booker street: 8/1/05

8.23.2005

WTJU TOP 30 8 / 22 / 2005

WTJU Top 30 for August 22, 2005:
1) DUNGEN / Ta Det Lugnt / Kemado
2) RICHARD HELL / Spurts / Rhino
3) JOHN WILKES BOOZE / Telescopic Eyes Glance the Future / Kill Rock Stars
4) NEW PORNOGRAPHERS / Twin Cinema / Matador
5) CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH / s/t / self
6) STOOGES / Fun House / Elektra/Rhino
7) FRUIT BATS / Spelled in Bones / Sub Pop
8) JOSE GONZALEZ / Veneer / Parasol
9) A BAND OF BEES / Free the Bees / Astralwerks
10) CHIN UP CHIN UP / s/t / Flameshovel
11) LUNGFISH / Feral Hymns / Dischord
12) FREE DESIGN / The Now Sound: Redesigned / Light in the Attic
13) HERBALISER / Take London / Ninja Tune
14) QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT / s/t / Rhinestone
15) V/A / American Rag Cie / Quango
16) T.RAUMSCHMIERE / Blitzkrieg Pop / Nova Mute
17) SONS AND DAUGHTERS / Repulsion Box / Domino
18) SYBRIS / s/t / Flameshovel
19) ALIAS AND EHREN / Lillian / Anticon
20) JUAN MACLEAN / Less Than Human / DFA
21) BRACELETS / s/t / Sector 5
22) TEENAGE FANCLUB / Man-Made / Merge
23) BECK / Remix EP #1 / Interscope
24) STEPHEN MALKMUS / Face the Truth / Matador
25) LALI PUNA / I Thought I Was Over That: Rare, Remixed and B-Sides / Morr
26) XIU XIU / La Foret / 5RC
27) KOJI ASANO / Final Insurance Collection / Soltice.Asano
28) ROYKSOPP / The Understanding / Astralwerks
29) KALLIKAK FAMILY / May 23rd 2007 / Tell-All
30) KINSKI / Alpine Static / Sub Pop

TOP 5 ADDS
1) NEW PORNOGRAPHERS / Twin Cinema / Matador
2) STOOGES / Fun House / Elektra/Rhino
3) V/A / Broken Flowers / Decca
4) WARLOCKS / Surgery / Birdman
5) DANDY WARHOLS / Odditorium or The Warlords of Mars / Capitol

8.22.2005

i know, i know

i know it's been a while since i posted. believe me, it's not for lack of trying. we've just been working our fingers to the bloody stumps on stuff around the house.

our actually flooring was delivered yesterday! now we just have to install it. holy cow.

i promise to post when there are more interesting things to say and when i have the photos downloaded. come to think of it though, we are discontinuing our internet at home for a short while. so photos might be a while.

8.08.2005

treasure hunt

this weekend we discovered a number of things in our house. most were found tucked inside the mantle - which, we discovered was not for a fireplace, but for a stove. the stovepipe held a dessicated bird which i had to remove because my husband was too grossed out. we also found two wheat pennies, one from 1930 and one from '56. two letters, one regarding divorce proceedings (1929!) and one from a secret society (1946). we found a pack of old maid cards and a few other random children's playing cards. we found a neat letter opener; a penknife; two photographs; a pack of vick's coughdrops; a lik-m-aid package; and, an id card. much of this stuff is in very poor shape - especially the photos - but i will try to scan some of it for show and tell. hope to get this done soon, but it's shaping up to be a busy week. i have atomic klatch tonight, publishing day committee tomorrow, rock hours on wednesday, happy hour on thursday. and i have to finish the afterword i am writing for one of the center's books for the deadline on monday. yikes!
in the mean time, anyone ever heard of the "grand temple's birthday party"? that's a secret society if i ever heard of one.

8.04.2005

pandora's box

steve and i heard an interesting story on npr a couple months ago. it was a feature on the music genome project which was then called savage beast and is now more appropriately called pandora. we were both pretty excited by the idea of the project - music genomes consume me (although i hadn't thought to call them that). i am constantly asking "well if i like so-and-so band then how do i find other bands that sound similar?" and that's the whole idea behind the music genome project. analysts and techies identify characteristics of a band you love (say, spoon, for example) and plug in some algorithms or some such something into a computer that will identify other artists who share those characteristics. so now pandora is in the trial stages and both steve and i are previewing it. i started this morning. first thing pandora asked me is to name a song or artist. so, after much thought, i chose spoon. and now i'm listening to spoon radio. first it starts with a very characteristic spoon song, from which it grabs certain musical characteristics and then it plays other artists. some of the the selections pandora made are based on "electric rock instrumentalisation, mild rhythmic syncopation, major key tonality [and] electric guitar riffs." some other characteristics they identify are "a subtle use of vocal harmony" and "punk influences." now, i'll be the first to admit that this is all very general and i could probably identify these other bands myself (or have steve do it), but it's neat to have your computer do it for you. it's got to be good for something, right? unfortunately, i haven't heard anything that really turns me on, but i think that's my own problem, not a fault of pandora. they've certainly featured a ton of bands i've never heard.
i think i'll see what comes up for the new year, and cornershop next.

8.02.2005

wainscoting - a fancy word for paneling

we are debating the pros and cons of beadboard and panel wainscoting for our dining room. finshed with the floor, you might ask. well no, but we're certainly making progress. (yes, i will upload the photos soon). the lower third of the walls in our dining room have been botched, i mean patched, so horribly that we really need to do something to remedy the ugliness. we could: a. patch the plaster (man is that a dying skill), b. remove portions of the plaster and patch with drywall (difficult to blend the seams, i think), or c. remove the plaster, mount some blocking and put in paneling. what a great idea, i think. it;s completely conceivable that a house like ours would have paneling on the first floor, especially in the dining room. well, now that that's settled, how do we compromise on the look?

do we go with beadboard? i think it looks too beachy/cottagey (and damnit, it's not what i like...)