Choke on This!

"Controversial Fight Club and Snuff author Chuck Palahniuk has revealed Radiohead have written brand new music for the soundtrack to the new movie adaptation of his book Choke.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music on the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show, Palahniuk explained it all came from his love of the band’s music, saying: “Clark Gregg, who directed the movie version of Choke which comes out on September 26 (in the US), he knew that I’d written Choke while listening to Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, with Creep, over and over and over.

“So Clark got Radiohead to contribute a song; to write a song for the very end of the movie, the final credits. Apparently Radiohead liked the movie so much, they’ve written the score, most of the ambient music throughout it. So it’s ‘Choke – with the music of Radiohead’.

“When asked if he felt honoured to have such a respected band write music solely for his film, the author laughed, “I quit believing in my own life at this point! My life is just too incredible to be believable anymore. It’s a living dream.

”Palahniuk’s work is famous associated with alternative music, with his use of Pixies’ Where Is My Mind during the finale of the feature film adaptation of his novel Fight Club."

- BBC

Can you believe it? More new Radiohead music coming this year! It will probably not be anything resembling a standard 'album', but who cares?

You can check out the website for more information and the trailer here. *Warning - this is all just a little bit scandalous.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Trailer

Prepare to salivate...

Band sues Coldplay for Copyright Violations

For those of you who haven't heard, a local Brooklyn Band, Creaky Boards, is suing Coldplay for copyright violation. Namely, they claim Chris Martin and Company stole the melody from their song "Songs I Didn't Write" for the title track of their most recent album, Viva La Vida. It's close, but not quite the same. The interesting part of all this mess is that I work with one of the guys in the band here at Borders. The person who made the accusations is really the only mainstay in the band. The rest are rotatinbg players. I think by this point he may have dropped the suit. Smart move. Love the band though, check them out below.



Here's a video of another one of their songs. The guy I work with, Eric, is the bassist. I'm going to try and catch them here in town on Friday at the Mercury Lounge. This song is pretty rocking.

I will not be this guy...

Celebrity Siting

We had a "celebrity" visit the bookstore today. Farnsworth Bentley. What do you mean you don't know who he is? It's Farnsworth Bentley. The Farnsworth Bentley. For those of you not in the know, he's P. Diddy's personal assistant, a.k.a. Umbrella Holder. Yeah, we're living the big life up here in NYC.

Fish Pedicure Hits U.S. Salons

Be Kanye!

New York City Music Scene

So, I haven't really had the time to explore the scene around here very much yet. I know, I know. We have gone to a Philharmonic concert and thought about going to about five shows, but we really didn't want to spend the money. I just missed Vampire Weekend, Dengue Fever, Feist, Ween, and Spoon. Steven Malkmus and the Jicks are playing this weekend for free along with Broken Social Scene and Islands (and a bunch of other people, see poster below). Battles is coming up in Central Park on SummerStage. All Points West is coming up, and I'm really really looking forward to that (and I already have tickets).

I guess what it comes down to is that I just have to get out there and check it out. Here's an article on the NYC scene I found interesting.

I did go to Guitar Center and play this baby the other day. Beautiful.

She and Him - Change is Hard

She kind of sounds like Jenny Lewis there for a bit.

Borders Superstore #200

I started working today at Borders Park Avenue here in New York City. It's a different ballgame all together. I'm working IPT and this store runs like a Swiss watch. The palates are sorted and sent to the floor withing 24 hours of arriving. That's pretty crazy. I spent the afternoon unpacking boxes and sorting books. I'm happy to be working and earning some money, but It's kind of sad at the same time. I no longer have the freedom to explore that I did before now that I'm working full-time again. I really wish I would find a teaching position soon so I can focus on what I want to do: teach!

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

I finished reading Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Shadow Thieves last night. As you may know, I love J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. There is something so incredibly fascinating about a never ending childhood. The book embodies innocence in a way that no other book I've read does. Most break it down through coming-of-age trials and meandering experiences that generally lead to growing up. Seeing as I'm such a fan of the original text, it should come to no surprise that I have reserved feelings about Barry and Pearson's text. I did like Peter and the Starcatchers enough to read the second book and purchase the next one, but its just not the same. They've completely changed the origin story and created their own universe in which to adventure. I don't know, I guess I'm a sucker for YA lit, or maybe I just find the way they wrote the books so interesting. From what I understand, they each take turns writing new chapters and email them back and forth. You wouldn't know it from reading the text. It flows pretty smoothly. Like its predecessor, the book is incredibly long with amazingly short chapters. It is an easy read if you're looking for something to have fun with, but I'd start with Starcatchers unless you want to be utterly confused.

Summer Reading

I was reading Lake Petty Gulf's blog and she reminded me to post what I'm reading on my blog.

Here's what I'm up to so far this summer, I don't have a list so much as a collection of books ready to be read.

Here's what I've read thus far:

The Stranger - Albert Camus
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Peter and the Shadow Thieves - Barry/Pearson
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson

In the middle:

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
Summerland - Michael Chabon
The Boys' Crusade - Paul Fussell

Coming Up:

The Life and Times of Oscar Wao: Junot Diaz
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon: Barry/Pearson
The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time

McCarthy is amazingly talented. He has to be my new favorite fiction author. I can say the same for Bryson's non-fiction. I can thank Andrew for turning me onto the McCarthy, and Matt for the Michael Chabon.

Sunflowers in Brooklyn

I shot this while walking through Bed-Stuy. It was a welcome sight.

The Popheads - Eat Supermodels

Here's your chance to check out the new Popheads album Eat Supermodels for free! Simply click here, and download the songs. The Popheads are a Tallahassee band who play a curious mix of psychedelic rock and electronic alternative. They also wear furry pants. Seriously. I got to play with them once at the FSU Reservation. They put on an excellent show, pants and all. They are also good people. Check them out!

One Day As A Lion

Former Rage Against the Machine front man, Zach de la Rocha, has teamed up with a Los Angeles drummer to form One Day As A Lion. The pair will be releasing their debut Ep under that name on July 22. That's a week away! The bad news is that this is not a new Rage album. No word yet on that notorious solo work Zach did with Trent Reznor.



http://www.onedayasalion.org/
www.myspace.com/onedayasalion

Careful, the song lyrics are most likely explicit.

You're Hired!

Okay, so it's not a teaching job yet. In fact, it's at another Borders, but at least it pays. I'm going to start work tomorrow at the Borders Park Avenue store. Yes, it's as scary as it sounds. A four story Borders. By the way, I'm on IPT. For those of you not in the know, that's Inventory Preparatory Team. Sorting, shelving, customer service, cashier, etc. They do it all. I'll be working dull-time for now. Hopefully there's a school out there in the near future who wants a good teacher.

The All Star Game and the New York Philharmonic

In New York, time seems to be at a premium. Being that there is so much to do, you need to find time to do it all. You also have to be organized if you don't want to miss out. Stephanie and I went down to the Avenue of the America's (6th Ave.) this afternoon to catch the parade before the MLB All-Star Game here at Yankee Stadium. The red-carpet parade route stretched from 42nd all the way to Central Park down 6th Avenue. Every living Baseball Hall-of-Fame member and the All-Stars were walking in the parade. This was one not to miss. We missed it. It seems we were misinformed. Whereas the paper said the parade coverage began at 7:00 pm, what they really meant by 7:00 was 1:00, when the parade actually took place. I held our spots on the parade route against the never-encrouching crowd for over an hour before we realized that the parade had in fact aken place four hours earlier. This isn't the first incident of us missing something we really wanted to see. Time just doesn't make sense here sometimes.

In poor spirits, we left the parade route to grab some dinner. We went to Astro's Diner. This throwback joint served greasy food and flat coke. Another swing and a miss. Hey, at least the waiter was friendly.

Earlier today Stephanie had her first job interview here in New York. It was for a position similar to the one she had been in at the Brogan. This time it is at a gallery in Midtown. She thought it went really well, and they seemed to like her a lot. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Remembering reading something about the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing a free concert in Central Park tonight, we headed north into the park. We took our time walking by the lakes and under the canopy paths. We didn't expect the scene that awaited us ahead. Sometimes it's easy to misjudge the popularity of a free event in the city. One day you can go out and be one of a handful of people. We expected to find maybe a thousand people out in the park tonight. We didn't expect to find "61,000" people there, according to the New York Times. We could see the stage and barely hear the music from about a mile away when we entered the great green space. People were parked on blankets, drinking wine, and having a candlelit evening all over the place. I've never seen so many people in one space. I'm not sure how much you can see, but here's a video of the crowd followed by a clip of the orchestra. (I just watched the video and realized how fast I moved the camera, sorry. Please don't get sick on your keyboard.)

We left the concert right before its conclusion in order to beat the crowd (lest we be beaten by its retreating occupants). As we headed towards the subway I saw this fallout shelter. Interesting find in the middle of the city. History is all over the place.

When we got home I turned on the TV expecting to find the All-Star Game over with. We would have gone had it not been impossible to get a ticket to the last All-Star Game ever being held at Yankee Stadium. The game was in the 8th inning, but it would beb another three hours before it was over. It was a pretty amazing game, well defended on both sides. I had been wearing my Boston cap all day (in New York City!) and was happy to see J.D. Drew win the MVP award; a Bo-Sock and a Seminole.

With the morning fast approaching, it is time to get some sleep. I have an interview tomorrow with Borders Park Avenue. Steph has another interview with a different gallery as well. It's going to be a big day!

Our closet broke!

Happy Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day everyone! It's that day of the year where everyone breaks out their French accents and their berets (though, admittedly, I have neither). Stephanie and I went in to the city to the French Festival in midtown. We were greeted by an arc or red, white, and blue balloons, though none representing the U.S. of course. Beyond the French banners and flags was a man boxed in by police barriers shouting at every passerby in French. This same man happened to be wearing a U.S.A. collared shirt, but who's counting. We grabbed a couple of chicken pitas and made our way from east to west down the street. In the distance a stage was erected on the side of the street. As we made our way towards it, a chorus of French audience members joined together in gang-vocal fashion singing something which I didn't understand. Stephanie got a bon-bon (or two) and I got a strawberry crepe. They were delicious! At five o'clock we headed back downtown to go to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral I couldn't help but think back to when I read Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth. The architecture was amazing. The ceiling was immense. You really feel small in such a large place. Going to mass there is a strange experience in itself. The place is kind of like a mixture between a church and Disney World. In the back of the room there was a shop selling gifts and a reception desk. There were even people taking pictures of the place. Once the Mass was over we went outside and I saw this sixty year old Asian man dressed in full goth gear. He was wearing a red kilt, knee high leather buckled boots, spikes, studs, leather, mesh, eyeliner, fingernail polish, and had about a seven inch spike of hair sticking up out of the middle of his bald hair. Only in New York can you step out of a church and into the circus.

We were hungry for some good pasta, so we headed down to Little Italy. There are so many places to choose from down there. We settled down at a small restaurant called Benito's I. The food was fabulous! The best meal we've had thus far.

William Fitzsimmons & Brooke Fraser - Afterall

The lyrics are ridiculously repetitive, but I love the melody, the guitar and that backing synth.