| Hi Livejournal |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|07:08 pm] |
January was a long time ago (that's the last time I posted anything here). I'm not abandoning it altogether, but if you're looking for me, look elsewhere.
I've been on Twitter since last November: http://twitter.com/mondosalvo For a well over a year I didn't see the point of it, but I caved anyway. Now I wonder why I ever went through the hassle of communicating online any other way (besides the obvious luxury of using more than 140 characters). Of course Twitter is lame now that Oprah's on there, so I'll be looking for something new immediately. |
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| Thursday morning this and that. |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|05:20 am] |
» It's ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) helloreplace's birthday. I miss you, friend.
» Just stayed up really late watching Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. To be honest, I never thought I'd care about Mickey Rourke being in a movie again. And even now, it's not as much about Mickey Rourke in this film as it is the character he inhabited completely. I would forget I was watching a movie altogether, likely because the first act was really paced like a documentary (smart move, Aronofsky). Love, loss, will -- all addressed because, well y'know, it's Oscar season. But nothing about The Wrestler comes across as overt Oscar-bait (like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which seems custom-made to win awards but was a fine film in its own right). Anyway, yeah...I was kind of gobsmacked by this movie.
» This Saturday, I'm boarding a plane and going to Washington D.C. Yay! I've never been before, not even as a little kid or anything. My tour guide will be my lovely friend Haley, who really likes to plan plan plan. I bet 95% of whatever we're going to do is already scheduled. Now, if you've ever spent time with me in person, you know that's not at all how I operate. At the same time, I'm not opposed to just going along with it because what the hell kind of ideas do I have anyway? I'm hoping it will be fun, and also hoping I get to see Elizabeth and Shane if our schedules permit. [ADDENDUM: Mary Timony's new band Pow Wow is playing at the Black Cat on Saturday night, their third show ever.]
» So Livejournal's days are numbered? I obviously don't utilize it as much as I once did, but I'd hate to see it go away altogether. If Tumblr ends up being the only alternative, I'd rather just go back to emailing people.
» 2008. I ended up not making a best-of list of any kind, but I was thinking about making an "Artists to Watch" list for 2009. I may or may not, depending on how much trouble it turns out to be. Also, school starts back next week and it's going to be a project-intensive semester. If you don't hear from me by the 31st, it's not coming. ;)
» Question: Are you more funny or more witty? Or both? Or neither?
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| Tuesday night this and that. |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|06:46 pm] |
» I hate having dreams involving people I only know through livejournal, because I wake up thinking "oh, that was fun" and can't do anything about it.
» The shoe-throwing thing? I thought it was funny the first five or so times I saw it, but now it's raising all kinds of internal questions. Like, what if those had been some kind of plastique grenades or something? Or, is it really right to do that to the president...any president? Ann Coulter or Bill Kristol, sure. They're inconsequential in the grand scheme. Oh, I don't know...I'm spending way too much time on this.
» I'm seven episodes behind on House, M.D. Fortunately, there aren't any new shows until January and I've got plenty of time to catch up. NO SPOILERS PLZ.
» I've been reading a lot of people's year-end album lists and I don't like any of them. They're either congratulating themselves on not including any hype bands (like Vampire Weekend or Bon Iver) or they're including those same bands whether they like them or not just to be righteous and contradictory. Oh, for fuck's sake. Nobody's going to remember in two weeks what was on anybody's list anyway. Proof? I found the "best of 2007" cds I made last December and I'll damned if I even remember liking any of those songs. (This fact will not stop me from making more cds this year, though.)
» I've been getting back in touch with a lot of high school friends lately via Facebook. Seems like all of a sudden it exploded. Turns out, I'm one of the only people from my graduating class who isn't married or even divorced and remarried. Maybe that's why I don't feel 34.
» Question: What do you want for Christmas?
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| Tuesday afternoon this and that. |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|01:56 pm] |
» Straight guy straight talk: I probably wouldn't kick Phil Oakey (of The Human League) out of bed.
» When bored, I sometimes find myself following a trail through Youtube of people doing cover versions of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car." Most of them are by girls who just learned how to play the guitar and aren't even as old as the song itself is. I also watch people try to play Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo from "Beat It." Some are good, some are bad...and one is really good.
» I figure the only reason I still wear a wristwatch is out of habit. I mean, my phone always has the correct time, but I kind of like the feel of that stainless steel band around my wrist.
» Did you know the going rate for lost teeth in my house is up to $4 now? My niece is making a fortune whenever she visits and loses a tooth. When her grandparents were simply my parents, I got A QUARTER.
» Question: Who was the weirdest kid in your high school? No story required, just the name. Those memories are all yours.
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| Christmas Party Mix |
[Dec. 6th, 2008|03:21 pm] |
Someone asked me to find some songs for her to play at her office Christmas party, and as usual I went completely overboard and made a continuous three-hour mix of music (over all, 58 songs) and saved it as one mp3. It's great, if I do say so myself. Plus, you can just hit play and go about your festivities for 180 minutes at a time. Tracklisting and link behind the cut.
( Read more... ) |
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| Election day |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|09:25 am] |
Not sure who the original author is (I found it in a post on ILX):
11/4/08 8:30 a.m.: Someone has taken maybe 30 Obama/Biden signs and fashioned them into an outward-expanding "V" on a berm adjacent to an exit ramp near the entrance to Harrisburg.
This is a big day, y'all.
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| Sunday (late) night this and that. |
[Nov. 3rd, 2008|01:13 am] |
» That Axe body spray commercial with the chocolate guy walking down the street is really stupid, but tonight it just occurred to me that they're actually selling a body spray/wash that SMELLS LIKE CHOCOLATE. I don't know about anyone else, but when I get out of the shower and get ready, I want something that makes me smells extra fresh and light and clean. Chocolate is heavy and gross. I mean, wouldn't co-workers and friends start associating being in your presence with eating a Nestle Crunch bar or something? Like, in a bad way?
» I watched some British porn the other night. Everyone involved was really polite, asking permission and such. How odd.
» This afternoon, I got in an argument on Facebook with a friend of a friend (in other words, someone I don't know at all) about the main points of McCain's and Obama's tax policy. What I realized is that paying taxes actually makes me proud, and the fact that people who gripe about it are so short-sighted and self-centered that they're willing to put the country in hock to loan sharks abroad just so they can keep fighting a winless war and own a 52" flat panel tv. I know Biden took some crap for saying it a few weeks back, but paying taxes is patriotic.
» Alabama football, guys! The Tide are ranked #1 in the BCS, AP and USA Today polls. The last time Alabama was ranked #1 in the regular season was in 1980, when Paul Bear Bryant was the head coach. Whether or not the Tide goes undefeated and plays in the championship game or drops 1 or 2 and merely ends up in a secondary BCS bowl, I couldn't be happier.
» Question: I really started thinking about what I'm going to do when school is finally over and I start looking for a job. Where am I gonna go? Now's your chance to make a pitch for where you live. Sell me.
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| Football gripe. |
[Nov. 2nd, 2008|01:58 pm] |
My local viewing options for the 1:00 game are:
- On FOX, Tampa Bay @ Kansas City
- On CBS, Jacksonville @ Cincinnati
This is entirely unacceptable and, I'm convinced, something that WOULD NOT happen to me under an Obama administration.
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| Sunday night this and that |
[Oct. 19th, 2008|11:46 pm] |
» I've gotten hopelessly addicted to hulu.com. It's worse than it sounds, because I have a hard time sleeping "normal people" hours anyway, and binging on Major Dad reruns just makes things worse. Speaking of that show, did you know Marisa Ryan was married to Jeremy Sisto for a few years? Weird.
» I keep going back and forth about enthusiasm over the election. I mean, looking at the electoral map projections it seems an Obama victory is pretty much a sure thing at this point. But I scare myself wondering what I'll feel like if McCain actually does pull a victory out of his ass (even if the chances of such a thing become less and less probable each day). I'm gonna be crushed! Fortunately, things like this exist and keep me distracted:
» Football: OMG THIS NFL SEASON IS INSANITY. I'm having trouble deciding if it's good or bad (lots of indecision on my part lately!). On one hand, it means a lot of lesser teams that would've never had a chance with the Patriots domination are getting the opportunity to step up (Hello Bills!). But on the other, it creates a huge void for any real hero or villain team and kind of makes the whole 32-team field a big blur of varying degrees of success. Right now, I'd suspect we're looking at a Titans/Giants Superbowl, but it could just as easily be about 50 other combinations.
» My crush on pregnant Amy Poehler is getting out of control. F'reals.
» Question: Do you use pet names for your partner in a current or past relationship? If so, what is/was your favorite?
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| Chooglin' |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|10:04 am] |
Zeth Lundy makes the case for Creedence worship at Popmatters. As though a case needed to be made.
(Most days, unless I'm feeling particularly idiosyncratic, I'll tell you if you ask that Creedence Clearwater Revival is the best rock band ever made in America)
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| It's just livejournal, man. |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|08:46 pm] |
You know how when you don't post for a long time on livejournal, it gets harder and harder to come up with a reason to post on livejournal? And even then, you feel like you've got to come back with something really inspired and provocative and "worth it?"
Eff that. I haven't posted in about four weeks. And now I have.
Hi ev'rybody!
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| Tuesday morning this and that |
[Sep. 9th, 2008|11:58 am] |
» The multimedia presentations class was successfully dropped and money refunded. I'm not as fired up about it all as I was last week now that everything's resolved, so I may not follow through with my crusade to string up my ex-professor by her ankles. Still, the school themselves should probably look into such disparities between different sections in the same course.
» Did you know there was a new Ice Cube album? I hadn't even read about it anywhere! I'm listening to it right now and the dude is just as killer as he was in 1991. I'd just assumed he'd fallen into the trap of making family-friendly movies at the expense of making music, but he hasn't forgotten about the rest of us.
» Fantasy football! Yay! Tom Brady out for the season! Boo! This not only sucks fantasy-wise (because he was my QB in one league), but it sucks in real football world too. The most compelling thing about the last few seasons in the NFL is that there has been one giant that every other team had to take down to advance. Last year, only one team succeeded (on a crazy circus throw/catch in the Super Bowl). Now, there's a uniquely even field. And that's not exactly exciting.
» I was thinking the Palin buzz would've worn off by now, but I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable. On one hand, the Obama campaign is very obviously reeling right now. They can't formulate any workable comeback. On the other hand, the American electorate hasn't let me down. Every election year, as the day grows closer, the Republicans throw out the "us vs. them" scraps and the undecideds without any conviction whatsoever just up and abandon their better judgement for the sake of a quick snack. WTF AMERICA DAMN
» Question: Is there a word/euphamism for genitalia that you just absolutely hate and will refuse to say and cringe when you hear it said? I hate the word "dick" in that context, for real. Conversely, I love it and say it often in its other primary usage (i.e. "Why's McCain gotta be such a dick?!")
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| Pete Molinari, "Sweet Louise" |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|09:00 am] |
If you haven't figured out by now, I'm always really impressed when current things sound authentically "old." Pete Molinari's "Sweet Louise" not only follows in the footsteps of something from Dylan's mid-'60s heyday, but it sounds like it too. This is why studio production and engineering fascinates me to no end. Also, on a more direct level, the song itself is some moving, get-you-in-the-guts balladry.
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| Higher learning? |
[Sep. 2nd, 2008|03:17 pm] |
Question: What do you do when you're enrolled in a course that you honestly deep down feel is a waste of your money? It's called Multimedia Presentation and it's required for my program, but it's a complete joke. We're going to be taught how to do things on poorly designed freeware applications when, I feel, we should be using applications that are in-line with industry standards. Also, we spent the first two sessions last week doing "getting to know you" exercises. What is this? Eighth grade?! This week hasn't started off any better, but I guess vocabulary exercises serve some kind of purpose. But, for real...I AM GENUINELY PISSED because I feel like I'm being undereducated with this course. By the time we actually start doing hands-on work next Tuesday, four sessions out of 32 will have been wasted with complete nonsense. And even then I'm not going to be learning how to do video editing on anything like Adobe Premiere or creating Flash content. We're using hacky freeware substitutions. Gah!
So who do I lodge my complaint with? A counselor, maybe? Or do I go to the head of the department?
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| Sarah Palin |
[Aug. 29th, 2008|02:15 pm] |
Get ready folks. You're about to see a presidential campaign crash and burn in such a spectacular way that you'd think you were watching a season of The West Wing.
Why? Sarah Palin is a shocking, "maverick" pick for sure. I mean, who other than a maverick would pick a state governor who has only been governor of her state for ONE MONTH LONGER THAN HE'S BEEN A CANDIDATE? Oh, and before that, she was the mayor of a city. A city with 6,700 residents.
You know who has almost as much executive experience as she does? ME.
Normally, no one cares what the VP's credentials are. Except this time the top of the ticket is a 72 year old man with a history of cancer.
What you're seeing on the news is a bunch of GOP talking heads gritting their teeth and trying to talk up her experience. What you're not seeing is the GOP voter base around the nation going all "WTF IS UP, JOHN MCCAIN!" This eliminates any stab at the "experience" debate from now until voting day. This also does nothing to reassure GOP voters, nearly all of whom take aggressive foreign policy experience very seriously, that the country will be in good hands if something were to happen to McCain in office.
Also, the McCainers seem to be under the assumption that their VP pick need only two x chromosomes to win the 18 million Clinton voters. RONG! How insulting.
But before any of that, the GOP Convention is going to be a clusterfuck like nothing you've seen since Bush/Quayle. You have a hurricane (a big one) looking to come ashore in roughly the same area as Katrina. TV coverage will be on a split screen...on the left, stuffy old white dudes beating their chests with their conservative ideas and, on the right, wind and rain beating down the Gulf Coast. That's a pretty poor pairing. But then you're going to have a bunch of people giving speeches about the power of their ticket, knowing they had to go to Wikipedia just hours before to find out as much about the VP candidate as they could. And then, Thursday, as McCain will deliver his nomination acceptance address, the first NFL game of the regular season will be in full swing and will erode his tv viewership down to nearly nothing.
And then the convention's over. The novelty of the pick is old news. Sarah Palin is going to have to prove she's qualified to be one heartbeat away from having the most important elected office in the world. Because being the mayor of a 6,700 person town and then the governor of a podunk quasi-state for less than two years is apparently the experience plateau now.
My friends, this is going to be a terrific disaster.
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