Friday, February 14th, 2003

There's Nothing Wrong With Love

There was a Valentine’s Day tradition started about five years ago where the single and lovelorn amongst my university friends would get together on the 14th and play road hockey. It was fun. It started out as some pick-up with three of us and some kids who lived on Sudeep’s street, but one year it was a full-on tourney in the parking lot with subs and everything (okay, not everyone was single or lovelorn, but the more the merrier and a lot of us knew why we were there). We only actually did this for two or three years… after university, getting together to play road hockey wasn’t really practical and another consideration was that there were fewer and fewer of us who qualified for the event. This year, we may get as far as me bouncing a tennis ball on my stick. Certainly makes getting things organized a lot easier, anyway.

Somewhere between point A and point B, a whole mess of people got married or engaged or otherwise in some sort of long-term arrangement with someone lacking a Y-chromosone. Which is cool, really. I’m not the sort of person who begrudges others happiness because misery loves company or whatever. I guess I’m just a little envious. Or a lot, depending on the measuring stick you’re using.

Valentine’s Day seems to split people into two camps – those who embrace it, in all its crass commercialism and manufactured sentimentality, and those who reject it for those very reasons. The latter camp absolutely have a point. Why the hell should someone feel obliged to express their feelings for a significant other in some materialistic manner just because the greeting card industry needs some revenue stream in February? Well you’ll either care because you want to, or not care. Do people get all glum on Secretary’s Day if they don’t have a personal assistant? Yeah, I recognize that philosophy is a little at odds with my posting this particular entry on this particular day, but whatever. I don’t hate Valentine’s Day. It means nothing to me, it’s just another day like every other day, but I do wish that didn’t always have to be the case.

np – The Magnetic Fields / 69 Love Songs, Volume 1

By : Frank Yang at 10:47 am No Comments facebook
Friday, February 14th, 2003

I'll Be Your Lampshade

In happy news, Beulah have decided NOT to split after the next record and tour. In their own words, “We just read an online article that said we’re gonna be breaking up after the release of our next record. This news made all of us so sad that we’ve decided to stay together until each of us die.” No mention that the online article took the announcement directly from their own website… but anyway. Long live Beulah!

I installed Soulseek last night, as it appears to be the new P2P music-downloading software du jour. It’s small and seems to work well – I just couldn’t think of a damn thing I wanted to download. In fact, I went in and deleted a whack of mp3s I never listen to. But hopefully it’ll be better than Kazaa, which is pretty much poop for finding the music I want to hear.

So happy Valentine’s Day. More on that later.

np – Superchunk / Foolish

By : Frank Yang at 10:13 am No Comments facebook
Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Shaving Spiders

Superdrag are in town on Monday! Too bad they’re supporting Paul Weller – which isn’t meant to imply I don’t like Paul Weller, I have utmost respect for the modfather, but that’s priced way out of my range for really only wanting to see the opening act. And anyway, that’s Sleater-Kinney night.

Band rehearsal started off well enough tonight, some pretty dang good run throughs of a few songs, but things gradually deteriorated into farce. Mildy productive on a couple points, amidst all the goofing around.

I have spent all day feeling like it’s Friday. But it’s not. Which means I still have to go to work tomorrow. How disappointing. But I am giving myself Monday off (taking a proper vacation day, not playing hooky), so that’s something to look forward to.

np – The Olivia Tremor Control / Singles : Presents And Beyond

By : Frank Yang at 10:26 pm No Comments facebook
Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Click For United Way

I think this is legit. Give it a go, either way.

Click For United Way

np – Death Cab For Cutie / Stability

By : Frank Yang at 4:04 pm No Comments facebook
Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Greetings To The New Brunette

Daniel Johnston is opening up for Yo La Tengo, along with Portastatic. This’ll be a good one! Tickets on sale today.

Daredevil is taking a bit of a billy club beating in the early Rotten Tomatoes reviews. There should be a more solid picture tomorrow, when the rest of the media outlets run their reviews, but it doesn’t look good in the early going.

Is it wrong that I sort of want to see Old School? Coming Attractions actually gives it a good review, for the genre… Come on – it’s got Luke Wilson AND Jeremy Piven? Everybody loves Jeremy Piven.

np – Billy Bragg / Victim Of Geography

By : Frank Yang at 9:52 am No Comments facebook