VAGUE SPACE

Happy Halloween

The Shankill Butchers ride tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They're sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint.

They used to be just like me and you.
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy.

The Shankill Butchers on the rise.
They're waiting 'til the dead of the night
They're picking at their fingers with their knives,
And wiping off their cleavers on their thighs.

'Cause everybody knows
If you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers want to catch you awake

• Download The Decemberists - "Shankill Butchers".mp3

A whole boatload of scary Halloween music mp3 goodness after the jump but here's a very special one off the brand new and as expected awesome Bright Eyes rarities collection Noise Floor, which I will review later this week. This one is called "Devil Town" and comes off a Daniel Johnston tribute compilation. 

• Download Bright Eyes - "Devil Town".mp3

Sawyer's Pacemaker

We're back in Others' prison central on this week's Lost, which focuses prominently on Sawyer, whose ingenious plan - in an alternative universe, where people are really, really dumb - for escape by shocking Ben with his little automated food delivery system doesn't work because he's being observed and Ben heard his horrendously simplistic plot and turned off the machine.  Then Ben beats the crap out of him.  You know, I really like Sawyer, unlike some other prominent members of the cast (thank god this was a Charlie-free episode), but when the writers make him act that stupid, it doesn't really help matters.  On the bright side, the flashback shows him outwitting some guy who outwitted the feds out of $10 million, so maybe he just got really dumb on the island.  Or maybe the flashbacks just have absolutely nothing to do with the actual show anymore and they should get rid of the stupid shit since we pretty much know all the characters by now.  It could go either way I guess.

Sleep Writing

The below is my first "long" assignment for my writing class.  We were to write something about our individual writing.  I chose to write about sleep, or lack thereof, and its influence on my writing.  I was one of the few in the class not required by the professor for a re-write, so that's a good sign.  He won't grade the assignment until the end of the semester though.  Anyway, enjoy.  But be forewarned, it's long.  It was 8 pages.

                Sleeping is giving in.  No matter what the time is.
                Sleeping is giving in.  So lift those heavy eyelids.
                People say that you'll die, faster than without water.
                But we know it's just a lie, scare your son, scare your daughter. 

                                    "Rebellion (Lies)" by The Arcade Fire

This summer I took a fiction writing workshop on a rainy day in midtown Manhattan, the first class specifically for writing that I’d participated in since junior high school. I’m not sure what I learned exactly, besides how pleasant it was to be in a classroom full of people unashamed of their love for reading and writing, but a particular piece of conventional wisdom stuck in my mind, regarding the time of day most writers write.

“Published authors tend to write in the morning,” the instructor said. “Aspiring novelists write at night.”

Student Teacher Relations

This week's South Park tackles the suddenly ubiquitous subject of attractive female teachers having sex with male students, but does it in as least tactful and most disturbing way as possible.  Of course, anything else would have been a surprise.  The side story features Cartman installed as a hall monitor, and the power of the position, as usual, goes straight to his head.  His initial run-in with the current hall monitor doesn't go so well though:

• Hall Monitor:  "I've been instructed to bring you to the principal's office."
• Cartman: "Oh suck my balls, you ginger jew rat hall monitor.  You punk ass stooly, who the fuck do you think you are?"

That's the Cartman we know and love.

The Departed

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg
Rating:  3 1/2 stars (out of 4)

This was a difficult movie to evaluate.  Was it a modern classic featuring superstar talents and a superstar director at the top of his game, or was it just an overblown good cop/bad cop/undercover cop story that we've seen a hundred times before, merely elevated by an excellent cast and director?  I'm still not sure, but based on my rating, I'd lean toward the former.  And for the first half of the movie, this was a 4-star tour-de-force of acting and storytelling, and I was thorougly entertained.  Things kind of bogged down a bit and stretched out and an extended ending didn't quite have the impact that I was hoping for based on the great buildup.  But it's still one of the best movies I've seen this year. 

New Music Monday

The results of the poll showed that while the "sarcastic stories about friends" were a close second, the favorite blog posts are indie rock mp3 downloads.  So as a reward, here's a quick note on some new CDs I've recently purchased, some of which I've already reviewed, and the accompanying mp3s.

• The Decemberists: The Crane Wife  Rating: 8.2 (out of 10).  A very good album, although the songs seem out of order, with a bunch of excellent tracks.  One of the band's strongest efforts, despite being on a major label now.  Here are some tracks that didn't make the album, but have made the Internet.
  • Download The Decemberists - "Culling of the Fold".mp3
  • Download The Decemberists - "After the Bombs".mp3

NOTE: Sirius is offering a FREE TRIAL on the Internet to its service for two days, October 25th and 26th.  Sirius is not paying me for saying this (I wish), but I highly, highly recommend checking it out.  Sirius Left of Center 26 plays the best new and classic indie rock songs, and of course, Howard Stern is on channels 100 and 101, all day every day.  If you are a fan, see what you've been missing. Cick here to sign up -- it's absolutely free for 2 days!

R U

R.....U..... R.....U.....  R..... U......
Upstream.
Red team.
Red team.
Upstream.
Rah, rah Rutgers rah!

All right, that's the sum total of cheers I remember from five years of schooling at Rutgers (and admittedly most of that memory comes from attendance at Rutgers basketball games rooting for Syracuse when we played at the RAC --  I mean "we" as in Syracuse, the school I didn't attend but have rooted for since 1986, not the "we" as in Rutgers, the school that took $50K of my money for a degree that I hope not to have to use in the near future... let's just move on). 

Anyway, 7-0 after the big win at Pitt last night.  Go Rutgers!  I am officially on the bandwagon, which pretty much means they will lose to UConn next week. 

By the way, both the Syracuse and Louisville games in November have sold out to the general public, marking the first time in history two games in the same season have sold out the 41,500 seat new Rutgers stadium (open since 1994).  Wow.

The First Vague Space Poll

Please vote whether you are a regular reader or not.  Vague Space may soon start to suffer from less daily content with the start of my new job (although my previous warning of less content with the start of my class didn't happen), so it would be good to know which content will not be missed.  Any other info or suggestions can be added to the comments section.  Thanks again to all the readers.   This poll will be up all weekend.  Sorry Lenny, no Raiders cheerleaders.

Which regular feature of Vague Space do you like the best? Free indie rock mp3s Sports related columns Movie/Television reviews Indie rock album reviews Political content Personal commentary/writing stuff Sarcastic posts about an event with my friends   Free polls from Pollhost.com

Black

I’m coming into your town. Night is falling to the ground, but I can still see where you loved yourself before he tore it all down. April 12th, with nobody else around; you were outside the house (where’s your mother?).

When he put you in the car, when he took you down the road. Well I can still see where it was open, the door he slammed closed. It was open, the door he slammed closed. It was open, long ago.

But don’t lose me now, don’t lose me now. Though I know that I’m not useful anyhow, just let me stick around while I tell you, like before, you should say his name the way that he said yours. But you don't want to say his name anymore. Oh, Cynda Moore.

Baby daughter on the road, wrapped up warm in daddy’s coat. And I can still see the cigarette’s heat. I can’t believe all that you're telling me, what is cutting like the smoke through your teeth as you are telling me “forget it.”

But if I could tear his throat, and spill his blood between my jaws, and erase his name for good, don’t you know that I would? Don't you realize I wouldn’t pause, that I would cut him down with my claws if I could have somehow never let that happen?

Or I’d call, some black midnight, fuck up his new life where they don’t know what he did, tell his brand-new wife and his second kid. Though I tell you, like before, that you should wreck his life the way that he wrecked yours, you want no part of his life anymore. Oh Cynda Moore.

Don’t lose me now, let me help you out. Though I know that I can’t help you anyhow, when I watch you I’m proud. When I tell you like before that you should wreck his life the way that he wrecked yours, you want no part of his life anymore. Oh Cynda Moore. And it’ll never be the way it was before, but I wish that you would let me through that door. Let me through that door...

• Download Okkervil River - "Black" (live).mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "The War Criminal Rises and Speaks" (live).mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "Red" (live).mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "For Real" (live).mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "O Dana" (live).mp3

The Blind Side

Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball several years ago, and it almost single-handedly changed the way mainstream analysts cover baseball.  It was the story of Billy Beane and the A's and how a small-market team kept winning despite lower payrolls than their division rivals.  It was the story of finding market inefficiences, frequently resulting from horrible analysis by people being paid huge sums of money to evaluate player abilities.  Those of us who have long ago embraced sabermetrics - the statistical study of baseball first developed by Bill James in the early '80s - obviously flocked to the book, and Beane has since become the patron saint of the movement, the rare GM able to understand the value of OBP over batting average long before Fox announcers ever recognized this fact.  Hell, Joe Morgan still doesn't realize it, and many old-time writers and analysts have had a huge negative reaction to Beane's success, and to Moneyball's.  So yeah, this little baseball book turned into quite the phenomenon. 

Which brings us to The Blind Side, Michael Lewis's second release since Moneyball.  I didn't read Coach, the story of the lessons Lewis learned from his high school basketball coach, but I heard it was good.  The Blind Side was excellent.  Ostensibly the story of the left tackle position in football, Lewis uses that as a jumping off point for the amazing tale of Michael Oher, a Tennessee high school kid who goes from a poverty-stricken childhood in West Memphis to the most highly recruited offensive lineman in the country, despite only ever playing a handful of football games in his life.  It truly is an incredible story, and Lewis tells it well.