Paul Revere

It's going to be a big week people: Gossip Girl season premiere tomorrow, then the new 90210 on Tuesday. Due to San Diego broadcasting shenanigans, I of course can't actually watch them live like a normal person. If the CW is smart, they will appease me by streaming it. But fear not, one way or another I will persevere. After all, who's been talking at you about 90210 and Gossip Girl for freakin' ever? You're welcome.

Click on any of these to see full size.

Anyway, it's a long weekend, which means I'm doing the same thing I'm always doing all weekend and all week, mad work. However, I also have taken time out for crafting, hence the title of this post (I always name my craft posts after tracks from Licensed to Ill, and while this one doesn't work at all, it was the first one I thought of).

I actually didn't mean to do crafts stuff. I was looking for my digital camera, and never found it, but in the process wound up digging through basically everything I own. I came to the conclusion in this process that I own some great stuff that I have stored in random places, like my collection of heavy metal buttons and tons upon tons of cell phone charms (photo 1). This made me decide that I wanted to display some of this stuff, since normally what happens is I put it on my desk, then decide my desk looks too cluttered, then put the stuff away in one of my drawers, then forget it's there.

I decided to rectify this situation by putting up some kind of board I could tack stuff to. Being totally cheap though, I decided that $10 or less was too much to pay. And besides, in my extensive search through my stuff, I found the detritus of numerous different craft projects (photo 2). And so I embarked upon creating my own board -- there are lots of decent instructions for this kind of project on the internet like here and here, but you know how I roll, I totally winged it.

Here's what I used: Two old cardboard boxes (I save all boxes due to my serious-ass moving issues); about two yards of white denim (saved from a bag I made like six years ago); fabric-covered buttons my mom made but then didn't use when she reupholstered a chair for me; tons of assorted ribbons (some also left over from chair project, others from me like saving ribbons from packages) -- I think that's it. Oh no wait, duh -- my big moment of inspiration was when to make it thicker I decided to stuff it with the legs from a pair of jeans I'd made into cutoffs (photo 3). I did briefly consider just going to Michael's or something and buying quilt stuffing, but that would have ruined the whole using-stuff-from-around-the-house thing. I also considered stuffing it with hair from my dog (she sheds like crazy) but then realized that would be totally gross.

I also used regular stuff -- scissors, a glue gun, one of those paper tape measures they give you at IKEA, needles, thread, whatever. So what did I do? I glued one of the pieces of cardboard to a piece of the white denim, cut it, and wrapped the fabric around the corners. Then I spent a while measuring out where I wanted the buttons, marking those spots, then laying the ribbons across them, pinning, and cutting them. Then I used the glue gun to wrap the ends of the ribbon around the edges and glue them down. The next part sucked the most: I sewed the buttons through the ribbons and cardboard, then removed the pins. At that point, I took the other piece of cardboard, wrapped that in white denim, and glued all of that to the back -- this reinforced it, making it stiff enough to stand, as well as covering up all the stitching, ribbon ends, etc. And then -- voila! (photo 4).

I did actually leave it plain overnight, then put up the stuff on it just this morning. I erred on the side of less, to leave room for more new stuff, and also figuring I can switch it up from time to time. I'm definitely pleased with the results though (photo 5) -- my desk pretty much faces into the corner, so this is nicer to look at than just the wall (which I avoid hanging stuff on, between earthquakes and the fact that it's a rental). Anyway. It probably was technically way more than $10 in material and certainly more than $10 worth of labor, but I think worth it for being unique and for reusing stuff I already have. I feel possibly a bit of a crafting spree coming on! Uh-ohhhhhhhhhh!

P.S: No, I never did find the digital camera. Pics here are taken on one I borrowed from a friend.

August iPod Shuffle Mix!

So I just realized August is pretty much over. Noes! Back to school in less than a month! (Though to be real about it, if I could be back to school now and then not have to be in school for the entire month of June, I would do it in a heartbeat.) Anyway, before the month is out ... further selections from my iPod shuffle!

Starting this month I'm also giving it a new look -- I like adding photos to things, even if it makes blogging into an even bigger WOT sometimes. Plus for some reason it makes it more like a mixtape for me -- I know, I know, it says iPod, but in my mind, it's a mixtape. And to clear up any confusion -- while I do pull songs randomly, I do try to put them into some sort of order that makes sense. At least to me.

1. Frida, "I Know There's Something Going On"
Half of Abba + Phil Collins = Awesome. This is one of those songs that I spent years getting in my head and being like, "what is that?" and then not looking up what it was since you know I'm obsessed with doing things the hard way. For real, just spend some time listening to this and "Easy Lover" and you'll forgive Phil Collins anything, even "I Can't Dance." Also let me mention Phil Collins' mulleted star turn on Miami Vice! At this point, I think I'm incapable of saying anything bad about the man.

2. The Who, "Eminence Front"
You know how classic rock bands' potential fates in the 80s is one of my favorite topics, yes? Well this song (as well as arguably "Let My Love Open the Door" even though that's a solo Pete Townshend song) prove that the Who were totally capable of making good music in the 80s. Between the guitar and the keyboard on this song, I could totally envision in being played in Miami Vice... mmm, Miami Vice.

3. Richard Hell and the Voidoids, "Blank Generation"
Okay, everyone had better already know and love this song, since it is like, one of the most classic songs ever. Ever. I'm not messing around with this one. Also I think I have it on some compilations as well as from the album (wait can I mention I love the cover of this album?) so it's not shocking it came up. Fun Richard Hell fact: In Desperately Seeking Susan (one of my all-time favorite movies btw), Richard Hell is the guy Madonna wakes up with in Atlantic City who turns out to be a jewel thief. You only ever really see the villainous blonde guy in the movie, but Richard Hell is totally his partner.

4. The Psychedelic Furs, "The Ghost in You"
How anyone can not like the Furs is beyond me. Pretty much all their love songs contain an element that is confusing, vaguely gothic, or simply very open to interpretation, and I kind of love that. Also the instrumentation in this song is great.

5. ODB, "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"
Now I can not hear this song without thinking of various Freaks and Geeks alums dancing around at the beginning of Knocked Up. Come to think, the piano in this song would make an excellent ring tone. Hmm.... Also scary -- I still have those Rap Snacks.

6. Missy Elliott feat. Ciara and Fatman Scoop, "Lose Control"
This is one of those songs where for an entire summer, every car in Harlem appeared to be playing it at a loud volume every day. And inevitably every day I would be like, "whoa, someone's listening to 'Looking for the Perfect Beat.'" Then like eighty-eight months later I finally heard this song and was like, "ohhhh." So see, sometimes I expand my frame of reference beyond the 1980s. Beyond the 90s even!

7. Loverboy, "Turn Me Loose"
The one good thing about the movie Wet Hot American Summer was that it reminded me of how awesome this song is. Contrary to the Mooninites' point of view that Loverboy has "always sucked," I would have to agree with Carl that at times they "kick ass." I mean, there are much cheesier Loverboy songs on my iPod than this one.

8. Motley Crue, "Smokin' in the Boys' Room"
Motley Crue do basically nothing different with the Brownsville Station original except for changing one line to "my buddies Sixx, Mick, and Tom." That's okay though I think. For one, the original is really good. For two, it has nothing to do with the song, but I like the band's look for Theater of Pain. Polka dots + Nikki Sixx = Win.

9. Dennis Coffey, "Theme from Black Belt Jones"
This is only slightly related, but I just recently finally watched Hollywood Shuffle (having seen only the "Black Acting School" clip a zillion times). You should watch it (click the link on the title), it's really good if really depressing. I've never seen the movie this song comes from, but I have to say if nothing else, the music was pretty awesome. Also, while we're on the subject of blaxploitation, you can also watch the Coolio star vehicle Phat Beach on Hulu while you're at it.

10. The Anything People, "Safe Distance"
I was just listening to this album the other day, and I've got to say unlike other white dude alt rap stuff (e.g. Aesop Rock) I never get sick of this. A lot of it is that the production on every track is crazy -- all dark and synthy, which I totally love. They don't have any videos, but the link is to a video featuring the same two guys -- here's a link to TAP's MySpace page to actually hear them.

11. The Cars, "Since You're Gone"
A lot of sort of sad 80s songs this month, huh? I like this song a lot though -- the guitar part in particular. It is one of my regrets that during my time at Vassar I never spotted Ric Ocasek -- he lives in one of the tony upstate towns nearby, and people would like, see him at the supermarket. Alas, not I.

12. The Charmels, "As Long As I've Got You"
Recognize just the first 15 seconds or so of this song? Of course you do. Besides the instrumentation though, I like this song a lot as just a really good R&B love song.

13. The Traveling Wilburys, "Handle With Care"
Has this song come up before? Possibly I just feel like it has. I really like this song -- surprising until you remember my frequent "Jeff Lynne is such an amazing producer" rants. Also with George Harrison singing the verses and Roy Orbison the chorus, can you really hate this song? Really?

14. The Vibrators, "Baby, Baby"
This song is definitely a candidate for a desert island song, that's how good it is. Seriously. Listen. It's amazing. The guitar at the beginning totally stops me in my tracks every time. It's as if a noise rock band were able to write the perfect pop love song.

15. The Plimsouls, "A Million Miles Away"
Another movie song -- Valley Girl. It's weird, even though the girl in that movie is obnoxious and looks about forty, and Nicolas Cage's character is pretty unappealing and looks like Nicolas Cage, somehow put together that love story plus this song and I get all emotiony every time I hear it! So weird.

16. Ministry, "Just One Fix"
Al Jourgenson's birthday is the day before mine. Sorry, pointless, I know, but it's always the Ministry fun fact I think of first. I like this entire album quite a bit. Since it's from the 90s, I've even heard it on the radio in San Diego, something that actually scores a point for San Diego.

17. Testament, "Trial by Fire"
I've never quite felt the same about Testament ever since reading this thing where they all went on the Nutrisystem diet together. For some reason, that weirded me out. At the same time though, it totally fits with my image of Testament -- even though they're a thrash band, unlike other bands (*cough* Metallica) they totally don't take themselves too seriously. Actually, they seem to have quite a sense of humor about basically everything. Even in the video for this song they seem on the verge of cracking up sometimes. I guess that's just how they roll.

18. A Flock of Seagulls, "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)"
Ignore the haircuts for a second. For real! This song is incredible. It is probably one of my favorite songs from the 80s, and since as you well know most of the songs I like are from the 80, that is saying a lot. If you close your eyes and just ignore the haircuts, it's totally amazing and heartbreaking... and the synthesizers are pretty dope too.

19. The Fun Boy Three, "Our Lips Are Sealed"
So again, we're coming up really heavy on the 80s slow songs. I know. I'm not even that crazy about the original of this song, but I think this cover is amazing. Between making the lyrics intelligible, turning it into a sort-of duet, and adding in the bongos, this is a definite win. If I ever make a teen movie, this is going in.

20. Eurythmics, "Love Is a Stranger"
This might be my favorite Eurythmics song. Weirdly though, I always associate it with an MTV special I taped in like I want to say 1993 or 1994 called "It Came From the 80s" that used the chorus of this over a montage of 80s excess (yuppies, cocaine, Reagan). They also did a separate "It Came From the 80s" special just on metal -- man, what I would give to have that VHS tape back. Since it was only like, 1993, all the metal bands were really suffering. George Lynch was doing ironman competitions, one of the guys from I want to say Faster Pussycat was a billboard painter, and Quiet Riot played a concert in Idaho in what looked like a refurbished barn.

Okay, that's it till September... which is of course in like, less than a week. Doh! Oh and actually now since I keep picking up and putting down this post (so much for the immediacy of the online world), now it's a mere matter of days. SIGH.

P.S. BTW: Bonus pictures! 1a: Phil Collins as a game show host/con man on Miami Vice; 3a: Richard Hell is the passed out guy just barely visible to the left of Madonna; 15a: Just be glad I chose a picture from Valley Girl where Nicolas Cage has his shirt on. Observant readers will also note that I totally spaced on finding an image for track #9.

Organization = Procrastination

What is it about having many big legitimate projects to work on that makes me create my very own big not-especially-legitimate projects to work on? Recently I had the experience of freaking out that I did not own a book that I totally could have sworn I owned. I had never read this book, but circumstances surrounding my legit projects conspired such that now was the time -- it had to be read.

I stressed out about my surprise non-ownership of it for a while, then stressed out more when I requested a ton of books from the library and still managed to forget to request this book. Then, the other day, while I was on the phone and staring blankly at my shelves, I spotted it. Oops. I do own it.

So it turns that organizing all your stuff by color, while aesthetically pleasing, does not exactly lend itself to locating things in the way that say, alpha by author does. After all, I had recently moved tons of stuff around in order to accommodate the 80-something YA books I acquired back home, and even in spite of having just physically handled every single book I own I still didn't know I had this book!

Click to see a sampling of my mostly non-YA books

Click to see a sampling of my semi-astonishing collection of older YA books. Sadly the covers aren't available for most of the truly great finds.

Anyway, you can guess where all this is going. I proceeded to spend ... let's just say a little too long ... organizing all my books. Mercifully I had uploaded tons of them into the Amazon "Your Media Library" thing two years ago, but realizing that that doesn't let you export (lord knows why) I decided to go with Goodreads, which while cranky and cumbersome in a lot of ways will still let you export all your stuff to a comma-separated-values spreadsheet. (See top picture -- there's part of my regular library.) Fine by me. I like having it in something, 'cause I'm totally paranoid -- god forbid I have to use it, but renter's insurance is only really worth the extent to which you can actually document what the heck you have.

In order to keep from contaminating my main library any further than it already is (I let Gossip Girl, The A-List, and everything else I'd already been shelving in with my grown-up books stay there), I created a second account just for my older YA books. (See the lower picture -- yes, it's a collection that is by necessity heavy on the Baby-Sitters' Club).

One major plus of going through all of my books? Occasionally, you find cool stuff in your books. Sometimes I find old notes to myself, or in almost-new-looking academic books I've bought used, the one page where the previous owner clearly made a valiant attempt at reading the book before giving up. Lots of my old bookmarks -- I try to leave a bookmark in my favorite part of a book, and ideally a bookmark that has to do with the time I read the book -- so a piece of a matchbook from a local restaurant if I was on vacation when I read it, that kind of thing. And occasionally, I find gems like this one at left. Wow. I mean really. Wow. Clearly, this gal was excited both about the lads of NKOTB as well as about her multi-colored pen. This is the only page that espouses a desire for Jordan, though several other pages as well as the inside cover attest to her love of Joe.

[I avoided this series for a long time, and upon actually reading it, I don't know why. I read the fifth book, loved it, and immediately went to the library to check out all the others. I would definitely recommend reading them in order -- the plot is continuous through the first four and then (I'm assuming as I haven't read yet) through the second four, and there's not a lot of rehash of "the story so far" so it will all make more sense to read in order.]

[While this is indeed yet another mean-girls-in-boarding-school series, it's done better than many others. For one, the main character is reasonably relatable, and for two, the usual endless litany of brand names and status signifiers is reduced to a trickle; just enough to set the stage. Add to this a thriller/mystery angle that makes them total page-turners, and success! I read this book in one sitting, just the thing to get through an otherwise boring flight.]

[And thank you again, Amazon! I just learned that not only do I have the eighth book and a prequel to look forward to this fall, but that the prequel doesn't signal that the series is over! They are already showing a cover for the ninth book. In my state of knowing-anything-constitutes-a-spoiler I'm not looking into it further, but this is good news. In other news: The A-List is following in Gossip Girl's footsteps and starting over with new characters in January. Will it make it better? Doubtful. But you know how I'm a completist about everything, and this means that assuming I don't delve into the series' "second era" that there is a finite number of these books still for me to read. Also, remember a while ago when I was speculating about the possibility of an A-List tv show? There still isn't one, but the new series called I think Privileged (which is also nearly the title of the Private spin-off series, Privilege) is a tv version of a "Zoey Dean" single-title book called How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls. How do I keep all this information straight? Even I don't know.]

Currently Reading: Private (Basically the entire series) ("Kate Brian")

You already know what I'm going to say, right?

GO SEE THE PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. Come on people. This is the movie we've all been waiting for (okay, when we haven't been waiting for a Hot Rod sequel). Freakin', a movie starring Ken and Daniel from Freaks and Geeks, Rico from Hot Rod, Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, and Darryl from The Office? How have you not seen it already? It's been in theaters for almost 36 hours. Get moving.

Spoiler alert: I saw it yesterday. It was pretty effing awesome. I did not realize how much the plot would resemble a (much, much bloodier -- I must admit I may be better off rewatching this movie on tv) Miami Vice. I mean, you've got a movie that a) makes drug use seem fun and exciting b) features warring drug lords c) also includes dirty cops d) has a theme song by Huey Lewis and the News. How is it not Miami Vice? It's like some amazing Freaks and Geeks/Hot Rod/Miami Vice hybrid. It's like the people who made the movie read this blog.

The only disappointing things? (Real spoiler alert, I'm about to tell you more than the average review would.) Ken and Daniel do not kiss. They come close, but they do not kiss. Second, the girl who plays Ken's girlfriend -- oh wait, for people out there who for some reason have failed to view Freaks and Geeks, Ken is Seth Rogen's character, and I find it as impossible to not refer to him as Ken as I find it impossible to not refer to James Franco as Daniel. Anyway, the girl who plays Ken's girlfriend -- it is SO obvious based on the way the girl looks and the way her character acts that hell-o, it's just an update of Kim Kelly. They totally should have cast her (Busy Philips). Who cares if she looks too old. Last, the incredibly hot British guy from Undeclared continues to not make it back into the world of Apatow. In a perfect world, he'd be in this movie, and they'd all kiss. But as it stands, I'm not going to complain. I'm probably just going to watch it again.

(P.S. Sorry this is so short and random -- I've been hella busy lately, but would feel remiss not blogging about this! I'll finish adding links later, I'm about to go get on a plane.)