Zooey Gibbard? Yep.
December 30, 2008
Photos: Jensen Sutta
I’m not one for celebrity gossip, but WTF?!?!?!?!?!? How did I miss out that Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel were dating? Two of my top 25 or so musicians… and I hadn’t a clue. Well, according to Stereogum and several other sources, they’re engaged! Honestly, I can’t think of a better match. It’s a total indie rock cuteness-warm-fuzzy-gasm. They just need to write some songs together already! Ok ok… I know I’ve mentioned ZD in like, all of the last few posts… but she just keeps popping up on my radar… not that she’s ever really below it anyway. Yes, I have a girlfriend, but even SHE has a crush on ZD.
Not sure what to do in Nashville this New Year’s Eve? Here’s a list of some good things going on.
How I Became the Bomb, The Privates, And The Relatives @ the Basement, 21+
JEFF the Brotherhood, Meemaw, Turbo Fruits @ the End, 18+
Selloutpresents.com and Club Sportag present “Return to Whatever” @ the Warehouse, 901 6th Ave South, 21+
The Protomen, Makeup & Vanity Set, Beta Macks @ Springwater, 21+
Autovaughn, Cage the Elephant, Hollywood Kills, Gone City, and Leslie @ 12th and Porter, 21+
Charles Walker & the Dynamites @ Exit/In, 21+
There are some other things going on, but those are the biggest ones in my book. I haven’t seen JEFF or Meemaw since Next Big Nashville, so I’m guessing I’m due for another dose of Infinity Cat.
Science tidbits for the day:
Livescience’s top 5 incredible science discoveries of 2008.
The Obama administration will hopefully help to bring America back to the forefront of science and technology. Under the Bush administration’s morality-based politics, we’ve slowly lost our grip on being the world leader in these fields, and reality in general. Livescience talks about the optimistic new outlook for science and the democratization of knowledge.
Rivers Cuomo… YES, MAN!
December 29, 2008
One of the gifts I received for Christmas this year (in addition to my new Sony HDTV, Lost season premier party anyone?) was the new Rivers Cuomo solo compilation, Alone II: Home Recordings. I almost enjoy this album a little more than his first home recording compilation. I especially enjoyed reading the narrative liner notes he wrote for it, which go into the stories behind the songs and give a little more insight into his odd life. Weezer’s first two albums were a major part of my formative years and those songs will always resonate with me in a very awesome way. Even though their new material is… well… awful in comparison, I will always be interested in what Rivers is up to, and always keep an open mind to his new material. He is now happily married, though, thus I doubt that he’ll ever write anything good again. Too much contentment and happiness does not lend itself to good songs. With that, I give you this video I came across on You Ain’t No Picasso of Rivers doing an acapella version of the Beach Boys’ Don’t Worry Baby, with a group of backup vocalists. He included an early demo cover of this song on the new home recordings album as well.
While on Stereogum, I also found this video of Rivers in the studio doing a new song he co-wrote with Jermaine Dupri, (a different version of this also appears on Alone II).
Megan and I saw Yes Man yesterday, and it did not dissappoint. I was definitely in the mood for a more entertaining movie, and it really hit the spot. Don’t go into this movie expecting anything more than just pure entertainment… there are no deep meanings nor is there anything remotely intellectual about it. I must say that this is one of the best performances I’ve seen from Zooey Deschanel. Her looks and personally fit her character perfectly…. and I can’t think of anyone more perfect to fill that role. Jim Carrey is… well, Jim Carrey. I’ve enjoyed him in every movie of his that I’ve seen.
Just a tidbit of space news for you: NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. through 2016 to fill the need to carry cargo to the Internation Space Station. This is the kind of thing NASA needs to keep doing- the future of space exploration lies in the combined efforts of goverment and the private sector. Link via Bad Astronomy.
I leave you with this:
Awesoments and psychics
December 22, 2008
So New York was a blast. I’ll post a link on here to the pics once I go through them and get them uploaded. It snowed about 4 inches in the city on friday, which was beautiful. CSS rocked Webster Hall thur. night, and Prabir & the Substitutes rocked Sullivan Hall Sat. night. The Met was awesome sunday, and the American Museum of Natural History was naturally awesome on Friday.
Today I bring you pure awesomeness in the form of the Periodic Table of Awesoments. It’s a list of all things that can be described as “awesome.” The awesomeness of this awesome table cannot be overstated. I just tried to say “awesome” as many times as I could in that paragraph. Awesome.
Stereogum did some digging around and found the earliest known appearance of Zooey Deschanel in film. It’s an old Offspring music video. Classic.
In this video (1 of many… I haven’t yet watched all of them), Richard Dawkins and Derren Brown talk about the techniques used by psychics and astrologers to fool people into thinking they actually know something about their life or the problems they’re going through. Just watch. If you’re someone who even slightly believes in the so-called “powers” of psychics or palm-readers, etc… hopefully this video will help you see the light. Via Boing Boing.
Spaceport America now has clearance from the FAA to conduct spaceflight from its soon-to-be built facility in New Mexico. In a time when severe budget cuts loom for NASA, the era of commercial spaceflight can’t come soon enough. I seriously doubt we’ll ever see our government have as much interest in space exploration as it did in the 60’s, so we’re going to have to turn to the private sector to see any serious, well-funded endeavours into manned spaceflight. Hopefully NASA can eventually work out a deal with one or some of the many private spaceflight companies that are currently testing/building rockets and spacecraft. Hell, they already contract out many aspects of space shuttle maintenance and launches.
Obama has assembled a kickass team of real scientists to tackle the energy crisis, global warming, and hopefully create a lot of new, secure jobs in the process, thus helping to revitalize the economy. Jan. 20th can’t come soon enough!
Universe Today takes on the 2012 comet/distaster/end-of-the-world bullshit head-on in this article. Nothing is going to happen, people! As the article says, there is nothing more profitable than fear. This is no more evident than in the upcoming movie, 2012. These people will be making millions, even billions, off your fear. Don’t do it!
Blur definitely reuniting!
December 9, 2008
Blur
This time it’s REALLY official: Blur is reuniting and Graham Coxon is onboard. They will be playing at London’s Hyde Park next summer on July 3rd. The gods of britpop have smiled upon the world once again! Via Billboard.com.
A fascinating wikipedia entry explaining the etymology of 100’s of company names. Some of them have interesting stories behind them.
2008 will have a “leap second.” Every 4 years we add one day to February, but that’s not quite enough to keep the world’s atomic clocks perfectly in sync with the rotation of the Earth. There are slight irregularites, less than a second, that must be accounted for.
I just remembered that my friends Matt & Paul took a random trip to South America recently. Then I remembered that Matt has a blog, and that he would probably have a lot of good stories on there from their adventures south of the equator. Go check out his blog Robo Tripping. I didn’t even have time to read all of his posts about the trip, but from what I did read, they had quite an interesting time.
I discovered this William Eggleston exhibit that’s currently showing at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC on my friend Rachel’s blog, Mousevox Vintage. I did a photo shoot with her recently and she rocks both as a model and a stylist. My girlfriend and I are heading to NYC for a few days right before Christmas so we’ll have to check it out. I’d forgotten how much I like Eggleston’s work. One of my photography professors- Jim Norton- used to call him “wild Bill Eggleston.”
Guess what? The weather sucks today.
Of Montreal announce tour dates that include Nashville
December 2, 2008
Credit: Jim Newberry
Via You Ain’t No Picasso:
Of Montreal just announced their tour dates for the beginning of 2009. There are a few US dates — including a few they just added — but a huge load of dates in Asia, Australia and Europe. I wonder if Kevin will ride a kangaroo on stage in Australia…
As much as I love Of Montreal, I’m can’t say that I’m overly compelled to see them for the 5th time. Their live show is always great, and I’m sure on this tour it’ll be even kookier and crazier than ever, but after the 4th time, combined with the fact that their latest album didn’t impress me all that much… I’m just feeling a little “meh” about it.
I haven’t had a good local music post in a while, so here goes:
Local electronic duo Jensen Sportag have released their latest EP Sergio to the masses for free…. for a limited time only. Go to Gay Werewolf to get more info. They had a free download for a few days but that just ended. (I’m glad I got to it in time!) The EP is available through almost all digital music outlets to my knowledge. The EP includes a remix of the lead single Power Sergio by one of my favorite electronic artists of all time, Makeup & Vanity Set.
This really creeps me out. But it’s brilliant. Via Yewknee.
University of Tennessee’s football program has hired former NFL coach Lane Kiffin to replace the outging Phillip Fulmer. His salary will be $2 million plus bonuses. Seriously? $2 million?!?!? Link via Nashvillest.
Sharon Van Etten lands the space shuttle….just kidding
December 1, 2008
I have to say that despite the horrific mess of driving through Knoxville yesterday, this year’s Thanksgiving break was a good one. Megan and I went back to east TN to visit my parents, and even got to go skiing wed. night after rushing to get there early enough. The snow was in good shape (for the southern Appalachians, at least) and we had a blast. Don’t get me wrong, skiing in NC or any where in the Appalachians doesn’t hold a candle to skiing in CO or anywhere in the rockies, but it’s better than nothing.
Today’s links:
Sharon Van Etten on RCRD LBL blog. I remember being served Red Stripe by her at the Red Rose in Murfreesboro years ago. She played at the Basement a few months ago and it took me a while to realize from where I recognized her. It’s awesome to see her getting some recogition in the blogosphere.
Weezer will be releasing an album of old recordings that “for some reason didn’t make the final cut” for their other albums. Very exciting. They can’t seem to put out anything new that’s worth more than a few listens on the way home from the record store, so the random old gems are gonna be the only way they can please the die-hard old school Weezer fans such as myself. Via Billboard.com:
On the heels of the release of the second volume of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s home recordings, the group is now taking a look back into its own vaults. Cuomo tells Billboard the tentatively titled “Odds and Ends” will feature “great songs” which “for some reason didn’t make the final cut” for an album.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in California yesterday after thunderstorms and crosswinds at Kennedy Space Center caused NASA to use its backup landing plan.
This may be old news by now, but the fragments of the meteor that streaked across the Canadian skies last week have finally be located. Apparently it was a pretty big one weighing a few tons. Image via Universe Today.
University of Calgary graduate student Ellen Milley poses with a fragment of a meteorite in a small pond. AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe
Some links… happy Turkey Day
November 26, 2008
Disclaimer: Posting may be pretty sporadic over the next few days as Megan and I head to east TN to visit my family for thanksgiving.
Today I just have some links for you. No rants. Just some links… mainly because Kottke.org had my RSS feed full of goodness this morning. The following three are from Kottke.
Photography is for Jerkoffs.
A very clever way to put the impressiveness of a magnetic hard drive into perspective.
Chinese use rockets to get the cables for a bridge higher than the Empire State Building across the gorge over which it is being built.
Via NME: It’s finally official. They’ve teased us for over a year now, but Blur is reuniting for another album. Let’s hope they tour too. I’m skeptically excited.
The Boston Globe’s website continues to post amazing hi-res photographs of even more amazing things, such as this series of International Space Station.
And now, for your daily dose of WTF?!?!? Blowjobs as performance art:
Enjoy your thanksgiving!
The big 27…. and some faces.
November 24, 2008
Sorry for the dry spell in posting… last thursday was my birthday and that combined with having to take my cat Sherman to the vet (he’s doing fine now) resulted in me not having time to surf the interwebz for goodies and bring them to you.
Yep, I’m 27. That famous age where so many rock icons lost their lives. I’d better watch myself over this next year… I hope I can make it through, but being a rock legend isn’t easy… nope. A list of rock icons/musicians who’ve died at 27-
Jim Morrison
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Kurt Cobain
Brian Jones (Rolling Stones founder)
Robert Johnson (legendary blues guitarist/singer)
Dave Alexander (Stooges bassist)
D. Boon (of the Minutemen)
Ron McKernan (of the Grateful Dead)
There are many more in the “27 Club,” but I won’t post them all here. Check out the Wikipedia entry if you’re interested.
According to Stereogum, this is Katy Perry, not Zooey Deschanel:
WTF???? Seriously? If you asked me who this was, I would say definitively that it’s Zooey Deschanel. This is uncanny. Either way, they’re both on my celebrity crush list.
This guy really knows his various British accents. I love listening to accents. My favorite has to be New Zealand though.
Vinyl+mp3s= success/Extrasolar Planets
November 14, 2008
CD’s are slowly becoming useless pieces of plastic, and good old vinyl records are making a comeback. I am sad to say that I only recently jumped on the vinyl bandwagon (at least for new releases). My vinyl collection really only consisted of the old records I will eventually inherit from my dad, plus a few other old Beach Boys records. I only recently started buying new releases on vinyl, but I’m totally in love with the idea of having a record at home, plus a digital version of the album for the trusty ol’ iPod. I think this is the future of music formats- embracing the greatness of the format of the past, while also embracing the format of the future. I think every release should be available on vinyl with a free download code inside the packaging. Normally the record label has the digital download on their website, but Insound is putting a new twist on this whole phenomenon by offering the albums for free download with a vinyl purchase, putting the digital end of the transaction in the hands of the online retailer, instead of the record label. Kudos.
Three exoplanets orbiting a young star 140 light years away are captured using Keck Observatory near-infrared adaptive optics. The planets are labeled and the two outer ones have arrows showing the size of their motion over a 4 year period.
The first-ever direct images of extrasolar planets have been released by NASA. This marks a major milestone in the search for that ever-elusive extrasolar “earth twin” that astronomers are looking for. Not only did they image one planet, they imaged three! I’m a huge fan of the effort to detect an earth-sized extrasolar planet, and I’ve eagerly awaiting the day that the science community announces such a discovery. Astronomers seem to mostly agree that there are earth-like planets lurking out there, it’s just that we haven’t been able to detect them yet. The smallest extrasolar planet detected thus-far is about 5 times bigger than earth. The vast majority of extrasolar planets are gigantic- several times the size of Jupiter, which makes them easy to detect through indirect methods. Earth-sized planets will be much harder to detect, and we just don’t have instruments or telescopes sensitve enough to detect them. Thus, I will probably have to wait until well after the launch of the new James Webb Space Telescope or the Kepler Observatory to get that exciting news.
Meteor shower Nov. 5-12/VOTE!
November 3, 2008
This year the Taurid meteor shower is expected to peak/be most viewable between Nov. 5th and Nov. 12th. This particular annual shower is sometimes referred to as “Halloween fireballs,” but this year the best time to view it will be a few days later. The moon will be waxing (more and more of it will be lit leading up to full moon), therefore the light interference from it will make it more difficult to see them going into mid-November. The Taurids are apparently known for being brighter and slower moving than average because the fragments are slightly larger than most other meteor shower fragments. (Though still much smaller than a pea, usually only the size of a grain of sand.) The Leonids will peak around Nov. 17th as always… though this year’s output is expected to be near the average of about 10-15 meteors per hour, which is pretty low. I may actually attempt to watch for the Taurids this year, as I’ve never actively watched for them before. Link: Space.com
NASA’s Phoenix lander (which landed in Mars’ northern polar region back in May) is starting to shut down its instruments as the Martian winter begins and the days (or sols as they’re called when referring to Mars) get shorter and shorter, resulting in less sunlight to power its heaters and computer. I’m not entirely sure if NASA plans to try to revive Phoenix when the Martian “spring” begins, or if it was even designed to do so, but let’s hope.
In the music world, the Jackson 5 will not be reuniting as Jermaine Jackson said last week. Micheal released a statement on Friday Oct. 31st saying that he was in the studio and would not be joining his brothers for a reunion. I seriously doubt a reunion would work without the support of Michael. Link: Billboard.com
Last but not least, if you do nothing else today, please GO VOTE! (You should have done it already, especially in TN where we don’t have to have a valid excuse to vote early!) Countless good men & women have died protecting our right to do so, and this election is by far the most important in many many decades. When compared to most of the world, we are blessed and lucky to even have the right to vote in the first place. Your voice in deciding who leads this country into the next 4 years is both a privilege and a responsibility. To relenquish that voice is a travesty.
steve cross loves music and science 