I think the best thing about the show "Weeds" is the fact I'm seeing it with my mom, so I get to ask her questions like "so is she picking up an ounce or just a quarter?" ("Todo, hijo") or her asking me how they're smoking out of an "accordion." Now, I'm turning her onto "The Wire," with subtitles of course. After my sister putting it down more or less for good after one episode, I'm not hoping for much, but mama's showing some promise.

Please, check out this and this trailer. It should be hard to screw up a movie that has Javier Bardem reading Cormac McCarthy, or Daniel Day Lewis monologuing to a baby, but stranger things have happened. It's the '70's all over again!

P.S. That is indeed Herzog crying under those aviators, don't let him convince you otherwise.

There are times where you just have a lot of time. Sometimes, these times can be used constructively, ala Mr. Dessem's blog The Criterion Contraption. Or maybe I'm just one of the few to see such an obsessive and slightly antisocial (sarcasm) venture as "constructive." Anyways, it's fun reading, and makes me wish I was this guy. Seriously, could there be a better job? Well, probably.

P.S. Speaking of time, I'm in one of those sorta non-busy states that I hope will pass. One way of dealing with this is taking a visual inventory of the family store, which means taking passable photographs of EVERY PIECE OF JEWELRY IN THE STORE. This is tedious work. But I also get to play with my dad's microscopes and his microscope lens adapter... the above image is of a blue opal, with very little color boosting. I've got to use this somehow... but how!?

If you are anywhere near my age, you probably remember the countless number of one hit wonders that constituted our pop daily bread and butter back in the day. I mean, is it just me or did pop music in the early-mid 90's, before the corporate boy bands, before the manufactured teenaged girl singers , make for a really diverse breadth of styles, influences, and all around wacked out weirdness? "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow?" "I smell sex and candy?" "I could never be your woman?" This stuff is pre AND post sanjaya.

But most importantly, these were POP songs! These are the songs you still remember the lyrics to! The songs that soundtracked your first dates! The voice cracking! Uh, etc.! This 1990's JAM mix below should either start making you smile uncontrollably ear to ear, or gag. To me, it's a little mix of both.

01. "99 Red Balloons" Nena
02. "Steal My Sunshine" Len
03. "Brimful of Asha" Cornershop
04. "How Bizarre" OMC
05. "Lovefool" Cardigans
06. "Ghetto Supastar" Pras Michel feat. Mya, ODB
07. "Your Woman" White Town
08. "Friends of P" The Rentals
09. "Sex and Candy" Marcy Playground
10. "No Rain" Blind Melon
11. "In the Meantime" Spacehog
12. "Standing Outside a Phonebooth with Money in my Hand" Primitive Radio Gods
13. "Drinking in L.A." Bran Van 3000
14. "Pepper" Butthole Surfers
15. "Peaches" Presidents of the United States of America


(As a side note, in making this list, I realized middle school nostalgia could go on forever. So, these are the true one hit wonders; not the Alanis Morseitte, the Green Day, the STP songs, etc., that seemed to be everywhere too. Also, songs like "Feel So Good" by Mase should really stay in the past. Nostalgia must be diligent.)

Official Best Songs to Run to (in order):

05. "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues" Mclusky
So this is probably the most intense song. Ever. RIP Mclusky
04. "Decepticon" Le Tigre
This really works best tailing 02, specifically sequenced by a feller named Diplo.
03. "Rock & Roll" Daft Punk
Most everything from these guys will get your blood flowing. But the brutal simplicity of this is pretty undeniable. Makes you kinda wish you were a robot. No, a Transformer. I'm pretty sure this is the sound of Optimus Prime's adrenaline. (Deyoung, where are the DP/Transformers videos?!)
02. "B.O.B." Outkast
Apart from the 5 minutes and 4 seconds of pure aural assault this song constitutes, the video features Andre 3000 running down a purple hill being chased by kids.
01. "Yeah (Crass Version)" LCD Soundsystem
If this doesn't get your pulse moving, i.e., make you want to explode in a flaming chernobyl fireball of energy, then you are probably dead. If so, sorry about being dead and all.

Okay so I'm bad at updating. Will fix that. I'm back in the U.S.A. and I've got a variety of projects to work on, so hopefully this productivity will reflect back here. But for the meantime, spring(!) is blossoming and that can only mean one thing: awesome spring music. This mix is heavily indebted to O-dub, so if you don't already check out his site, you are a crazy person. Here's the tracklist:

1. "Smile ft. Wale (Mark Ronson DC remix)"-- Lily Allen
2. "Valerie ft. Amy Winehouse" -- Mark Ronson
3. "International Playa's Anthem"-- UGK ft. Outkast
4. "Mr. Big Stuff"-- Lynn Collins
5. "Kick out the Chairs"-- Munk & James Murphy
6. "D.A.N.C.E."-- Justice
7. "Ice Cream"-- Muscles
8. "The Troglodyte Wins"-- Busdriver
9. "Air"-- Clutchy Hopkins
10. "I Don't Know How"-- The Superlatives
11. "Funky Hi-Life"-- C.K. Mann
12. "Check Yo Bucket"-- Eddie Bo
13. "Peggy"-- Toots and the Maytals
14. "Crimson and Clover"-- The Uniques
15. "Bika Nzanga"-- Le Likembe Geant