the loss column).  Umm... whoops.  You can pretty much call me the reverse jinx from now on.  So now that I'm declaring myself back on the Phillies bandwagon, am I guaranteeing a horrible September that will drop them right out of the race?  Or is that going to happen anyway?  It's tough to tell for sure.  Philadelphia sports fans... not exactly brimming with optimism.

Fresh Meat Final Four

I haven't blogged about this show in a while, but it is still on my weekly viewing schedule.  Yes I know I say I don't have enough time to watch recommended quality programs like Rescue Me or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (although I have caught the last couple episodes of it and it's quite funny), while I continue to watch another Real World/Road Rules Challenge retread, but let's not concentrate on the negative and get right into the show.  Fresh Meat - as they've decided to call this season - is down to four teams, as follows:   

• Derrick and Diem
• Tina and Kenny
• Darrell and Aviv
• Wes and Casey

And the fact that I knew those without having to look them up or check on the spelling is disturbing enough.  Let's just try to move on.

The Crane Wife

So Stereogum got an advance copy of The Decemberists' new album The Crane Wife, due October 3rd, and posted the tracklist, praising the album as a masterpiece.  And in about 3 seconds I found a link for a site where I could download the entire album.  Then I found several sites hosting select mp3's from the new CD.  Most of them had taken down the songs after being contacted by Capitol Records (the downside of an indie superstar signing with a major label), but I still got the chance to preview some of the songs.  And I'm left with a dilemma. 

First of all, the songs I've heard are brilliant.  These are probably the most enjoyable Decemberists songs since Castaways and Cutouts, as for me the last two majestic albums weren't as good as I'd hoped (or not as enjoyable as all the hype made them seem).  Don't get me wrong, Her Majesty and Picaresque were better than 90% of indie rock out there and 100% of the stuff that ends up on Billboard's charts, but they just didn't live up to the out-of-nowhere joy I felt with their first album.  That being said, I haven't listened to the entire new album yet, for I'm not sure I want to ruin it.  I want to go out there on October 3rd and buy the CD and rush back to the office and put it in my computer and be surprised or disappointed or overjoyed at the sound.  I miss being able to do that, in this digital world, where almost all the best songs I've heard before I actually get around to purchasing the album.  And in truth, I'm not buying as many albums as I used to.  I'm listening to more music than ever, and downloading many of them legally through emusic and iTunes, but albums - not as much.  And that is terribly disappointing for me.  So I want to hold out, to leave some joy in discovering the rest of the songs on The Crane Wife until the album is actually released to the public.  But I don't know if I can... the songs I've heard might be too good.

Anyway, I'm not posting any of them here... Capitol's too big of a company to fuck with.  So here's some older/rare Decemberists to enjoy.  But if you want the new album all to yourself, it wouldn't be too hard to find.  Just remember to buy the real thing on October 3rd (although admittedly, Capitol probably gets 95% of the profits).

• Download Decemberists - "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect".mp3
• Download Decemberists - "Bridges and Balloons".mp3
• Download Decemberists - "Apology Song".mp3

Weeds Party

Well I was finally able to watch the second season premiere of Weeds, thanks to MSN.com's video section (and a tip from LegFuLenny).  The episode still hasn't appeared on iTunes and I still haven't shelled out for a month's worth of Showtime, so this might be the last episode recap for a while, assuming that the producers aren't going to give away every broadcast free on MSN.  But for what it's worth, it was a solid debut to the second season, not quite living up to the tremendous heights often set during its debut season, but good enough for some strong summer entertainment.  And more than a few laughs.

• Nancy: "Was she on drugs?"
• Conrad: "My mom never did a drug a day in her life.  She was a drunk."

• Download Band of Horses - "Weed Party".mp3
• Download Elvis Costello - "Little Boxes".mp3
  
  • The love it-or-hate it opening song "Little Boxes" is getting covered by a different artist in every episode this season, starting with this version by Elvis Costello.

Mel Gibson, Denis Leary, and the Youk

It's a You Tube weekend apparently, because I found another video clip that I felt like sharing.  This is from a NESN broadcast of a Red Sox/Tigers game from earlier in the week, where comedians Denis Leary and Lenny Clarke were in the broadcast booth joking around with Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo.  The video gets great about 4:30 minutes in (just fast forward through the rest unless you're a huge Leary, Clarke or Red Sox fan), when the nationality of first baseman Kevin Youkilis becomes the topic of conversation and it's revealed that he's Jewish (which is not really a nationality, but you know what I mean).  Dennis Leary goes nuts, happy that their first baseman is a Jew - "That's fantastic, we got a Jewish first baseman."  Then there's a series of plays in the game in which Youk makes outstanding grabs, and Leary and Clarke go ballistic, screaming about Mel Gibson.  It's hilarious.  Enjoy...

And yes, this event is how I discovered that the starting first baseman all season for the Leonardo Reapers fantasy team is actually Jewish, and that the infamous "Greek God of Walks" nickname bestowed upon him by Billy Beane as described the legendary book Moneyball, is actually a misnomer.  I also discovered that Youk - who is my favorite AL player right now besides Big Papi and Ichiro! - was called "Jewkilis" by the kids in school, at least according to his Wikipedia entry.  Awesome.