I Got 99 Problems And Being Old Is One

Signs You Are Getting OLD:

1.When you go to a party and all you really want is for someone to turn the music DOWN!

2. When you start considering that younger guy that always hits on you an option, and in return you totally freak him out.

3. When you stumble into your kitchen for something to relieve your hangover and you end up cleaning it.

Speaking of my kitchen, I was trying to find something from my fridge to eat the other day and just didn't see anything I wanted. So, I would close the door and walk away and then end up going back and looking again a few moments later. My friend watched me do this several times and asked me if I thought that some new item was going to magically appear on the shelf. I replied that no, I knew the selection wasn't going to get any better, but that with each scan of the contents, my standards got lower and lower. Kind of like being at a bar in Memphis.

My One Year Anniversary

Here's a pic of my friend Melody and me from last year. Halloween was my last night in NYC before I moved back to Memphis. I have officially been back for one year. I can't believe it has gone by so extremely fast. I thought that I would hate it, but it's been a lot of fun.

Halloween Weekend

If you're still trying to figure out what to wear tonight - there are some good ideas here. I have opted for an evil goth princess - not very original, but it only cost me about 8 bucks and I'm all about the low-budget feature these days.

I am not quite sure how I feel about this weekend. I'm working on casting for a print ad campaign and I'm pretty exhausted. Plus, it isn't helping that there are so many people out in costume this weekend. I have a couple of parties lined up to attend tonight, but there is so much going on, all of my friends have different plans. Plus, I'm a little confused about the acceptableness of going out tonight and getting trashed, coming home and peeling off what I assume will be my disgusting smoke-stenched, alcohol-and-who-knows-what-else-soiled costume, only to pick it up off the floor and put it on again tomorrow night. There's no way I am gonna deal with two costumes!

BTW, if you don't have plans for tomorrow night yet - Brandon and Don are playing Melange. Wicked.

Does Being Famous Get You Laid?

We hit the papers again today with Scenestars. You can read the article here.

Or if you don't wanna register - make the jump at the end of the post.

And come to our party. It's cheap.

'Different element to Memphis entertainment'
Club scout

By Donnie Snow
Contact
October 29, 2004

Declared a hit by music industry arbiter Billboard Magazine, Scenestars.net is in the national news again.

The November issue of Spin Magazine names the Memphis-based MP3 blog as one of the popular trendsetters in the genre.

The write-up comes on the heels of a deal struck with communications giant, SBC. The Dallas-based company now pays the blog's creators a fee to give away the site's content to SBC customers via an aggregator.

Which means, essentially, they're getting monthly checks for posting about their favorite songs.

Now that their hard work is starting to pay off, the proper Gen-Xers are throwing a party.

"DJ Names Are So Retro," 10 p.m. Nov. 6, at the Buccaneer, 1368 Monroe. It's not going to be a typical DJ night, says one of the blog's creators, Rachel Hurley.

Basically, the host of DJs -- which includes the blog's other architects Brandon Thornburg and Patrik Millikin -- are not trying to be artistic. They just play good music that doesn't get on the radio.

New wave, rap, funk, lo-fi, rock, hip-hop, shibuya-kei, retro, garage, electricroclash, soul, punk and disco are just the styles listed on the flyer.

"We're only trying to add a different element to Memphis entertainment," says Hurley.

Cover is $2. Call 278-0909 for details.

I Like Young Guys And Old Jokes

Quote of the Day

Sometimes, when I'm feeling sad, I'll have a snack, like an entire bag of chips or something. But I don't think that's such a big deal. I know a lot of women, who, when they're feeling sad, they'll have a baby. ~Jessy Delfino

I'm So Not PC

I'm Not A Player, I Just Crush A Lot

Last night I saw my fourth film in a theater in the last five days. The surprising thing is they have all been pretty great. Here's a recap:

I Heart Huckabee's

I loved this movie, but you know what made it one of the greatest movie experiences ever? I went to see it with my parents who hated it.

It's starts off with a spewing of profanity, which I thought was hilarious, but which did not amuse the two elderly couples sitting a few seats down from us. During the first fifteen minutes of the film I heard constant old-man-grumbling and I kept looking over at them to see what was going on. Then they just got up and left the theater. Now, if you can piss a group of people off enough to have them leave before the opening credits have even ended, that's a quality production.

If you aren't familiar with the premise of the film, it's about a guy who hires a pair of existential detectives to help him figure out a coincidence that has happened to him. Existentialism, for the uninitiated, is the search for rational answers in a irrational world. So, basically, the film is about asking all the big questions in life and figuring out what really matters when it could very well be that nothing really matters. The film examines these themes under the guise of the theater of the absurd, because who could stomach any of it if the film took itself seriously. Half of the hilarity of the film for me was hearing my mother mutter, "This is the worst movie I have ever seen" throughout the entire film.

You should definitely check I Heart Huckabee's out, and be sure to take your parents! I highly recommend the experience.

End of the Century

Saturday night I went to the Indie Memphis Film Festival and saw The Ramones documentary. It was very interesting since I didn't know a whole lot about the band. I had no idea that they pretty much spurred the entire english punk movement, as the first time they played in England, almost everyone at their show started bands - from The Sex Pistols to The Clash.

Joey Ramone reminds me of a retarded Howard Stern. Not that Howard Stern isn't retarded in his own right - but you know what I mean.

What The Bleep Do We Know?

Sunday night Patrik and I went and saw a narrative/documantary about quantum physics and positive thinking, with disney-fied animations and a dance number, starring of all people - Marlee Matlin! I know, I know, it sounds very new age - but it was pretty awesome. There's nothing better than going to a film that actually spurs on discussion afterwards. It's the cult hit of the year and I highly recommend it. I'm definitley going to see it again.

Automusik Can Do No Wrong

At some point over the weekend, I was at the Two-Way and ran into an old classmate of mine, Prichard Smith. He recently moved to NYC but was back in town due to a film he DP'd being shown at The Indie Memphis Film fest. He was in way higher spirits than I've seen him in years, and he gushed about his film, the mockumentary about famed Memphis cult band Automusik, winning first place in the narrative catagory. By the next day, the buzz was everywhere and I knew that the screening of the film on Tuesday night would be packed. A group of friends and I gathered to attend and we were pleasantly surprised. If this film gets some distribution, it's surely destined for an underground cult following.

On a side note, I invited this guy that I've been crushing on for a minute to come to the Automusik screening. When I picked up Patrik that evening I mentioned it to him and he mocked me for liking a boy. I brushed him off by dryly saying that with my luck the guy would probably bring a date. Patrik and I both almost fell out when he arrived and he had. Classic.

Too Busy To Post

Sorry no posts for a while. I have acid reflux.

More soon.

Really.

Picture courtesy of Stereogum.com

The Hipster Prom

Last night Mark, Brandon, Mike, Candice, Don, Don's Dad and I went to the Buccaneer for what must of been the equivalent to the Hipster Prom. I guess The Reigning Sound are a way bigger deal here than I ever knew. The Royal Pendletons were on hand for an awesome set also. It was jam packed and I saw a million people I haven't seen in ages (including my punk rock pilates instructor, hi Christine!). I also saw a guy I haven't seen in a while that I have a super-major crush on, of course though, he's married. Crap!

On a side note, I was trying to follow the crowd last night and drink beers with the boys and suffered the consequences this morning with my first beer hang over in ages. I didn't eat anything yesterday except for some popcorn when I went to see I Heart Huckabee's (more on that laters) and I paid the cost dearly this morning. I actually had to get up and drive to McDonald's and purchase something to eat cause I thought I was going to die. In other news, I tried the Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddle - and can we just say Awesome? On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend the sausage breakfast burrito.

Anyway, I hope we have half the number in attendees at last night's event when we have our little soire on November 6th (you're coming, right?) It was a great time, I even made it out of there with a date tonight. I think I've given up on sick boy and I am moving on to my next conquest (if you only knew the irony of that statement, and I do actually understand the definition.)

So here's my plan, I have to stop by my brother's Going Away Party (he's leaving Channel 5 and headed to St. Jude), then I'm gonna go drink some sake at Sekisui Pacific Rim and catch Mark aka, DJ Mark Richens (King of Crops/Scenestars.net/Memphis Scene/Memphis Feelharmonic DJ Symphony Orchestra/Kiwanis Club), aka Mark DuWellington, aka The Marquis du Wellington, aka Mark GoodFella, aka "God, yes, Mark, f*** me harder!!!" play some tunes, then I'm headed down to meet my companion for the rest of the evening at Muvico to catch The Ramone's documentary at The Memphis Indie Film Festival - then it's off to drink beers and hopefully get lucky. Wow, Saturday night's alright.

I'll let you know how the evening turns out. Actually, probably not.

WTF? David Gest Moved to Memphis?

Seriously, WTF? Why do we deserve this? And he's throwing himself a housewarming party.

Performers listed on his advertisement for the event include The Doobie Brothers, Al Green, Gloria Gaynor, Crystal Gayle, Dionne Warwick, Stephanie Mills, Lou Rawls, Shirley Caesar, Archie Bell, Barbara Mason, Billy Gilman, Mya, The Original Box Tops, Freddie Jackson and others.

Who the eff are they?

Whatever. Old folks rejoice.

Killers Review

Mark and I went to see The Killers Wednesday night at the Daisy. It was fun, I had many vodka tonics. I made fun of the opening band and Mark scolded me like they were good or something. We handed out many flyers to the hipster kids. When we rolled up at the beginning of the night there was barely a line and everyone was under 21. We thought we were gonna be the oldest peeps up in the place. We skipped waiting and went to Sekisui. When we returned there was no line and we walked right up and bought tickets. Hot timing. The place was more crowded than I expected and there was a little bit of an older crowd in attendence. All ages shows=short bar line=awesome.

Ok, here's my funny story of the night. Mark and I were walking behind the Daisy before the show and we see super-hipster dude with a leather sports coat and a beard. I say, "is that Brad?" Mark answers, "Yeah, I think he's shooting the show."

So I trot up to the guy, his back is to me and he walks behind a wall. I jump around the wall and just as I'm about to shove him and say, "Hey! Get me in free, bastard!" the guy turns around and it's the bass player for the Killers. I become startled, mutter, "Uh, sorry..." and run away like a little girl. Mark proceeds to laugh his ass off at me.

Scenestars in Spin Magazine

So, my website was mentioned in the November issue of Spin magazine. Here's the conversations that followed:

Me: Guess what? My website was mentioned in Spin Magazine.
Mom: What is that?
Me: My website or Spin magazine?
Mom: Spin - is that a local thing.
Me: No, it's actually a major music magazine,
Mom: Oh. So what does that mean?
Me: Uh, I don't know. Nothing, obviously.

Me: Check it out! Scenestars is in Spin Magazine!
Mark: Cool - so I think I'm gonna wear a blazer to go see The Killers tonight...

I did get a couple of positive responses, but I guess it's not that big of a deal. Here's my beef with the whole article though. Why not profile a female? It's all about the guys, which is kind of suck! There's a few of us out there now, it's not a complete boys club and I'm way cuter than any of the guys they did write about. It's not all about dudes in their basement hanging out with their record collection cause they can't get laid.

Ok, rant over.

P.S. Yes, I'm jealous.

P.P.S. RatC is the featured site over at Webnymph. Finally! My ego's gonna grow bigger than my ass soon. That's no small feat.

Good to Know

First of all, you should read this conversation between Kurt Vonnegut and out-of-print science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. It was to be their last. Trout committed suicide by drinking Drano at midnight on October 15 in Cohoes, New York, after a female psychic using tarot cards predicted that the environmental calamity George W. Bush would once again be elected president of the most powerful nation on the planet by a five-to-four decision of the Supreme Court, which included “100 per-cent of the black vote.”

Classic!

Ben Folds and William Shatner will be on the tonight show with Jay Leno this friday, october 22nd! Joe Jackson will also join them performing "Common People" from Shatner's current album, Has Been. If you don't read Scenestars (which, if you don't, you are so missing out), you might not have read my review and know that this is my new favorite album. So Best!

BTW, guess who just invited me to be their friend on Myspace? The Music! I wonder if they read about how much I like their new album? Weird.

One more thing, go buy some shares of my blog at Blogshares. It's a sure bet. And that's an insider's tip, yo.

What It Feels Like For A Boy

I had an out-of-body experience last night in terms of the tables being turned on me. I've been hanging out with this certain guy for a minute and yesterday I took him to eat and to have what I think was a fun-filled afternoon. Later in the evening when it came time to get some action, he claimed sickness. Now, is this what they mean by He's Just Not That Into You? I mean are guys allowed to do this? Aren't they supposed to be always ready like robots? I swear, it crossed my mind that maybe I didn't wear deoderant or had something in my teeth! Sick? You've gotta be kidding!

Actually, he was really sick, unless the thought of making out with me was what made him puke. But, as a girl, when you make the decision to take certain things to certain points, you usually are pretty certain about the outcome. I was certainly disappointed.

Documented Fun

So these pics ended up in my mailbox this morning from my lovely evening out Saturday night to hear Mark tear up the turntables at XYZ. It was pretty late when these were taken, almost 2AM. I know Michael mentioned that he had never heard of XYZ and I think it's fairly new. The crowd tends to be a little bit younger, I ususally only end up there if someone I know is scheduled to play tunes. But it's a decent little venue and Patrik really likes the food. The really cool thing about the place is you don't have to have a ton of people there to rock the party. The kids there really do like to dance and have a good time.
I don't know where all the peeps were Saturday night. I had to duck out for a moment and go down to Nova to catch up with Justin to give him some flyers for our upcoming party. There weren't many people over that way either, but it was fun to walk through the Dungeon for the first time in over 10 years. Doesn't look much different other than they slapped a fresh coat of paint over the walls. Memphis is a little divided these days me thinks. There are actually a lot of mediocre places to go, which makes it hard to decide which mediocre place to go to. I guess a lot of people bash Melange, but it's pretty much the only place I feel at home.

Team America Fact Checkers

Patrik and I went to see Team America:World Police last night. It was hilarious, albeit a little long. The two scenes to remember were puppet sex (which I read got them an NC-17 rating the first time around) and the puking scene. Classic. If you like political satire and you like South Park, you'll like this movie.

Patrik made mention several times that he expected me to pick up the soundtrack, which was a ridiculously funny part of the film. I checked and it doesn't come out until November, and when I did a search for Team America, to attempt to download it, although it seems the entire movie is already online and available for pirating, the only song that popped up was Fat Joe's Lean Back.

In other news, I got a very interesting email last night:

RatherGate proved that bloggers are the best fact checkers. That is why we are writing to a few bloggers asking for help.

Yes Bush Can has collected several documents that are clearly suspect.
But we need your help to prove they are fake:

http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml

Let's spring to action before these documents needlessly tarnish the
reputation of our Commander and Chief. You know the drill: analyze the
handwriting, search for factual errors, and post your discoveries.

And keep us posted by sending email to FakeDocs@yesbushcan.com.

Thanks in advance for your help.

YesBushCan

At first I thought, Wow! These people obvioulsy do not read this blog. Bloggers are the best fact checkers? Are these people serious? Bloggers are idiots! I should know!

The fake documents in question include Bush and Cheney's DUI's. I didn't even know Cheney had a DUI! Thanks YesBushCan!

Then I noticed the site included such one-liners as:

Bush and Cheney have excellent judgement and would never get behind the wheel while drunk.

Hold on, let me catch my breath from laughing so hard....

Ok, ok, I'm ok. Now, I know this site must be a joke.

Blitzkrieg Bar Hop

Hey, Ho - Let's Go!

Last night was one big bar hop, however, I wasn't much in the mood for drinking and so my consumption was pretty light. I started out at The Buccaneer to promote a party, then I met Don and Brandon for a drink at Melange for a business meeting of sorts, met up with Mark at XYZ, we got bored, went by the Deli, weren't feeling it and then ended up at The Blue Monkey until last call, got a call from Jason, went back to XYZ, the police showed up for some reason, so we left and hit the Two-Way. All that, and it seemed like I didn't stay out very late.

Anyway, all I know is it feels good to be old and not inebriated when the police show up anywhere you are. All of these younger individuals were freaking out, standing at the door of the bar like their house party was about to get busted up and someone was gonna call their parents. It was quite comical. It reminded me of being in Dallas last weekend at my hotel, sitting in the lounge area when I was kinda intoxicated. Someone shushed me cause there was a security officer walking around. I was like, "I'm thirty! I can be drunk if I want!"

Coming Soon

Wow, I left my house Wednesday morning and kind of got lost for a minute and just arrived back home today. What a ride. But a good one! Anyway, there's a couple of things going on I wanna tell you about.

First of all, Mark Richens, aka Mark Duwellington, Mark Goodfella, and The Marquis du Wellington, man of many names, will be spinning an eclectic late-night session featuring nu jazz, broken beat and underground urban sounds Saturday night at XYZ located at 395 N. North Watkins at Overton Park Lane. It's free and there's a $5 beer bust. It should be a great time. I'll be there. Come buy me a drink!

Also, did you know a new political blog has popped up from Chris Davis of Memphis Flyer fame? Check it out: The Pesky Fly. I like it, mostly because I agree with it.

Finally, and you'll be hearing a lot more about this over the next couple of weeks:

R.I.P. Derrida

Wow, there's a million mentions of Christopher Reeves passing, but I just found out today about the passing of Jaques Derrida, probably the greatest living philiospher of our time? Weird. I guess it didn't really make much news in the states since he was currently living in France, even though he lived in NYC and taught at the New School for years.

I had the fortunate experience of seeing the premeire of the documentary of his life Derrida which was very artsy and vague in terms of his philosophy and it's scope. When the film ended and after he made a short speech, he entertained questions and all of these pseudo-intellectuals tried to ask these really abstract questions about deconstructionism and it pissed me off cause I had no idea what they were talking about. So I raised my hand and asked: What the hell is deconstructionism? Because it certainly wasn't explained in the film.

To which he replied, "that is the most intelligent question I've heard all night...."

Personal Ads = LAME

I got an email today asking me if I wanted to be featured on the Memphis Flyer Personals. I'm sure you've seen those ads that are on almost every site now where they show a picture of a guy or girl and then run some quote from them like "5 Things I Can't Live Without" or "Favorite Movie Sex Scene," right?

Well, I said sure, whatever, I placed one when I first moved to Memphis and haven't used it once. Not that I wouldn't, the problem is none of the hot guys that pop up on the front page of the Flyer site are actually from Memphis. They always live in San Diego or Portland, places you wish you were. Guys from Memphis have profile names like GoodOleBoy or AmbercrombieFitchGuy24536. Those are pretty enticing, especially the last one. It's like, "What? You mean a marketing company has already developed a personality for you that you can slip on, portraying a middle-of-the-road stance in all forms of self-expression so that you never have to develop your own sense of anything?? Cool, and I bet you like football and wear sandals too! No, wait, don't tell me - you went to a state college and you love Wide Spread Panic? Yeah, you used to like Phish until they went all mainstream. Hey, I bet you drive an Pathfinder (Of course, you're about to get an Excursion)! Dude, I think I saw you last week at Panama Tans! That place rocks!! Let's go grab a pizza and watch a reality show at your place! We'll drink beer until you're drunk enough to have the courage to man-handle me. It'll be HOT!"

You know what? I don't care if someone wears Ambercrombie, that's stupid. But please don't let it be the first thing you think of to descibe yourself! For the love of geezus, you are hurting my feelings! Can anyone really be that lame? Wait a minute - rewind - stupid question.

Anyway, the other thing I really hate about personal ads is there's really only two types of guys. The ones who say they're tired of games and are looking for a nice girl, which is like the most boring come-on I've ever heard in my life OR the guys who try to be witty and show they're well-read. I dunno. We all know I'm not a nice girl and I'm kind of tired of witty and well-read. These days everyone is witty and well-read. Is there anything else left? Actually, you know what kind of guys I seem to like - the ones that don't like me, so if you see me out and want to start something up, just ignore me. It'll drive me ca-razy!

Here's the bottom line: Personal ads are for meeting friends. There are a couple people on the Flyer site that I wouldn't mind hanging out with, but zero I would show my panties. Personal ads reflect about a half percent of a person's actual personality and lifestyle. And everyone is on their best behavior. Except me. I'm just looking for trouble.

ROTFLMAO, Seriously!

You know what? The new political cartoon from JibJab has just made the entire election race worthwhile.

Click on This Land and don't forget Good To Be In D.C.

Funny Stuff!

Bush's Bulge

I've been trying to lay off the politics, cause I'm pretty sick of it and, really, what's left to say?

But this is just too good....

Thanks Don!

Is There Anybody Out There?

Wow, it's so funny how the readership of my other blog keeps going up and this one keeps going down! It's cool though, I used to try to do the link thing and be entertaining but then I realized that most of the people that read this are friends of mine and they kind of accept me being boring. It's hard to write about stuff when your name's plastered everywhere! (definitely something to think about if you ever start a blog) I try to stay pretty tame these days, I've pissed enough people off, even when you're joking, things don't always read the way you mean them, ya know?

In other news, I still get all these invites to things from when I lived in New York (it sounds way cooler than it is, whenever you go anywhere there they try to get your email address so that they can send you messages to RSVP for the guest list at free parties). Anyway this
is the funniest one I've seen in a while.

Guess Who's Back?

Here's a new one, I never write blog entries this long, cause they tend to be boring after three paragraphs, but just indulge me this one time.

Alrighty then! What an awesome past three days I have had. Starting with Wednesday night when I had an "I'm Not Going Out" "Going Out" night. You know the ones, where you don't plan on doing anything and then all of a sudden you look at your watch and it's 2AM? Yeah, you do.

Mark and I went and saw Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Mr. Goodfella is pretty much my arch nemisis politically. He's that guy that when you argue with him, and think you're doing pretty well, he will pull out some obscure reference or book learnin' that makes you use the excuse that it's pointless to argue because obviously no one will win, when someone clearly already has.

Anyway, I thought the film was great. It really made me understand Kerry a lot better and I feel even more confident voting for him.

After the film we went straight to the parking lot and began arguing, so we decided to change venues and hit Melange for Hank and Dara's Anniversary Party. There were tons of old school people there, and it was really a cool thing to be a part of. I only know Hank and Dara as acquaintances, we have many mututal friends, but they seem like a really great couple that are still genuinely happy to be together after 10 years. That's awesome.

Mark and I met up with Caroline and after the champaign toast, we decided to head to the Blue Monkey to listen to a band whose name I have forgotten. We got there during their break and so we continued to argue politics and I learned that the baseball playoffs have begun. Who knew?

We decided to hit the Hi-Tone to hear the end of The Preacher's Kids set before we called it a night. They were ok, the audience was mostly guys and Caroline and I decided to shoot some pool while Mark said his good-byes and cleared out (most likely to hit another more babe-friendly establishment.) I flirted with a local band guy who was sitting at the bar. He introduced himself and told me he was in a band and I should come see his show Friday night, which would have been cool if I hadn't met him three times before. Man, I just don't leave any impression at all. I'm gonna have to start wearing fewer clothes or something.

Ok, so now to the really fun part of the weekend. TracyLocke and SBC flew me into Dallas on Thursday to participate in a Blogger's Summit. As I have mentioned, they have chosen my music blog to highlight with their new aggregator tool. Also in attendance were MK from Popbytes, Sam from Honey, No!, DH from Jossip, Memphis Bengal from Sports Frog, J-Unit from TVGasm, Khalil from The Post Game and Uncle Grambo from whatevs.org.

I got into Dallas around 5 and checked into my really super swank hotel, The Magnolia. Now, if when I checked in they had informed me of the art deco, metro cool bar on the 2nd floor and that they had slipped 4 drink tickets into my hotel brochure for the hotel's happy hour, I probably would have hit my room to freshen up and checked it out. Instead I took a nap in preparation for meeting up with Uncle Grambo. Gram was the only other blogger on the trip that I was familiar with through his awesome site, whatevs.org. We've each linked each other in the past. So, we emailed each other earlier in the week and made plans to meet up Thursday evening and get plastered.

I am not sure if he wants his real name used or not, so I'll just call him Gram. We met up at Iron Cactus, the third floor balcony has a great view of Downtown Dallas, and then made our way to City Tavern to get our serious drink on. Gram is a really awesome guy, very positive and smart ( he kicked my ass on the electronic trivia game, although, it was the sports questions that killed me) and we had a really great time. Of course, the conversation turned to tunes and luckily, he also has superb taste in music. Anyway, supercool guy, I was totally crushin'.

The next morning came around way too soon and the plan was for all of the bloggers to meet in the lobby for a ride to TracyLocke. Everyone, from the agency staff , the people from SBC to the bloggers were super cool and I think we all had a great day. I'm not going to go into anything that was discussed, I don't want to let any info out that I'm not supposed to, but we had a great time and I am really lucky to be part of such a fantastic project.

After the meeting, we all went back to the hotel and I think some people, that were aware of those drink tickets I mentioned, hit the happy hour before we all met up again for dinner. Yours truly, once again, hit the hay for a disco nap to get ready for our big night on the town. At 6:30 we all headed down to Deep Ellum to have some authentic Tex-Mex. The food was good, the company was great and the drinks were extra large. Of course, the real fun was still to come when we began discussing the hot spots to hit later in the evening. Our tour guide was the awesome Cassidy, the copyeditor for Project DU, a fellow music fien and super hip lady. I mentioned going to Double Wide due to Eric's suggestion, but we decided to check out Minc first and then maybe hit The DW laters.

Minc was fabulous. Really cool aestetic, superhot retro music from my formative years, and totally stylin' goth girls and boys hanging on a bed in the middle of the room doing their best to entertain us. I almost fell out when I went to the bar and ordered vodka tonic and was charged 2 bucks! The only downfall was that since we got there around 9ish, the place was pretty dead. But other than that: Loved it, loved it, loved it!

The only downside was that somehow a miscommunication happened and a couple of people got left behind at the hotel. We thought they decided not to come, but actually they just missed their ride. So the going out crew was the incredibly cool MK, the incredibly funny DH, the girl with the best. boyfriend. ever - that I'm totally jealous of - Sam, and I already told you how awesome Cassidy is. We all gelled really well together, so it was way cool.

After Minc, we decided to go to Barley House in hopes of checking out the Neil Diamond cover band, Diamond Bag. We ended up sitting outside instead of taking in the tunes, but it was fun. Sam got to do her very first shot of tequlila and we took some great pics for Honey, No!

We decided to grab a cab and head back to the hotel around 2AM. When we arrived, the inebriated wanted to order food, but instead we opted for a vending machine snack binge on MK's bed as we caught the debate post shows. At some point I made it back to my room to get a couple of hours of sleep. I awoke early, around 7AM and went down to the breakfast area and treated myself to the delicious food spead and then went back to my room to just relax a little before a hectic day of traveling. I wanted to be able to enjoy the stellar room a little bit before I left, including taking a nice bath, since I had barely had a chance to appreciate it since I had been in Dallas.

Most of the bloggers met up again to share a taxi to the airport. BTW, Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport pretty much sucks, but that's another story. Anyway, saying our good-byes was kinda like leaving summer camp: We all promised to write and I have offers of places to stay in every corner of the country. That's hott!

I got back Saturday afternoon and went straight home and passed out. The past few days will definitely go down in my book of great weekends. I hope they invite us back again soon! I have a hundred stories and funny things that happened, but I'll save those for another happy hour.

P.S. BTW, this blog hit it's one year anniversary today. Thanks for reading. It's people like you....blah....blah...blah....

Kiss Me, I'm Famous

Well, well, well - it looks like the cat's out of the bag, so I can finally tell you that Scenestars has joined forces with SBC's new Project DU Reader. Remember when I was telling you to get yourself an aggregator? Well, check out this one cause it's already preloaded with all the best stuff on the web including your's truly. I still have a hard time believing that anybody reads any of my silly ramblings, but the site meter don't lie, yo.

Here's the soft sale from Steve over at Adrants:

SBC Launches Blog-Powered Desktop RSS Newsreader

Obviously, SBC intends to garner broad brand recognition and sell some product from this effort and there's no shame in that. What's unique is the project's win-win position providing long term branding for SBC, unique and different information for consumers and increased notoriety for those bloggers participating in the project. Participating bloggers are paid a small fee in exchange for Project D.U. pulling their RSS feed and adhering to minor guidelines. TracyLocke expects about 500,000 downloads of the reader by early 2005.

FactCheck.Org Checks Cheney

Unfortunately, Cheney directed everyone to Factcheck.COM instead of Factcheck.ORG.

Hey Bloggers, let's get the word out so we can follow the VP's advice and let everyone see what the site had to say about the debate.

We're gonna blow that server up, beeee-atch.

I know, I know, Edwards had a couple of mis-steps also, but he's way hotter than Cheney!

Take the Votergasm Pledge

http://www.votergasm.org/

I am an American Hero. Of course, I'm used to not getting any.

Who Lives in Dallas?

I'm headed to the Lonestar State on Thursday. I went to Dallas about 6 years ago and the only thing I remember was some mall out in the suburbs called grape-something-or-other....

Anyway, anyone familiar? What's a good bar? I did a Pollstar search and the only people playing are The Melvins and I already opted to skip them here on Saturday night. So, no meat markets, no top 40, no cover bands and no mechanical bulls...

Then again, a mechanical bull may not be so bad...I haven't had a date in a while...

I'm staying on Commerce Street near the city center and am not planning to rent a car - so keep suggestions to the downtown area.

Thanks!

Cheney Board

The Debate

Everyone keeps asking me what I though about the debate.

Well, I think this guy summed it up best:

Here's how I see the candidates' arguments for the Presidency based on their foreign policy debate:

Bush: Because I am the first post-9/11 President, I had to make some really really hard decisions. And simply because I was the one who got to make them, I should be re-elected. I will never look back or even consider that I may have made mistakes. Never. Anyone who says they would have done things differently is a pussy. Did I mention that I made really really hard decisions?

Kerry: You can be certain and also be wrong. Bush is wrong. I can do better. I can make really really hard decisions too. You'll just have to trust me on that because I can't clearly explain why I'm capable of it in a way that most Americans can understand. And I fought in Vietnam so there's no way I'm a pussy.

Oh, yeah, and Bush sucks.

What A Girl Wants

Enough Said

Change Is Good

Since Brunette is the new Blonde, I dyed my hair black again this weekend. Viva La Goth!

Random IM

It's Saturday night, 3AM, Patrik pops up on the screen and we get into this late night bitch session about people who are always trying to tell you who they are. IMHO, most of the time when someone tells you who they are, it's usually not exactly reality. So, anyway, we start off in a very philisophical chat on the nature of human beings and this is how it ends...

Rachel Hurley: if you're really anything, you don't have to tell anybody
Rachel Hurley: people kind oif figure it out
patty_dreggz: are you a bottom?
Rachel Hurley: no, but I'm an ass
patty_dreggz: GOOD ONE
patty_dreggz: can I use that?
patty_dreggz: oh man
patty_dreggz: i love it
Rachel Hurley: nope, I trademarked it last week
patty_dreggz: best come back i have heard to that
patty_dreggz: fuck you
patty_dreggz: share
patty_dreggz: yesssss
Rachel Hurley: See, I didn't have to tell you I'm an ass, you could have figured it out
patty_dreggz: no--i just know
patty_dreggz: my pal Rach...yeah - she's an ASS
patty_dreggz: but a really pretty ass
patty_dreggz: and shes...get this
patty_dreggz: SMART
Rachel Hurley: ahahhahahahahahahah
patty_dreggz: ah
patty_dreggz: you always do start that off wrong
patty_dreggz: unless you are really saying 'ah' a lot
patty_dreggz: which
patty_dreggz: i dont think you are
patty_dreggz: nope
Rachel Hurley: no, I just laugh like the count on sesame street
Rachel Hurley: ah ah ah ah
patty_dreggz: AHHHHHHH
patty_dreggz: you get so many points!
patty_dreggz: like...sooooooooooooooo many

Party Recap & Movie Mention

Well, Well, Well. I'd love to tell you all about how great the party was last night, however, I had a couple of mishaps that shadowed my experience. I am pretty sure that everyone else had a good time. If I know you I've probably already worn your ears out with my tale of woe, if I don't know you you probably don't care, so I won't bother rehashing it.

In other news, I did see the greatest scene from a film ever tonight. Have you seen Bertolucci's The Dreamers? Here's the synapsis:

The tumultuous political landscape of Paris in 1968 serves as the backdrop for a tale about three young cineastes who are drawn together through their passion for film. Matthew, an American exchange student, pursuing his education abroad in Paris, becomes friends with a French brother and sister duo, named Theo and Isabelle, who share a common love of the cinema. While the May 1968 Paris student riots--which eventually shut down most of the French government--are happening around them, the three friends develop a relationship unlike anything Matthew has ever experienced, or will ever encounter again.

Ok, but what the film is really about is a brother and sister's incestuous relationship and how they draw a naive young American into a three-way love affair. Ok, sure, whatever, people are strange, I can dig it. Here's the part that's quite unbelievable. The brother and sister's parents go away to the country and leave the house to the kids. The young American moves in. They basically wander the house naked, have sex all the time, take baths together, drink all the family wine, destroy the house and talk about poetry and politics. They run out of money and the phone gets turned off. One night they make a tent in the living room and all crawl inside and fall asleep naked and entangled with one another. Remember - it's a brother and sister and another guy. So the parents come home because they can't get through by phone. They walk into their home and find it completely wrecked. They walk into the living room to see their naked twin children alseep and entwined with the crazy American boy. And what do they do?

They go into the study, write the children a check, place it on the table in front of where they are sleeping and sneak out the house "on tip toes" and leave.

Talk about the Sureal Life! WTF? I thought that was going to be the climax of the film, when the parents come home and tell The Dreamers to grow up! Instead the ending was some wierd political statement that I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to understand.

Anyway, I loved Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, but this film was incredibly hard to swallow.

P.S. I registered 25 people to vote last night. Yay democracy!

P.S.S. One more thing about the party. This is a little tip for guys and girls alike. Let's call it auntie Rachel's dating advice. If you meet, for argument's sake, lets just say ME, and you want to have a chat, that's cool - but please, for god's sake, don't tell me your entire life's story. I just met you, and I really don't care. If you want to talk to me - it should be a conversation, so ask a question, take a breath, don't give a speech! If you want to listen to yourself talk, go home and sit in front of the mirror. Rant over.

Tonight, Tonight!

Wow, there's a lot going on right now. Of course, the big party is tonight. All signs point to it being huge. The boys and I were at soundcheck last night until around 2:30AM. It was a pain in the ass but at least we got it out of the way. I still have a ton of errands to run this afternoon, and I have to find something to wear. I think that there's still so much to do, by the time the party hits I'll kind of be lost without anything to do. We got three mentions in the Memphis Flyer this week, Sound Advice, We Recommend, and After Dark. And the totally awesome Donnie Snow gave us a mention in his weekly Club Scout Report.

If you're in the area and you still haven't registered to vote, you best be getting down to Cooper-Young and registering. This party is gonna be fun, but for me there is an underlying purpose and that's getting people to make a choice this election. No whining like last time that it doesn't matter, cause it does.

Alright, this post accidentally turned into a rant - I better go now.