Zach G can do no wrong.

Neither can Micheal Showalter.

Wilson Brothers Child Caskets.

You owe me for gas money?

This is… a lump of blue shit.

and of course, this- another example of how dumb it is to disable embedding.

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Deal Breakers: These Are My 5 Favorite Songs.

If you hate any number of these songs then we will have a daunting mountain to overcome on the long trek to friendship.

Number 1- The Black Keys “Meet Me In The City”

This cover comes from 2006’s Chulahoma EP composed of 6 great Junior Kimbrough songs filtered through The Black Keys. When this song hit my ears back in May of that year, I knew this song would always be by my side. I’ve gone back and forth as to whether it’s a happy song or a sad one and I am currently resting on the chickenshit conclusion that it is bittersweet after all. I must have listened to this song well over a thousand times in the last 3.5 years. I never get tired of it. I always want to listen to it one more time. I love it.

Number 2- Modest Mouse “Trailer Trash”

I hear these doubled up mumbles in this song have had me wondering since first listen: did he just slur nothing or everything? Does it matter? This song sounds like a hopeless surrender to poverty and heartbreak that somehow makes that defeat seem triumphant. This is much less significant but Joe Cox rides to this in his part in Voices- one of the best parts and videos in bmx history.

Number 3- Modest Mouse “Polar Opposites”

This and Trailer Trash could be in any order here. I love them both. Listening to Lonesome Crowded West in high school was how I think it must have been to listen to The Smiths if you grew up in the 80’s. I would lay in bed for sleepless nights listening to this on my little discman (nostalgia?!) trying to take apart the lyrics and find out just why the hell it felt like these songs were written just for me. I never figured that out but these two songs in particular on that album are responsible for at least one worn out cd player in my younger days.

Number 4- Wilco “Ashes of American Flags”

Considering how many times I played Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in high school I think it’s amazing that it took me about 5 or 6 years to get another Wilco album. I just didn’t occur to me that I should get something else of theirs until late last year. This song gets me every time when those little bells ding and Jeff Tweedy says “speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come?”… slays me every time.

Number 5- New Order “Ceremony”

So I like Joy Division but I’m sure glad that from that tragedy, something like New Order could come out of it all. And by this 1984 performance, they had made Ceremony truly something to celebrate. I remember hearing this song way early in my youth and having it pop up occasionally throughout my life. In the last couple of years it had been one of maybe a half dozen New Order songs on my ipod and within the last year it became one of the most played songs on that ipod. I had been sitting on it for a long time to use it in a bike video edit and finally pulled the trigger in the final video that I made for Yeti this last year. Evan Powell had won the junior class, Ross Milan had won the mountain cross with DZ right behind him, and Chris Boice won the race and the series overall. I was glad to see my friends do so well. Between that and knowing that I wouldn’t be doing any bike videos for a while seemed like as good a reason as there ever would be to bust out Ceremony.

Bonus- Lucero “I’ll Just Fall”

This is my go-to song for feeling like I just want to not exist. Which isn’t as often as it used to be. To capture that self torment in such an elegant and simple song is an accomplishment. But then to serve up such subtle reminders that this crushingly shitty feeling is temporary and you just need a few more minutes down here is great. And to not drag anyone else down with you like some sappy emo garbage but to just say that you’re not in anyone’s way being down is nice. MT put is pretty well when he said “sometimes you just need to feel like you should drink a gallon of whiskey and slit your wrists.” This is a good soundtrack for those days.

So… sorry if you don’t dig those because they are awesome. And if you agree then hey, that epic mountain climb to friendship is behind us.

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One of my all time favorite Simpsons episodes, the Beer Barron, Rex Banner, banana-kaboom. Priceless.

The Right Stuff.

First things first. Who the heck ended up clicking onto my stupid little blog after it turned up (somehow) in a search for this term: “what causes the monthly period not to start”… you don’t need to click onto this blog, you need a doctor and a reliable prego-test.

Now on to more pressing matters. This made my week. I went to work and swung by the main student activities building on campus on my way in. I was looking for some breakfast and the pickens were slim. But then, my eye was tackled by a coconut shaving sprinkled doughnut in the case. The focus went soft around it and the edges of the doughnut seemed to glow. I walked towards it in slow motion, which I’m sure looked weird to everyone else walking in regular motion. It was meant to be. This doughnut was my breakfast.

I got it back to the office and sat down. I took the phone off the hook, took a deep breath and bit into it. Church bells tolled, birds took to flight, and I had a zen food moment.

Contrary to what Wentz may think, I really don’t eat doughnuts all that often. But this one was special. It was exactly what I wanted and there was exactly enough of it. The rest of the day was pretty mediocre but that 5 minutes where I savored that damn pastry put me at peace.

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If this isn’t the cutest damn thing in the whole wide world of little kids then I don’t know what is.

Heck, I don’t want to know. That right there is plenty adorable enough.

Videos Dump 11.6.09

Here’s some videos that are well worth the share.

First off is one of my all time favorites. Elmo tells an adorable baby right off.

In similar fashion, the Count like to f*uck.

The bestest Jeoprody response ever, also an old favorite.

Anybody remember Clone High? Yeah, I do. Miss it.

Another short one, aparently internet famous but I never saw it.

Okay, now go have a fun weekend.

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And try not to tweet too much. No one likes an overtweeter.

Or a tweeter in general.

Stick Figures Have Influenced My Life In A Significant Way.

Don Hertzfeldt is this wonderful filmmaker that has carved himself out a little niche in this world making stick figure centered animations that started off silly and have since moved on to taking bigger issues such as human evolution, the grand meaning of existence, the imminence of death, relationships, and the hope of the human heart. Pretty big topics to wrap up in characters often made up of under 20 pencil strokes.

Anyways, The Meaning of Life was this epic film that suggests we are all the same, just going through the motions in this universe, making the same stupid noises over and over, occasionally stopping to look up at the sky and wonder if anyone else is doing the same thing. I saw it in maybe early 2007 and my friend and I just left the theater and didn’t say a word for the entire trip home. Not in an awkward way. We were just put into this place where we were on the same page and we didn’t need to spoil it by saying so. It was really nice.

Then Everything Will Be Okay came out and kicked off the Bill trilogy (or as I am surely unoriginally calling it: the “Bill-ogy”) with a bang. Bill goes through this near death experience and after being sick for who knows how long on his death bed, he suddenly gets better and has to go back to work on Tuesday. The last shot was so damn powerful in its simplicity that I swore to myself that I would do my best to never take a moment like that for granted again. I’m surely failing in that promise to myself but I’m trying to keep it up as best as I can.

Now I Am So Proud Of You is out and it has lifted such a ridiculous weight off my shoulders that I feel like I owe Mr. Hertzfeldt a hand written thank you letter. I explained the movie to a friend of mine recently and she replied with, “That sounds nice. It’s like it takes all the pressure off of living.” Yup. It sure does. It’s the most uplifting existential representation of life that I have ever seen and it made me question an awful lot of what I thought was important in life. A good shuffling of priorities can do your mental well-being some good.

Here are some recent interviews with Don about his work. If you’re a dork like me, please read them.

A couple via the Detroit of the internet, myspace.

And one from AFI fest.

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Last one of these that I have on my computer.

I love the colors.