California

I'll be down in Davis, Ca for the next few days checking out the UC-Davis campus and the area. Why? you ask. Well, looks like I will be moving to Davis by the summer to start an exciting new life as a postdoc. Woo! Woo indeed.

And seeing I won't be around to post my iPod Top 10, I thought I'd do it now.
Enjoy!

10 When You Wasn't Famous - the Streets
9 Once, A Glimpse - Maximo Park
8 Me Too - the Clipse
7 I Will See You in Far Off Places - Morrissey
6 The Ballad of the Sin Eater - Ted Leo/Pharmacists
5 Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby - Islands
4 Emily Kane - Art Brut
3 Like U Crazy - Mates of State
2 Y.M.M.W.D.S.B. - Mon Frere
1 Walk Through the Fire - The Cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

If I haven't mentioned it, the new Islands album Return to the Sea is the bomb. Kaplow!

Designing a nervous breakdown

It's been one of those weeks.

Leave for Davis on Thursday AM to decide the next phase of my life. Woo.

Here is a new review! The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea. Enjoy!

The Devil & Daniel Johnston

I saw The Devil & Daniel Johnston last night. It was quite good, kind of depressing and full of lots of familiar songs. One of my all-time favorite songs has always been "Speeding Motorcycle" done by Yo La Tengo with Daniel calling in to do the vocals. Something about his vocals are so captivating, like he's talking directly to us. I also realized that one of my favorite early Built to Spill songs, "Some Things Last a Long Time", is also penned by Johnston. If the movie plays near you, you should go enjoy it with people you like, like I did.

PDX, Corvallis and the top 10

I'm off to Oregon to visit with folks. First to Portland (a poor man's Seattle. Or, apparently these days, an indie rock haven with the likes of Stephen Malkmus, Janet Weiss, Decemberists, etc all hanging out and about) and then to Corvallis (why do I keep going back there? It's got to be the Corvallis vortex I tell you.) Busy weekend.

For those of you keeping track, here is my current iPod top 10. Buffy holds the top spot, but lots of new entries.

10 Thieves (Live) - Ministry
9 Once, A Glimpse - Maximo Park
8 Me Too - the Clipse
7 Theme from Doctor Who (Belgian Jazz Version) - Bill Bailey
6 Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby - the Islands
5 The Ballad of the Sin Eater - Ted Leo/Pharmacists
4 Emily Kane - Art Brut
3 Y.M.M.W.D.S.B. - Mon Frere
2 Like U Crazy - Mates of State
1 Walk Through the Fire - Cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Yes, Thursday

Again ...

Myspace, Friendster and the Vortex of Evil.

So, you might have heard of myspace.com and friendster. Social networking for people on the web. Seems like a good idea right? People these days mostly have no idea how to meet people in real life, especially us nerds. However. However. However, I'd like to argue they are all EVIL. They are time burglars. They make people in stalkers whether they know it or not. So, I've decided to exile myself from these places until the summer. Thats my goal. Actions are being taken to make sure this is fulfilled. It will happen. Just you wait. At some point, they will be useful to me and to other. Until then, adios to the vortex of evil.

Major League Turnover

Just for kicks, I checked how many players are left on the World Series winning teams since 2000. Here's the list!
Number of total players refers to all players who appeared for the team that year.
* indicates player left team and then returned

2000 New York Yankees: 8.7% - 4 out of 46 (M. Rivera, D. Jeter, J. Posada, B. Williams)
2001 Arizona Diamondbacks: 6.3% - 3 out of 48 (M. Batista*, C. Counsell*, L. Gonzalez)
2002 Anaheim Angels: 24.3% - 10 out of 41 (B. Donnelly, J. Lackey, F. Rodriguez, S. Shields, J. Molina, C. Figgins, A. Kennedy, G. Anderson, D. Erstad, T. Salmon)
2003 Florida Marlins - 5% - 2 out of 40 (D. Willis, M. Cabrera)
2004 Boston Red Sox - 24% - 12 out of 50 (A. Alvarez, L. DiNardo, K. Foulke, C. Schilling, M. Timlin, T. Wakefield, J. Varitek, K. Youkilis, G. Kapler*, T. Nixon, M. Ramirez, D. Ortiz)

Lots of music to deal with these days.

Good weekend.

I've gotten a bevy of new CDs to deal with for the website. Look forward to reviews of the following:

Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
Quasi - When the Going Gets Darks
Mon Frere - Blood, Sweat & Swords
Mates of State - Bring It Back
Rainer Maria- Catastrophe Brings Us Together
Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital

Anybody want to get Manny Ramirez hitting again? Jeez, its 2 weeks into the season and he still doesn't have an extra base hit. Damn you, Manny! But thank god for Chris Shelton picking up the slack for the King County Felons.

Return of the iPod Top 10

It's been a weird, mostly good week here in ICYI world. I'll elaborate in the future.

In the meantime ...

I just got the new Built to Spill album, and dang, its good.
New TIG review for you to peruse: The Middle Wages - The Middle Wages.

And, my current iPod top 10. It's odd.

10 Blue Light (Engineer's Anti-Gravity Mix) - Bloc Party
9 Doctor Who (Belgian Jazz Version) - Bill Bailey
8 A Minor Incident - Badly Drawn Boy
7 Emily Kane - Art Brut
6 Shoehorn with Teeth - They Might Be Giants
5 Goin' Against Your Mind - Built to Spill
4 Dry Drunk Emporer - TV on the Radio
3 Postcards & Letters - Tiger Saw
2 Thieves (Live) - Ministry
1 Walk Through the Fire - Cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Indeed!

New Review

I'll keep updating my review list while I re-energize to continue this thing.

Here it is...enjoy (even if Jessica won't read any)
Vitalic - OK Cowboy

Break time

Ions are taking a break for a while while I figure out, you know, life.

Yes, it's true

Your humble writer has been handed his walking papers by TGIF. If you couldn't guess, it came as a bit of a surprise to me. I personally thought things were going quite well between us, and really they were. However, this is where the "relationship is two people" thing kicks in and she decided that she couldn't fully commit the "way I needed her to". So, more or less, she liked me, but not enough to want to become "girlfriend". Apparently, in her mind, I wasn't long-term material for whatever reason. Yes, we have our differences - I tend to like to plan things out, she likes to be more spontaneous; when I like someone, I want to be with them a lot, she is used to being wholly independent. In my mind, not huge differences, but she thinks otherwise.

So, here I am. I have half a mind to give up on this whole relationship business. As I see all my friends pair off in marriages or longterm relationships, yet I continue to get the "I like you, but not enough speech" (4 girls in a row now!) I begin to wonder if its something I'm doing wrong. My friend Ashley seems to think that maybe I'm too nice and girls want the challenge of taming a wild man. I think thats bollocks because all the girls I talk to complain that they can't "meet a nice guy". Hello? Right here, ladies.

Seattle may have run its course with me. Might be time to move on. However, part of me doesn't want to do that because I feel like I'm just wandering from place to place every time something like this happens. Sometimes I think I made some fundamental mistakes that I wish I could take back with certain people, but hey, unless I do anything about it, I guess I'll never know. (Ok, that was odd and vague, eh?)

TGIF just dumped me.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Here we are in April...and I am a mere 2 DVDs away from having watching all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 1 through 7, in order. Started in November. Really, other than season 5 (the one with Glory as the Big Bad), the show is still darn good. I'm especially surprised about how much I've liked season 7 as when I saw it when it was firstrun, I remember thinking that I felt like a trainwreck. Hmmm. I forgot how much I enjoyed Principal Wood, too. I'm just dreading the series finale as that I definitely remember being disappointed by. Not as much as I was disappointed by the X-Files series finale, but still ...

New Review

Here's something a little different - My review of four new singles by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Morrissey, Built to Spill & the Streets. Enjoy!