VILF indeed.

VILF indeed.

Twilight = No VILFs
True Blood = Lots 'o VILFS

Hope my flight isn't delayed...

Hope my flight isn't delayed...

GalPal was super bummed both Janelle Monáe shows were sold out, and after hearing Lizz RAVE about it I decided I'd better see if I couldn't get into tonight's show. While I was waiting to hear back from her publicist some more tickets were released so we jumped on them (and then I found out I was indeed on the list but when a show is this wildly hyped there's always the chance people on the list will get bumped to make room for ticketholders, so I'm glad we snagged some). Of course it's an earlier show, and my flight doesn't get in until 7:55 p.m., so if ANYTHING goes wrong and I'm delayed all my effort will be for naught. Oh well, even if something happens with me GalPal will get to see the show!

Photo from last night's show by Lizz Kannenberg

NYC + me.

NYC + me.

I'm in New York for work and am struck by how natural it feels to be here. I spent quite a bit of time here when I was unemployed in 2002 and Photogal was living here. When I went out last night to meet friends on the LES I knew exactly how to handle the multi-level subway station and got on the right train almost on autopilot. The LES looks much the same but I was somewhat surprised by how much Williamsburg had changed. When Photogal lived there it was just starting to explode but there still weren't that many bars and you could never find a cab. That is decidedly no longer the case.

So I was on the LES with a friend to see Tally Hall -- a band I haven't seen in YEARS -- play the tiniest bar I think they could possibly play. I was talking to one of the guys in the band before the show and he explained it was sort of a last minute gig, more a present to the band themselves because they'd had so much fun on the road. We grabbed burgers beforehand and the whole time I was out I couldn't help but notice that being in New York just feels so natural to me. When I go to other places for business or pleasure I like to try and fit in but I can't ever shake that feeling of otherness. That's just not the case in New York.

A while ago I was offered the opportunity to relocate out here and I turned it down because I felt I might be too old to uproot myself like that, but this trip made me realize if I ever do move from Chicago that New York would be a natural fit.

Time for your monthly reminder of impending good times!

Time for your monthly reminder of impending good times!

Let's see, tomorrow's the last Saturday of the month? That means I'm DJing at The Continental! With Keep! We'll be there rocking the zeros and ones from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. so, unless you're out of town, there's really no reason we should see your beautiful face at some pint of the evening, right?

It'll be kinda like this...

Very funny mom.

Very funny mom.

My mom forwards tons of email, yours probably does too, and most of it is just amusing links and jokes she comes across. occasionally she'll send along an alarmist internet meme and I'll just to send her the link to a story on Snopes debunking those. Today she sent me one -- one which an internet savvy fellow like myself should have spotted a mile away -- and in the process of gathering the appropriate info to allay her fears, I got this:

So old you can count my age in zeros and ones.

So old you can count my age in zeros and ones.

I was having a pleasant conversation with an old friend I haven't seen in entirely too long and the whole idea of "personal branding" came up. I mentioned that I didn't give it much thought when it came to me, but I did notice the efforts of other. He said, "You've been around for so long in this space your brand is already fully built, so why would you even think about it anymore?"

And he was right, to a point. My brand was built long ago. One plus of being visibly active online for the last 15 years is that a lot of the heavy lifting was done long ago and i was allowed to develop who I am in my own time. And I am extremely thankful for that.

At the same time I do not just blunder blindly along thinking that everything i do is valid because it adds to my "personal brand." I am neither a fool nor do I think THAT highly* of myself. So maybe it wasn't wholly truthful to say I don't give my own "personal brand" that much thought. It would be more precise to say that I give it so much thought that it's just become another reflex, something I do as naturally as breathing. This may be one reason why in those first few awkward moments I meet folks face-to-face in real, breathing life, people are usually somewhat surprised to see I am almost exactly as they expected me to be.

Well, maybe not exactly. Some folks are surprised I'm taller than they would have thought.

And handsome to boot.**

So how about you?

*Take a couple deep breaths. It's true. I have my humble moments.
**Couldn't resist. The humility was wearing on my frame.

Hello Christina!

Hello Christina!

Word is her new album has been delayed (boo!) but judging by the art for its first single she seems to be moving back into edgier territory (yay!).

Watcha got for me?!

Watcha got for me?!

Feelin' restless so throw something my way. Book suggestions, movies I should see, music I should hear, I'm open to it all.

Suckin' down the Airborne...

Suckin' down the Airborne...

Ugh, scratchy throat, chills, feeling yuck, and of course I have a super busy week ahead of me.

Sasha the Cat loves me.

Sasha the Cat loves me.

She does! Purrrrr city!

Fuck yeah Scott Smith!

Fuck yeah Scott Smith!

I was actually going to write about an event that happened yesterday at greater length, and how it's completely unfair when one of the most talented and giving people I know (a true rarity in the media industry, let me tell you) got a raw deal. But then Marcus went and created something that would make such a post completely irrelevant.

People, I present to you A TRIBUTE TO SCOTT SMITH.

Go there NOW.

Pictured: Scott Smith in a really great T-shirt.

Ask away...

Ask away...

It's been a busy week for me so I'm feeling a little lazy today. I have a bunch of internal material I could mine but I simply don't have the energy right now. SO, I'm still answering any and all* questions you want to throw at me, and if you don't feel like asking me anything you can still catch up on the answers I've given over the last few weeks.

But don't JUST be a voyeur, pry a little bit.

Ask me anything.

*O.K., it's true that I skipped the one question that was basically an excuse to impugn a local music critic and an ex-rock star who was once Chicago based. It wasn't so much a question posed to me as an insult thrown at them.

The media walls continue to crumble...

The media walls continue to crumble...

Someone want to spot me a couple hundred bucks so I can run Tankboy ads during Glenn Beck?!

Why am I not at SXSW?

Why am I not at SXSW?

Short answer? What's the point? Nothing gets done.* The longer answer? Well, that's a bit more complicated.

SXSW is fun, there's not doubting that. The last time I went was nine years ago and from what I've heard it just gets crazier every year. And that's awesome. But it also means it's WAY more crowded and with all the parties going on it's hard to decide where to go and this whole hierarchy or people develops and it turns into a bunch of high school cliques holding the "cool" parties everyone wants to get into so everyone ends up standing in line for hours and not really seeing anything. (And the conference itself? Pointless. The music industry is dying and SXSW is tethered to the old model beast at this point -- it's where a lot of the money comes from to support them after all -- so don't expect to actually learn anything at the panels.) So, to an old curmudgeon like me, the whole ordeal seems, at this point, not worth the bother.

However, I may be changing my mind.

It seems that last year was when the music festival reached critical mass, and folks just started to burn out. The after effect is that this year there are no real buzz parties -- well, outside Fader Fort and Stereogum, but if you don't get into those it's no huge deal -- but there are enough parties to keep everyone happy. All the attending bands are playing like seven shows in the next three days, so you have a good chance of seeing who you want. And overall people just seemed to have chilled the fuck out so far this year.

And then there's the main reason you should go to SXSW, the one I had actually forgotten about as i grew old and crotchety, and that is to see bands you've never heard of. To wander in and out of bars up and down 6th Street just sampling the HUGE range of music going on. It's truly a pleasure, and it's a pleasure I had totally forgotten about.And not that I've remembered it I'm a little bummed I'm not in Austin right now, and there's a good chance that I will be there next year.

And that's why I'm not at SXSW.

*Speaking of nothing getting done, from all I can tell zero gets done at the SXSW Interactive festival either. I'm all for going down there to see those folks face to face, but anyone that tells yu there's any grand exchange of ideas or squeezing on mindgrapes is probably just covering up a hangover.**

**Two funny things I've noticed this year about SXSWi versus SXSW music*** is a) Twitter and foursquare were fine during the interactive conference but crashed once the music kids came into town and b) the interactive crowd's idea of a "huge" or "wild" party would mostly be looked upon as failures by the music kids.

***It should be noted also that I've noticed quite a few longtime music friends also attended the interactive conference this year to see if they could glean anything new to help out their industry.

The hidden holiday behind St. Patrick's Day ... revealed!

The hidden holiday behind St. Patrick's Day ... revealed!

St Patrick's Day is awesome and all -- who doesn't love drinking beer and eating corned beef until they explode?* -- but it actually marks another very important date in the calendar year: the end of Gym Resolutionary Season!

Resolutionaries usually start falling off two-thirds of the way through February, but St. Patrick's Day, with it's multiple days of drinking since folks stretch it out to the weekend before or after the actual day, delivers the knock-out punch. The resulting hangover -- be it induced by drink or food -- strips away the last vestiges of any sort of dedication to visits to the gym.

This is aided by the usually burst of nice weather, allowing Resolutionaries to put gym visits on hold by deluding themselves into thinking they will continue their physical activity in the great outdoors. Of course by the time the weather is consistently nice enough for these folks to actually work out in the great outdoors, they've lost all steam and coast into the Summer Street Festival Season ... until next December when the cumulative results of the preceding months cause them to take up the Resolutionary banner and assault people like me all over again!

*Actually let's admit it, St. Patrick's Day is almost as annoying as New Year's Eve. Actually, it's more so, primarily because on NYE most people have the decency to at least dress up and attempt to act like adults at some point in the evening, while on St. Pat's everyone wears ridiculous clothes, throws glitter and whatnot all over, and drinks full throttle before even leaving the house. Fucking amateurs. Does this stop me from going out though? Of course not.

Let's all work together now, shall we?

Let's all work together now, shall we?

The time change is really fucking with me this time around. I'm only sleeping in fits and spurts and while the days seem to stretch on beyond their reasonable boundaries time itself seems to be hurling along unchecked. It's a weird suspended in amber type of feeling. Amber on a bullet train across an arctic summer maybe? Not weather-wise, just disorientation-wise.

Today I took charge and got up at 6 a.m., which to my body felt like 5 a.m., and though I'm usually up not much later than that the shift to the slightly earlier time is surprisingly difficult. I've mastered the art of needing very little sleep over the years, and it's been ages since I needed to sleep in after a late bedtime, but there does seem to be a pre-dawn line my body doesn't want to pass when it comes to meeting a new day for the first time.

Luckily I've been putting my body through a bit of a re-org, so I'm trying to view this internally as just another step towards recalibration. I started watching my diet again about a month ago to shed the winter pounds that snuck onto my frame despite loyal visits to the gym and though there aren't many to lose I can already feel the positive effects of paying more attention to what I eat.

So I'm hoping that if I can just convince this fucked up circadian rhythm that existing in a window an hour earlier is just another step mind and body have to take together it'll be more accepting since it's accompanied by some obviously positive changes.

Hey, I can smell my coffee's ready, so, later.

Image of Hypnos taken by Bryan Jones

Messin' with my circadian rhythms.

Messin' with my circadian rhythms.

I know lots of people are fans, and I too enjoy the additional daylight, but man oh man if the whole "spring forward" clock change doesn't mess up my system and sleep schedule more than when we "fall back."

How well do you adjust? Prefer one over the other?

I'm DJing at 3 p.m., no excuses for not being there!

I'm DJing at 3 p.m., no excuses for not being there!

Claychella. 15+ hours of the city's best DJs. And me.

Ticketmaster could probably use a proofreader.

Ticketmaster could probably use a proofreader.

I don't know who Jakob Fylan and Neko Cast are but...

As usual, cick the image to embiggen if you desire.

With 1986 everything can be free, for a price.

With 1986 everything can be free, for a price.

So I got sent this album by a band I'd never heard of. What a surprise! Well, it was kind of a surprise, actually, since I ended up really liking the album by 1986 Everybody Is Whatever I Think They Are. it's 70% influenced by mid-90s Matador Records and reminds me of when 7-inches were seen as essentials and not marketing gimmicks. There's a dash of Girls Against Boys under a sludged out Chavez, with a healthy heaping serving of '80s Dinosaur Jr, methinks. Decide for yourself, snag a listen to two tracks the band is giving away.

MP3: 1986 "Black Spring"

MP3: 1986 "Undertow"

Did you dig it? Do you think your friends will dig it? If so the band is sort of giving the album away to anyone willing to participate in their Rock And Roll Ponzi Scheme. Hey, TANSTAAFL.