It Seems To Be the Way That Everyone Else Gets Around

My funny Snapple cap fact:
The speed limit was 8 mph in NYC in 1895. Ha!!!

I ate out WAY too much last week.
Tuesday: Dinner with Ryan at 7A.
Thursday: Dinner with Meghan and Jenn at Haru.
Friday: Dinner with Robyn at Blue Moon.
Saturday: Dinner for Feldstein's birthday at Gasho.
Sunday: Dinner with my dad at Triple Crown.

At least my food was varied...American/Sushi/Mexican/Hibachi/Diner...anyone up for Thai this week?

I heart this blog: Bent Objects. Dude makes cool scenarios out of random things. This one is my favorite:

I Made A Meal of It

Tuesday night was Jack Peñate at Mercury Lounge. I met up with Ryan first for food at 7A (they gave me mustard vinaigrette instead of balsamic, boo!) and then some drinks at Hi-Fi. Jack sold the place out. The crowd was a little annoying, particularly in the girls room. All I kept hearing in there was "I know him! He's my friend's friend!" "I'm from London, I know him, well, a little, but I've seen him 10 times!" and "I know him too, well, I work for his label here, and I'm glad you got that free poster, you deserve it!" Uh, seriously? Apparently I was the only person in there who didn't know him personally.

So, he was really good! I was impressed. Not every song sounded the same which Dave anticipated (only like 4 of them to be honest.) He had great stage presence, and seemed genuinely happy to be there. I recommend.He danced like George Michael (and looked a bit like him too circa 'Careless Whisper'.) He also looked a bit like Dave's friend Bernie (and Dave's mom thinks Bernie looks like George Michael, nice circle we've made there!) So then you know what this leads up to...

George Michael + Bernie = Jack Peñate!

This gave me a craving to listen to 'I'm Your Man' by Wham! which I'm playing right now. (Really love that song and I am totally not embarrassed about it.)

khgig

Oh yeah, and here's Jack Peñate doing 'Have I Been a Fool?' on Tuesday night...

Did you know...

that to get the n to show up like this (ñ), you need to hit alt + 0241?! Crazy shizz.

Current Music: The Wombats - Moving To New York

It’s Morning That I Dread

Usually my Burt's Bees lipstuff costs me $4 a pop, but they had a three pack in Duane Reade which included other shades that I wanted so I figured I'd splurge. I went to the register anticipating a mini-deal like $10 for the three, and it rang up as $2.70! I don't even think it was a mistake, I just think there was some strange discount going on. Anyways woohoo for me and my lips!

Deal of the week

(I totally Photoshopped the appropriate acquisitions myself)

I saw Editors last night at Terminal 5. The venue was so far from civilization! 11th avenue...I mean seriously, who was in charge of planning that? As for the venue itself, a couple of floors added for good spaciousness and more bars which I liked. Other than that it seemed a lot like Webster Hall to me but with a rougher warehouse feel is all. Still, I'd take 11th Street over 11th Avenue any day.

Terminal 5 v. Webster Hall aka Battle of the 11s

Louis XIV was the first band up. We got into the venue during 'Finding Out True Love Is Blind', the only song I like by them. I remember first hearing their EP or whatever it was and some of the lyrics were wayyyy too sexual for my liking (primarily because the singer sounds like the dude from Rocky Horror Picture Show and the thought totally grossed me out.) I promptly threw that EP behind my cd tower and never touched it again. So, all in all, not much to be said about their performance as I planted myself at the bar for the final few songs.

The Real Louis XIV/Singer of Louis XIV/Singer of Louis XIV's Vocal Twin

Hot Hot Heat on the other hand were really good. I was sad to see the lack of enthusiasm during 'Bandages' (how can anyone argue that it's not the best song to dance to on an indie night?) But, this is NY and of course the crowd would rather die than look enthusiastic. Here's a new equation for ya:

Luke Pritchard of The Kooks + Carrot Top

= Singer from Hot Hot Heat

I anticipate serious nightmares after looking at all those photos of Carrot Top on Google Images just now.

Editors were superb last night! I was so impressed. I think both of their albums are great and they've always played well live; even though they're always in top form, I think this may have been the best time I've seen them (prob because I knew all the songs this time.) And I've gotta give props to whoever did the lighting, it was terrific.

They sang about this...

this...

and this...!

My subway stalker is back. He boldly approached bothered me on the train platform the other morning (he used to wait towards the front end far away from me after I thought he'd gotten the hint.) This time I had my earphones on AND I was reading the paper and he STILL decided to speak to me.

So, the dude tells me about his latest observance - that I was away for two weeks. Was I in London? We could have met blah blah blah until it gets to the part where he says HE WAS GOING TO BRING ME A CHRISTMAS PRESENT but didn't because he saw that I wasn't on the bus and subway those few days. Exsqueeze me what?! Apparently he runs some store and was planning to kill me give me a North Face jacket from there. I was like thanks but no thanks, I can't accept that. Thankfully a seat opened up at that point and I sat and continued to read the paper. He stood over me holding onto the rail though so when I got off the train I had to say a quick 'bye' because I couldn't avoid him Ugh.

I'm going to see 27 Dresses tonight with Kat. Roll on three day weekend!

Current Music: The Clash - Rock the Casbah

She's So Flippin' Hot...She's Like a Curry

I've been slack on blogging. This is what has happened the past few weeks:

I went to England.

Carnaby Street looked all pretty for the holidays

Dave and I pretended to be tourists

We watched Flight of the Conchords non-stop (non-stop meaning I know the words to every song from season 1 by heart now, and probably all of the dialogue too.)
Have some Boom Boom here -

We went to Winter Wonderland. It was not as cool as I thought it would be. We went in the haunted house; I could have made better props with stuff from AC Moore for sure.

Laura hosted us for a pre-drink/pre-pig out at her flat before going out for New Years Eve (and before I got my new gloves covered in freshly chewed gum on the bus)We went to Fifty Five in Camden

Graham got some disgusting looking drink

Dave got a huge-ass beer that was bigger than Graham's head

Kat growled in every photo

Liz apparently got the same disgusting drink as her husband

And the tubes ran all night for free. A miracle!

Other goings-on post-London:

I got a Rock Band for Xmas from work (though I don't have an XBOX360 or a PS3 to play it on.)

I curled my hair and got told I look like Celine Dion. Huh?

I'm back on Weight Watchers. I think about food every 3 seconds, but I did lose 2 lbs. in my first week, woohoo! My mom dislocated her thumb, ouch.

Through the wonders of Facebook, I've found out that a friend of mine from the happy hour era of '01-'02 has written a book. Which is nuts.

I got a quarter share in a Fire Island house solely with my girlfriends for the first time ever. The outside is not so beautiful...

But it has a sweet inside if I do say so myself...

It'll be itty bitty beds for us...

And a deck...check!

That's it for now. Lunch time, yummm.

Current Music: Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup

Gig Wrap-Up 2007

I was seriously lacking in gigs this year (I actually went to less in 2006, but I also went to the Camden Crawl and Benicassim then which made up for it.) I'd have to say that moving back to Queens was the major factor in skipping a bunch of shows, though I can't deny that prices are not so favorable to me now that a lot of my bands have gotten more popular in the States. Here were my gigs of 2007:

Band/Opening Act - Venue
Album Chart Show - The Feeling/Klaxons/Lady Sovereign/Fall Out Boy
Air Traffic/Arizona - Canal Room
Athlete - Highline Ballroom
Biffy Clyro/Enter Shikari/Blood Red Shoes - Highline Ballroom
Brake Brakes Brakes/Pela/Electric Soft Parade - Mercury Lounge
The Bravery - Bowery Ballroom
British Sea Power - Bowery Ballroom

The Chemical Brothers/Ladytron - McCarren Pool

Cold War Kids - The Social
Elliott Yamin/Josh Hoge - Bowery Ballroom
Eric Hutchinson - The Cutting Room
The Features - Mercury Lounge
Franz Ferdinand - Bowery Ballroom
The Fratellis - Irving Plaza

Gruff Rhys - Hiro Ballroom
Kaiser Chiefs/The Walkmen - Roseland
Klaxons - Bowery Ballroom
The Kooks - Irving Plaza
Los Campesinos! - Mercury Lounge
Maximo Park/!!!/Hot Club De Paris - London Astoria
Muse/Cold War Kids - MSG
The Pipettes - Blender Theater
Rooney/The Hush Sound - Irving Plaza
Stevie Wonder - MSG

I'd have to say my live favorites were:
#1 Air Traffic @ Canal
#2 Franz @ Bowery
#3 Muse @ MSG
#4 Features @ Mercury
#5 Fratellis @ Irving

As for albums, I did not buy/download many this year. Air Traffic's debut absolutely takes number one, I played it on repeat all summer and fall and I'm still obsessed with it. My tops of the year are:
#1 - Air Traffic - Fractured Life
#2 - The Pipettes - We Are the Pipettes
#3 - Hard-Fi - Once Upon a Time in the West
#4 - Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
#5 - The Fratellis - Costello Music
Honorable mention to Oasis - Stop the Clocks (had to be done)
Also, everything by Flight of the Conchords is tops!
Biggest disappointment: Ash - Twilight of the Innocents (guys, what happened?!)

*Edit - I forgot to add Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future in my top albums, so I hereby squish that one in as #2.

*Edit #2 - I forgot Chemical Bros. and Mr. Gruff Rhys, so they're up above now too.

Best Songs of 2007

We're five days into 2008 so I'm a little bit behind, but here's my best songs of '06 list - 

60 Babyshambles - Delivery
59 Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control - I liked this song for about 5 minutes and it started giving me a headache after that.  Why was there so much gossip about The Gossip, can someone please fill me in?
58 John Mayer - Waiting on the World to Change - The scariest thing about this song is that I first heard it when Sanjaya sang it and I really liked it.
57 Natasha Bedingfield - Love Like This
56 The View - Same Jeans - Sort of similar to The Gossip, this song was funny for about 5 minutes but got old very quick.
55 Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
54 Trousersnake - What Goes Around Comes Around
53 Matt Nathanson – Car Crash
52 Kaiser Chiefs - Angry Mob
51 The Feeling - Rose
50 Kelly Rowland - Like This - No Beyonce, but a Kelly Rowland entry, scandalous!
49 Carrie Underwood - Before He Cheats - You will never ever see a country song on one of my lists after this.
48 Cold War Kids – Hang Me Up To Dry
47 Bon Jovi - Lost Highway - This is a good song.  Seriously!
46 Alicia Keys - No One
45 British Sea Power – Atom
44 The Fray - How To Save a Life
43 Los Campesinos - You! Me! Dancing!
42 Sara Bareilles - Love Song
41 Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold
40 Diddy - Last Night
39 Jamie T - Sheila
38 Jack’s Mannequin – I’m Ready
37 Kings of Leon – On Call
36 Mat Kearney - Nothing Left To Lose
35 Nelly Furtado – Do It
34 Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights
33 Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music - I can't even begin to express how much I despise Rihanna, but for some reason there is no resisting this song.
32 Jarvis Cocker - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
31 Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
30 Hard-Fi - Television
29 Amy Winehouse - Rehab - I thought this was '06, but it's not on last year's list so here it is.
28 T-Pain - Buy U A Drank - I laughed at the title of this song for a month until I actually heard it.  T-Pain, U R so smooth!
27 Snow Patrol - Set Fire to the Third Bar
26 Jack Penate - Second, Minute, or Hour
25 Air Traffic - Time Goes By - Be warned, lots of Air Traffic in this list.
24 Fergie – Glamorous
23 Air Traffic - I Like That
22 Bloc Party - The Prayer
21 Mat Kearney - Undeniable
20 Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors
19 Eric Hutchinson – Rock n Roll
18 The Bravery - Fistful of Sand
17 Peter, Bjorn, and John - Young Folks - I was pretty late getting on the P, B, & J train.
16 Justin Timberlake - Lovestoned - This entry is high up 98% due to the second half of the song, love it love it love it!
15 Feist - 1234 - I really hate Feist, this was all that stupid iPod commercial's fault.
14 Fall Out Boy - Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
13 OFFICE - Oh My - Oh My God, Oh My God, I really love this song.
12 Los Campesinos! - We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives - Best lyrics ever?
11 Air Traffic - Shooting Star
10 The Pipettes - Why Did You Stay? - I didn't get this album until recently, shockingly really great!
9 The Fratellis - Flathead
8 Incubus - Dig - I've played this one on repeat about 2946 times.
7 Hard-Fi – Can’t Get Along Without You - I need to find a place that has this on their karaoke list.
6 Kate Nash - Foundations - Some lyrics in this song are great, and others are horrendous but it's still slightly irresistable.
5 The Pipettes - Dirty Mind
4 Just Jack – Starz in their Eyes

3 Klaxons - Golden Skans
2 Incubus - Oil & Water - This song makes me wish I had Brandon Boyd's voice.  Or that I actually was Brandon Boyd.
1 Air Traffic - Charlotte - Dear Air Traffic, Looking forward to seeing you again in 2008, I heart you LOTS! Love, Me