Certain bands have a jinx. There were some sad chapters of the Ramones’ final days. The Sex Pistols started out one way and ended up another. The Who were a jinxed group. Elvis was jinxed. Not everyone was the Mills Brothers, where they had no conflict for 55 years. I think for the Runaways, that was part of the fuel — the tension.

Kim Fowley on ‘The Runaways’ film: ‘Every movie needs a villain, and I’m a good one’ | Pop & Hiss | Los Angeles Times

Also striking:

What have you learned about constructing a band versus a band having to be an organic thing?

There’s no difference. It’s all grind. Whether the guys farm themselves or you farm them or it happens like “American Idol,” the public either buys it or they don’t. There’s nothing sacred about the process. 

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Do you have a favourite word? Mine is widdershins.Oh hai there, English spelling giving me away.

northerndownpour:

I’m quite fond of ‘quixotic’ and ‘taciturn.’ Pretty words about feelings = A+.

Ask me anything

I picked up most of my favo(u)rite words as I read Joyce. ‘Saturnine’ and ‘sanguine’ made it into an improbable number of things after I read Ulysses. Also, hey Google Books, nice lookin’ Ulysses!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010   ()

Rock 'n' Roll Metro Map

headphonesnotrequired:

(via spytap)

 Take the “A” train.

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lizlet asked: WHY DO YOU HIDE YOUR CANADIAN HERITAGE? ARE YOU ASHAMED OR SOMETHING?

If I have totes legit Canadian heritage I’m unaware of it. I’m an American mutt - you can find the English, German and Scottish first (my middle name is Murray, like the clan) but I’m a Daughter of the Revolution. I’ve found traveling to and living in other countries inspiring, soothing and invigorating in turns but there’s inevitably a moment where I look at my American passport and know that’s my passport for life.

Metaphorically. My current passport expires in 2011.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010   ()

Anonymous asked: ARE YOU CANADIAN?

Not yet.

I should add: I find the persistent rumor that I’m secretly Canadian to be hilarious.

Monday, March 8, 2010   ()
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

headphonesnotrequired:

hndrk:

Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill

Well, you can’t get what you want / But you can get me / So let’s set up and see / ’Cause you are my medicine / When you’re close to me

 I want to listen to this on repeat while I float in a pool.

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The American public needs to know that soldiers don’t stop being humans when they put on a uniform and go to war, and in that mission, The Hurt Locker succeeds.

An Iraq Veteran who Didn’t Hate The Hurt Locker—And Isn’t Suing it Either! | Little Gold Men | Vanity Fair
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In contrast to the Bolsheviks, Zhivago’s ethos, if he had one, was almost identical to Kant’s `categorical imperative,’ which had just one axiom: treat people as ends in themselves, and not as ends to a mean. There couldn’t be a sharper moral contrast.

Doctor Zhivago (1965) - IMDb user reviews

I love the user submitted reviews on IMDB.

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lizlet: oh-go-on-then: filthyrebellion: amiulysses: The Goth Detectives I would watch this show once a day, and then twice on Sundays. I would also probably start a fanzine about it. YES

lizlet:

oh-go-on-then:

filthyrebellion:

amiulysses:

The Goth Detectives

I would watch this show once a day, and then twice on Sundays. I would also probably start a fanzine about it.

YES

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We have to fight to get the attention through the media so people see the important issues around the world. We must bring the problems up to many different platforms. This is how MSF sustains solidarity and support from the donor community. Many of our ongoing projects are not on the top 10 of world emergencies, but they deserve continued support because they are long-term problems.
MSF has a balance, about half of our resources go to the disasters that create immediate health emergencies. And about half goes to the long-term health problems.
It is difficult. We cannot solve all the problems as quickly as we would like. But it is rewarding work and we are grateful that there are so many generous people to help us in this work.

Marie-Noelle Rodrigue, deputy director of operations for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

From “Quakes And Disasters: How to Help” on GlobalPost.

(via doctorswithoutborders)

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One of the paradoxical implications of this research is that reading this article probably made your insomnia worse. So did that Ambien advertisement on television, or the brief conversation you had with a friend about lying awake in bed, or that newspaper article about the mental benefits of R.E.M. sleep. Because insomnia is triggered, at least in part, by anxiety about insomnia, the worst thing we can do is think about not being able to sleep; the diagnosis exacerbates the disease. And that’s why this frustrating condition will never have a perfect medical cure. Insomnia is ultimately a side-effect of our consciousness, the price we pay for being so incessantly self-aware. It is, perhaps, the quintessential human frailty, a reminder that the Promethean talent of the human mind — this strange ability to think about itself — is both a blessing and a burden.

Mind Games - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com (via seventeen76)
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Data lock-in isn’t bad just for users; Fitzpatrick argues that it’s also bad for Google. “If you create a user base that’s locked in,” he says, “there’s no way you’re not going to become complacent.

Why Google makes it easy to leave Google

Yessssssss. Myspace, Facebook and even Tumblr make it ridiculously difficult to import and export data, which makes me unwilling to comprehensively populate them with the things I want to keep for good.

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Mitsuwa Marketplace

turnabout:

inothernews:

absurdlakefront:

Cool place of this last weekend:  Mitsuwa.  It’s Japanese grocery with a food court in Arlington Heights.

There’s also one in Edgewater, New Jersey (sandwiched, sorta, between Fort Lee and Weehawken) and right near a Trader Joe’s.  I find it neat that there are only seven of them in the entire United States and that one’s right here in the NYC metro area.

And there’s a shuttle bus from Port Authority! (I find the fact that stores in Jersey and Long Island regularly do this hilarious.) Of course, it looks like some store hopping to places like Kinokuniya and Takashimaya in Manhattan could get you most of the stuff they have. But then it’s not an excursion!

I was incredibly happy to discover the Mitsuwa around the corner from me in LA. I might have gone overboard the first few times there.

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me: It’s going to be all Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky in the figure skating next time won’t it? A: Yep. All Firebird, all the time. me: He wrote some other beautiful and musically dynamic ballets, I swear!

turnabout is fair play.: next time in sochi

We should start a betting pool. 1439 days until the pool closes.

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Plans for the apocalypse; part 2

katyisntfunny:

10) When we get back to LA, Bronwyn and I (and our friends/family) will make Amoeba our fortress, and we’ll make ourselves responsible for preserving culture.  First, music.  Second, museums.  We’ll have outposts at each museum, and will try to save as much as we can, but will make sure we save at least one piece by each of the great artists.

11) Get a semi and ship all of the art and music up to Alcatraz, which will probably become our fortress ultimately.

I claim the Getty outpost.

Sunday, February 28, 2010 — 3 notes   ()
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