Woohoo!

About time, too.

kill all rats

i'm on a blog roll.
no really, i just had to share the disturbing turn of events on the picket line that i was witness to this morning:
so we strikers are all in front of the nyu library, gathered around a few faculty members supportive of the union to hear them speak on our behalf. they aren't miked so everyone is trying to be silent so the sound carries. then, from washington square park just across the street the sound of another protest starts up, so i look over to see what it is. there, i observe people milling about a giant inflated rat, much like our own union rat that we are all gathered around (see below). i think, hmm, maybe sympathizers to our cause? then i see a line of about 10 people come out of the park towards us carrying signs and chanting. one of them is dressed as a giant furry rat. i furrow my brow, squint to see better. who are these people? the procession comes closer, and as they notice the silence on our picket line as we strain to hear our speakers, they get louder. finally, details emerge. i see that their signs say "we're new yorkers too". i hear them yell, over and over, "rats never hurt nobody, rats never hurt nobody!" they stop directly across from us and intensify their screaming. it is as if they are directing it at us. i feel faint. they are not our supporters. they are supporters of rats.
yes, the polite decorum of the session of faculty speeches on our picket line had been disrupted by defenders of the lives of the rats of washington square park. the battle cries of those against the extermination of workers' rights had been overpowered by the call to arms of those against the extermination of the most vile, filthy creatures breeding and spreading disease/fear/despair in this city. the scornful expression on their faces seemed to say, "a pox on your trivial struggle. how can you fight union-busting in the face of rodent injustice?"
good grief.
rats never hurt nobody?
on top of it all, i had a nightmare about rats in my apartment last nite. a bad one.
how does everything seem so insane sometimes?

(i want) "a stress-free life"

i'm sorry if this post doesn't quite meet the rigorous intellectual standards of the rlr, but this is amazing.

I have no mind.

The Futureheads - Robot
The Futureheads - Stupid and Shallow

This is the first of an expected multipart series of posts on new music I've gotten. "New" here is used with a certain amount of license, as I got a lot of this stuff as early as this summer. Due to some unfortunate computer fuck-ups (now taken care of), the only way I could listen to music for a long time was on my ipod-with-a-broken-screen. That means the only way I can listen to my new music is by waiting for it to come up on the blind shuffle. So it's taken a while to figure out what's really good and what really isn't.

Anyway, I downloaded the Futureheads album when I was in D.C. this summer, with access to Bit Torrent. I only knew the 'Hounds of Love' cover previously (which is still fucking amazing), and at first the whole album didn't really turn me on. But after a while, I can honestly say that I love this record. Yes, this is yet another band that is described as 'angular', 'dancey', and 'post-punk'. At bottom, the best thing about the Futureheads' music is that it makes it sound like the most fun thing in the world would be to be a Futurehead. Everyone sings all the time. Every song has like eight hooks. They have a song about being a robot!

Also: Willy, Paul, and Nish (from NJ) do a podcast called Podflix. It's ostensibly a radio show where three netflix users talk about dvds on netflix. But it's pretty much just a bunch of guys talking about movies in between bullshitting for an hour. Check it out.