nothing feels good, it all feels shitty

i recently read a book called "Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo", and it was awful, except for a few small sections. i was so disappointed with it, i decided to write an amazon review about it.

"it started out extremely promising, discussing rites of spring and the origins of the term "emo". it made the important distinction that emo actually developed out of hardcore and punk. but very quickly turns into the worst written piece of fluff i've read in a long time. desperately grasping at ways to make his book seem relevant, greenwald consistently forces the same points over and over again told with simple writing and dumb similies. due to poor marketing, the book is aimed at fans of bands like jawbreaker, mineral, and the promise ring, while it consistently just lionizes media darlings dashboard confessional and spotlights "indie" label heavyweights vagrant records. if you love the watered down, emotionless bands, that the media packages as "emo" for the masses, then this book is for you. through about 2/3 of the book, i was convinced that greenwald was trying to make the point that highschool jocks that have virtually no interest in music are pioneers of a new musical movement. and 25 pages about makeoutclub and livejournal? seriously now, what point are you trying to prove here? greenwald is the journalist equivalent of the "emo" entities he spotlights. doing his best to make a name for himself while disconnecting himself from his roots, which in this case is quality writing. scattered, boring, tried too hard to be relevant, and worst of all, trying to cash in on a fad. i find it extremely disappointing (though not surprising) that someone found this worthy of publishing."

weeekend wrapup

the melismatics are a great band made up of amazingly friendly people. we want to go up to minneapolis to play with them, don't know when though. the pita pit is awesome, especially at almost 3am. my pita was scoffed at by my bandmates for being too mushy (hummus AND babaganoush), but after it's smothered with delicious crunchy veggies, there is no equal. also, the employees of the pita pit are most definately high all the time. my bike tires are starting to split and get nasty, i must've run over some glass or something... so now i need new ones... bummer. i'm tired, and need a nap mostly. this book i'm currently reading isn't very good, but i'm going to finish it anyway, b/c i'm stubborn like that. i like our new songs, they excite me, i like booking shows, but mostly i like playing them. i kinda wanna go back east to visit, i haven't been back in almost a year, i miss a few people.

takin' care of business

it's always fun playing this game:
OOOO! I got paid! Now I can buy stuff!
oh, well i owe this much on credit card 1.
ah, and this much on credit card 2.
oh yah, can't forget my student loan.
and band rent coming up soon. so there goes x dollars.
gotta pay for the car loan this month.
and i gotta eat...
okay... well i guess i have enough music for now. :/

peanut butter and jams

my bloody valentine "loveless" is the perfect length to listen to on a lunch break.

again

well... the new mac stuff has been announced. of course it makes me sad b/c all i have is a lowly one year old powerbook. i guess sometime around next spring i'll start thinking about buying a macbook probably, when they're starting to be shipped with leopard installed. pc's are for chumps i've decided. sure i still have a pc desktop... one that is still pretty blazing in terms of speed and ability. but come on... microsoft has been working on windows vista in one form or another for the better part of 5 years, and what do to they have to show for it? how well it rips off osx. i like building computers and all that, but i want my computer to be innovative, not derivative. i've been reading a lot of books written by guys named chuck. they're good. i like them for different reasons, but also for similar reasons, they both seem to have a detached sense of observatory realism. anyway, i ride my bike, i play in my bands, i read my books, i continue.