watching expired appliances align

the oc (again, of course)

when did "traffic" become the defining film for how "a rough and tumble lifestyle in mexico and/or southern california" should be portrayed? last night's episode of THE OC found ryan and marissa headed back to the bad side of town where ryan grew up. it was shot with intense film grain and a complete blue cast - just like the drug dealing scenes in "traffic." this year's 24 is shooting the scenes in mexico the same way. the whole thing feels very frustrating and unoriginal.

(by the way, the odds are good i stole this idea from a comment dan made while we were watching 24)

bluebird of happiness

i'm not the sort to encourage online interactive web participation, but this time i'm making an exception to my rules. check out the everwood music guide for the episode entitled "just like in the movies". mojave 3's "bluebird of happiness" (from their album spoon and rafter) was featured in a very pretty scene featuring amy abbott and a new boy who works in the drug store. - and - the everwood music website is having a little poll about your favorite music from the episode. and i voted. because i really like the song. and i like the show. and i'm filled with nice and happy thoughts these days. so, go vote! right now "bluebird of happiness" is barely beating liz phair in popularity!

what do you call a group of gnus?

balgavy the brand continues to expand! jamie paquette's new weblog is online as an extension of balgavy.com. i'm expecting exciting things (he's already got a link to his beard registration page!). it's called "the shrewdness of apes" and can be found at balgavy.com/apes. go enjoy it now. and make sure you bookmark it. please keep all bonobo jokes to yourself. (caution: that bonobo link is filled with bonobo noises!)

k street revisited

i watched two episodes of hbo's "k street" and gave up. a few weeks ago i was in washington, dc and i tried to meet a friend for lunch. i got lost. some of the streets have the same names, but vary on the northwest / northeast / whatever part. i knew this at one time in my life. i forgot it on that day i was supposed to meet my friend for lunch. i swore off dc at that point. but thanks to matt zoller seitz's new review of "k street" i'm ready to give the show another chance. i think. i wish i'd read his review a few days ago so i could've spent the weekend catching up. two years from now this will be a show that everyone's talking about. five years from now? maybe i'm just amped on thoughts of cinema verite after watching the documentary (cinema verite: defining the moment) i mentioned recording a few weeks ago.

more misc. photoblogs

some miscellaneous photoblogs that i've been checking out on occasion:

(details and comments forthcoming, if i can tear my attention away from the American Muisc Awards)

moments.daily

razvan's photoblog

kevin steele

london photos

cold static

east end park

karmative

knurdle.com

persistent truant

fritzblog!

external monologue

jetselective

unaspiring

designgravy

pink*box

with the wind outside

one thing i really like is the warmness of a stack of paper that's just printed from a recently powered up laser printer.

kim borrows the camera!

I've finally posted the ten photos from Kim who borrowed my digital camera a few months ago. Check out her photos, the most recent images from the borrowed camera project. She's photographed a pretty interesting series of images. Hopefully, she won't mind my mentioning that she should update her fotolog soon. It's got some even crazier images.

If you'd like to borrow my camera, send me an email (marc726@hotmail.com). Put "borrowed camera" in the subject line. Then prepare to wait. This whole thing is going quite slowly. But that's sort of what's fun about it.

anticipation

a month and a half ago the guardian presented a great story on the history of the cassette tape. i wish there were links in the story, because it seems like some interesting things are mentioned toward the bottom. (link via brushstroke.tv)

marc 2.0

ready to sell your soul to the marketers? give up your personal information here for a free jake 2.0 dvd. i've seen two episodes. i'll bet the two episodes i've seen are the ones on the dvd.

speaking of free dvd's, i picked up a ny post monday morning and got a free 20 minute preview of "master and commander." oooh, swords and ships. that's the hot new genre, isn't it?

what would hank kingsley say?

maybe tvbarn is becoming my "go to" place for weird television news. in the early 90s gene siskel, warren zevon and john ritter all appeared on the same episode of "larry sanders." tvbarn reports the episode aired last week in kansas city.

too many blades

It’s not often you look at your reflection in the mirror and think “I really feel like I’m 46 years old.” I just looked into the mirror and realized that I look like I’m 46. Somehow I’ve crafted the look of a man fully in the midst of the tail end of a mid-life crisis. I’ve got the beard of a latter-era Cheers Frasier Crane. And my temples are completely gray. When I push my hair back I see the edge of my slowly receding hairline. I think the reason I’m afraid of getting an extremely short haircut is that I’ll realize how far my hairline has changed when I look back at photos from college.

Mainly I want to concentrate on my beard. I have no idea why I’ve left this ridiculous chinstrap of a beard for the past week. I originally sought this shape to dress as Silent Bob for Halloween. And then I left it. The moustache is filling in. The connectors are almost there. And there’s no hair on my cheeks! I’m trimming it. My sideburns rush straight down and connect with some sort of weirdly broadened goatee.

The exciting news is that for the past week I’ve been testing the Gillette Mach3. Yeah, yeah, the razor came out years ago but I finally tried one out. And to no one’s surprise, I’m not impressed. The razor randomly showed up in the mailbox (Sujan has vague memories of ordering it free somewhere online). I attached the blade and trimmed the hair on my neck. That blade does more than pivot! It feels like it slides around all over the place! My neck hairs disappeared, but no more easily than they disappear when I use my TracII or my Atra or my SensorExcel. And then I tried to work on the shape of my beard. I couldn’t tell where the blades actually were. And I didn’t feel comfortable pressing the razor firmly against my face. I abandoned the Mach3 and switched to the Atra – my favorite razor for whenever I need anything more than just a basic shave. I imagine the Mach3 is ideal if you shave your entire face and I look forward to using it then.

whatever happened to using undercover cops like on 21 JUMP STREET?

all the crazy news happens on fridays. i failed to read or hear about this over the weekend (probably because the only newspaper i picked up was the new york times magazine, which had no articles i actually read): in south carolina last week a group of police offers entered a high school (as requested by the principal) in an attempt to shut down drug activity. guns were drawn. no drugs were found. (link via hit & run)

survivor - this season is good

it seems like the star ledger is becoming my go-to site for television reviews. alan sepinwall looks at the current season of 'survivor' and finds that it's pretty good. interesting twists. interesting players. worth watching this thursday if you miss reality tv done well (and, let's face it, 'average joe' wasn't as good as any of us wanted it to be).

paintings

if you're in boston this month, check out my friend carly's paintings on display at zuzu.

comment from the archives

They're actually at the Middle East (Center). At least some of them are. I didn't go to Zuzu's b/c I'm not that swanky. But I saw the ones Carly's got hanging in the Middle East last night. They kept me company while I was annoyed and ignoring friends who I was drinking there with.

Carly also set up a show for my friend Julie recently. Julie may be best known to you as the girl who tipped over the table when last at Botanica, but she also did illustrations for popcrazy this month