Just a lot of quick links today. No time to really delve into anything. But first, some awesome news: I’m gonna have a wristband and photo pass for SXSW! I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say it never hurts to go straight to the horse’s mouth. That old addage “ask and ye shall receive” is sometimes very true. Now if my old Jeep can just make the trip…

Daft Punk is going to be scoring the soundtrack for the upcoming Disney film Tron 2. Awesome. I can’t think of a more perfect combination of musicians and film.

Hipster Runoff discusses picnic fashion. No, literally… we’re talking about a picnic being worn as a dress.

Stereogum had two great posts last night… One about the upcoming Zooey Deschanel film (500)Days of Summer (including a trailer), and another about the newly developing war between the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Arcade Fire’s Win Butler.

So apparently the blogosphere’s buzz/hype and my taste are actually in sync for once… The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s new self-titled album has been on repeat on my iTunes lately, and come to find out they’re playing 10, yes TEN shows/showcases at SXSW this year. A few of which are day parties thrown by bloggers. Count them- 2 shows on the 18th, 3 on the 19th, FOUR on the 20th, and 1 on the 21st. SXSW is basiclly a POBPAH-gasm! Then they’re hitting the road for even more tour dates in April and May, one of which is right here in Nashville at the End on May 2nd. THAT will be an interesting show… since they’re probably big enough to play Mercy or Exit/In.

If you’re a fan of LOST, you might be interested to see the latest update on the Time Loop Theory. I’ve seen this before… about a year ago, and they keep updating it as more is revealed. Warning though, this could taint your experience of the rest of the series. If you do read this, I recommend that you try your best to keep watching the show from an objective perspective, as if you hadn’t read this. Also be sure to check out the timeline diagram. It helps make the whole theory make more sense.

And finally, a talking goat. Via Courtney Wilder’s facebook.

Zooey Gibbard? Yep.

December 30, 2008

Jensen Sutta

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.

If you know me, you know that I’m a huge Zooey Deschanel fan. In fact, she’s #1 on my celebrity crush list. Even though her upcoming movie with Jim Carrey Yes Man looks like nothing more than a re-working of his older film Liar Liar, I am still eager to see it. She offers her voice to some synthpop tracks for the film, and it’s… well… just listen. Let’s just say she needs to stick to quirky indie-folk. Her voice is beautiful no matter what, but it’s just not well-suited for synthesizers.

The Japanese space agency JAXA is planning to fly a paper airplane out of the International Space Station, to the earth. The planes will be made of a specially treated paper that can withstand extreme heat and water. Yes, even a little paper airplane will create significant heat upon re-entering the atmosphere. Remember that it’s being launched from the ISS, which is in orbit, meaning that it will be traveling at around 17,000 mph. If my knowledge of physics is correct, since it’s so light it will have less inertia, and thus slow down much faster than say, a spaceship or a meteor… so it shouldn’t have to withstand the heat for very long. My question is this- do they really expect it to be found? The vast majority of the planet is covered by water, so the chances are that it will land in the middle of the ocean and never seen again. Link via Kottke.org.

UPDATE: Apparently the launch has been scrubbed due to concerns that the planes might collide with a satellite or end up as space junk. Link. It was a cool idea!

In 1960 Joe Kittinger set records for highest jump (102,800 feet), fastest unpowered flight (he fell at 614 mph!), and several others. This guy is the definition of badass. I’m not sure about the speed, though, because if you listen during the video clip, the narrator says 400+ mph… but the caption says 614. Oh well. Badass nonetheless! Check out the video clip on LiveScience.

In Nashville music news- The Privates are apparently recording a new EP at Battletapes. This brings me great joy. The Privates don’t get to play much, or even record much, due to the fact that they’re essentially a “supergroup” and all of them (except Dave) are in other bands that tour, record, etc… way more than they do. I’m really interested to see how Jeremy’s production style will influence their sound. They’ve done everything in the past with Jason Bulluck over at Lake Fever Productions (not that that’s a bad thing at all!) so it’ll be nice to have a little change in their sound, production-wise. I leave you with this hilarious video from one of their recording sessions, via Nashville Cream.

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.

Facial asymmetry. Fascinating.