watching expired appliances align

confirmed.

last night i think i all but put my registration money on the table (i think it was the excitement from reading mitch's notes from arizona). i confirmed to dan that i will be playing in the brooklyn rotisserie baseball league he's setting up. that means i have to get serious about knowing stats and players - no more getting sabermetrics confused with the number of different flights leaving for california on any given day. no more joking around in front of the tv about how i'm actually familiar with the name tejada. now i have to know that not only is he a major league baseball player, i have to know what position he plays and whether or not he's any good.

a lot of the stuff i'm going to have to know is probably going to come down to pitching, right?

to develop a better insight into that position and understand how players relate to each other, i'll be checking out this graph by colby cosh, which uses pretty colors and variously sized circles to cover ideas about strikeouts and bases on balls. (link via baseball musings, which explains the chart much better than i could ever hope to).

now, where is that copy of moneyball that sujan's been reading?

with that blue shirt, marissa looked five years old

wednesday's episode of THE OC was terrible. discuss.

(i will add more comments during the next 24 hours):

1:18am - jim just emailed me and told me he enjoyed the episode. maybe i watched the show while in a bad mood. maybe i was upset because i read somewhere that someone had reigned in peter gallagher's eyebrows as the show got popular.

11:27am - while at the computer last night i let this episode run again in the background. normally, a good episode of THE OC would have me turning around in my chair to face the television. didn't happen last night. the whole thing came off as very disjointed. i knew we were in trouble when eric balfour made his appearance - another character? let's just have one more episode with the core group! is it still sweeps month? i want sweeps-worthy episodes that don't spend an hour shifting gears and re-aligning stories. my favorite moment was watching luke walk into a door after seeing juju cooper in the school hallway. that's funny. that's dramatic, in a blatently over-the-top way. that's what we want more of.

12:04pm - one thing i intended to ask about last night - what is summer's last name? (this question appeared on this week's tv gal column)

2003 movie lists (again!)

two new movie lists are now online. jeremy and jim contribute to the crazy movie discussion with interesting and original thoughts on the movies they saw in 2003. and don't forget that comments for movie lists should be made here: http://www.balgavy.com/blog/marcblog/000167.html

UPDATE: dan's sister, amy, sent a movie list. it's now online. check it out.

a letter from jeff

last week, along with a bunch of others, i got an email from my friend jeff. he'd been in bali for a few days, traveling, seeing the sights, taking a break from his time in australia. he'd sent a few emails before sending the one below. they were good, entertaing travel missives. but nothing struck me with the urge to travel and be a more friendly, interested person like the email i'm reprinting (with permission) below. i had an inkling it would be a crazy report from bali when his previous email ended with the lines: I had all the expereinces I told you about in the past 48 hours and I am EXHAUSTED from writing this. I'm gonna go to this drag show in a bar in the alley by my hotel and hit the sack. i had no idea how much fun the next few hours would be for jeff.

from: jeff s.
date: thursday, feb 19th, 2004
subj: killing time in the airport-cockroach just crawled across the screen

Friends,

Last night, RIGHT after I wrote that massive email, I had a life-changing experience. Maybe not changing, but life-affirming. I was ambling down the street at like nine o clock, yawning and getting ready for an early bedtime.

And then:

I heard the most spazzed-out, funky LIVE version of "I Feel Good." I looked over, and saw this Balinese band, fronted by this ELECTRIFIED sweat-soaked guy, _cranking_ out the jams. This kid, the singer, was ON fire...he was soaked in sweat, shaking and grinding like a videotape of Mick Jagger and James Brown on fast forward. He had a cordless mike, and he was running up to hotel guests, mostly quiet English people who were just trying to politely eat. He'd shake sweat on them and howl into the mike right at their table, climb the empty chair and jump off.

There was drummer, bass, guitar, and this guy SMOKING the djembe, smiling massively the whole time. That guy's grandparents were headhunters in Java, I later learned. Then these insanely feral looking Greek people jumped on the stage and grabbed all the other djembes and bongos and just tore it up right along with the band, junglifyingf the Stones, Beatles, everything. This one guy who looked like Animal from the Muppets and Charles Manson did this shaking, terrifyingly sexual dance with these two undulating indonesian women. Sweat flew _everywhere_ It was the rawest, hottest, most primal rock and roll I have ever seen.

I'll tell you this: Ian Sevonius and the Make-Up need to fly over here just to wipe this band's ass. They're a great show, but these guys are the real deal.

I had to talk to them, and my god are they ever nice. The singer is named Alfan, from Denpasar. I told him I was American and a huge fan already...he smiled and had me to the table, introduced me to the band, and put me on the band's bar tab.

I started drinking Arak, a rice wine, and the realness commenced. I met the guys, we talked about the Stones and music. I told them I was from VA, and they said "What band is from there?" They're obsessed. It is our cultural duty to mail these guys cds, for real.

They learned I played the drums, and got REAL excited. They said, hopefully, "You play the drums with us?" I said, well, I gotta go tomorrow..." They all laughed and said no, right now.

They sweated out some more strange, sweaty island sweat-drenched rock classics, then Alfan said "Now, all the way from America our new friend and drummer...JEFF!" They all clapped and chanted and hooted, trilling and I took the stage.

We played a heavy heavy wandering version of Clapton's cocaine...I looked up, and they were all smiling so broadly, and so was I. My shirt was drenched with sweat, and the drummers, 2 djmbe, bongo, and dijerdoo player all looked at me. I scaled the beat back, and we all followed. Then the guitarist started playing the most amazingly ropically stretcy guitar solo for like ten minutes and then the jams got straight Secret Cave. It just devolved into this thudding orgy of rhythm, and I was part of it, holding the backbeat down while these 2 Javanese headhunters' grandchildren went positively apeshit. Alfan began crooning in Balinese, a traditional Hindu prayer and chant over everything. Every man and woman in the place was on the stage in between the musicians, dancing furiously. We kept gong, the jam must have been an hour long.

American neo-hippies all need to come wipe MY ass right now, because this drum circle was the real deal, holyfield. Finally it all thumped to a slow eventual halt. I said thanks and we all clapped for each other and hugged.

Then the birthday cakes came out. Turns out it was Animal Mansons' 34th. The band _rocked_ a version of happy birthday and the dancing resumed, people smearing their faces with/eating cake. It's easily the b

I stayed up till 3 am drinking Bintang and Arak with the band and their friend and the singer's mom. They, and most Indonesians, are the warmest and most genuinely friendly people you can meet. If you hang for ten minutes with an indonesian guy, you're friends for life. Money was no issue here, it was just all love, and fantastic.

The guitarist is Javanese and Muslim. We talked about religious intolerance, how Muslims get a lot of heat unfairly now after the bombing in Bali. They asked about playing rock music in America, Natasha in Perth, we just hung, man.

I'm in the airport now and excited to get home and clean up, see Natasha, but so sad to leave. This place is so wonderful--in four days I have felt every range of emotion I can about it, but it all falls under love.

Please send this along to everyone you like, and remember: when the man in the loincloth asks you to touch the Holy Snake, DO IT, and don't ask for change out the donation box.

-Jeff

notes from arizona

check out notes from arizona by my friend mitch. he leaves tuesday for spring training. he's going out there for work, but when he gets a few minutes and computer access, he hopes to update the spring training journal we've set up. it should all be pretty exciting. i'm looking forward to the baseball talk and i'm interested to hear about mitch's take on the cities he visits and the random observations he makes.

day 17

today i just learned about a cool new project some friends of mine created: day 17. according to the introduction to the site it's "a web-log of sorts, updated monthly, in which each participant takes note of what happens to them on the 17th of the month, and writes it down."

hello sunshine

last night's episode of THE OC was fun, right?

a few issues that came up during last night's discussion of the show:

1 - after i mentioned the liberal use of make-up on the show, cheryl suggested that the make up artist should be fired. a rather harsh assertion, i think. let's start with using less foundation on ryan's ex (as, i believe, katie suggested).

2 - i should refrain from commenting on how hot adam brody is. when i commented that the overhead shot of him in bed without a shirt was more bob, carol, ted and alice than 90210, the joke went over like a lead balloon.

3 - eliza postulated that THE OC is ONE TREE HILL's trashy, slutty cousin (or some words to that effect). i disagreed. then she reminded me that sandy on THE OC looks a lot like DAN on ONE TREE HILL. one dad is good and one is evil.

one more thought - before drifting off to sleep i caught samaire armstrong (anna) on LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY. i'm now trying to remember how she pronounced her name. something like sSah mee rahh. it was weird. and she's got all these hand to hand combat skills. with like spears. and rob schneider was the other guest who stayed on the couch while samaire and carson chatted. a perfectly bizarre ending to the night.

UPDATE: in case you missed it earlier this week, check out the ABC's of THE OC on popcrazy.com

when did i get old?

played a little poker last night. a lot of hands were dealt. jeremy, jim and i all have sore fingers today from all the shuffling. i just checked online and it looks like we can get an automatic card shuffler for less than $15. it's on a website geared for those who are getting on in years. and it runs on C battteries. it's about time i create an amazon.com wishlist.

of shopping & haircuts

i try to stay away from writing about technology/computer issues since my knowledge in that arena is rather limited. but i must say that i'm not a fan of people stealing bandwidth (direct linking to images on my website). for some reason, it's starting to happen to my photos more and more. sometimes i let it go (and feel guilty), sometimes i just remove the image entirely, and sometimes i replace the image with text over it directing people to my website for a more complete story. unfortunately, i usually don't find out about the theft of an image until the end of the day - after a message board that contains a stolen image has already seen most of its visitors. from now on, it's time to limit the number of shopping cart escalator and faux hawk photos i take.

(i was reminded of all this when i read Are You A Stupid Blogger?)

b.s. girl

(The following anecdote is a bit more personal than the things I normally write. I’m not saying it’s a salacious tale, but I do use the phase "dry humping." Consider yourself warned.)

The one good story I have about weird make-out sessions is one I usually forget about until someone brings it up. We'll be out at a bar and somebody will say something about crazy making out. Or strange making out circumstances. Or going to the beach or whatever. And then someone will ask me to tell the new person at the table or the bar about "bathing suit girl."

When she comes up, I roll my eyes and smile. I got myself into an odd situation with bathing suit girl. A situation I didn't know how to handle (okay, okay, that's not too odd, but still!).

Sometime back in 1999, while my roommate and his then-girlfriend were on vacation, I called the girlfriend's roommate and asked her to join me at the bar. She agreed and after two or three drinks the flirting got a little heavier. Somehow Feng Shui came up. I wanted to make out, so I just went with the punches. I’ll admit to a curiosity about Feng Shui, but I wasn't "into it, into it." After another drink or two we walked back to my place. After having a glass of water, I should've kissed her. But I didn't. I was awkward and nervous.

And then I brought up the Feng Shui again. And I insisted we go to her apartment so that I could see how she was organizing her room based on the principles of Feng Shui. (see, I'm totally neurotic and need to be hit over the head with the info that the woman I'm talking to likes me)

So, we call a car service and go over to her place. I sit on her bed. She pulls out a Feng Shui (do I have to keep typing this phrase over and over? It's so 1997) book. I flip through a few pages and I finally kiss her. It's one of those dry, we've had too much to drink kisses. I don't stop. There's some more making out. Nothing too heavy. The book must’ve crashed to the ground, though.

The making out and the kissing and the dry humping go on for another thirty minutes or so. And the dry humping is really picking up. And she's really into it. Too into it. That was pretty weird. I'm all for the fun of dry humping, but it shouldn't get out of control like crazy sex gets out of control, you know? Anyway after a few more liplocks, I nervously get up the courage to stop pawing her breasts over her clothes. I'm anxious to feel the warmth of her skin. And my excitement is going to diminish if I have to keep grinding against her pants. Yikes, that whole experience still brings memories of pain.

Anyway, I manage to untuck her shirt and, as I'm on top of her, I let my right hand feel her back...and my hand isn't coming into contact with her skin. There was probably a pause in my kissing. I don’t think she noticed, as she didn’t stop to explain anything. My hand continued to explore her lower back (not her ass, I swear – her lower back, for real) and it’s this smooth texture that I don’t know how to describe. My slightly inebriated brain certainly didn’t know how to process what I was feeling. The kissing and the dry humping continued. I tried to play it cool. I tried to act like I expect this thing to happen all the time.

And then I felt the back of her bra. What the hell kind of undershirt did she have on here? Wait. Maybe I didn’t feel her bra. Fuck. I don’t remember. Anyway, my hand did reach toward her ass – and that same slidey-like texture was still there. I wondered if she was wearing some kind of corset? She wasn’t overweight! She didn’t need a corset. We just went out for drinks – what was she doing wearing a corset? Was this some sort of "slimming" undergarment she’d ordered from the television late one night? And now that I think about, she was wearing a bra – THAT was the weirdest thing. I just can’t remember it if was under this odd feeling garment or on top of it.

Finally my curiosity got the best of me. After ten minutes I had to stop the kissing and just ask what she was wearing! And she was wearing a bathing suit. I was stunned. Why the hell was she wearing a bathing suit? It made no sense at all. None. Then she explained that she didn’t have any clean underwear that morning. And that sometimes, growing up in Hawaii when she didn’t have any clean underwear, she’d just wear a bathing suit. My mind was officially blown, especially when she explained that she’d done laundry that afternoon. We made out some more. She didn’t offer to remove her one piece bathing suit. I did mention it was a one piece, didn’t I?

When you’re making out, there is no sexy way to get a woman out of a one piece bathing suit. Maybe there is. I wasn’t on the swim team in high school so I don’t really know. If anyone has any hints, keep them to yourself. There’s no need to share those hints. If I ever end up unexpectedly making out with a woman who is wearing a one piece beneath her street clothes I will totally lose it and be in no state to continue with the making out.

I spent the night at her place. I’m sure there was more dry humping. All of this took place on a low-to-the-ground futon. She got up the next morning, changed out the bathing suit (finally!) – and went jogging! I hung around sleeping and we went to see "Go" that afternoon. I don’t think I showered. Oh, and the frustration – because, of course, there was no sober making out the next morning. My god, I was sore. To this day I cannot explain why I was still hanging out with her that Sunday afternoon. I guess I really wanted to see the movie. She offered to make me soup for dinner. I guess she felt bad that popcorn was the only thing I'd eaten all day. But soup? That made no sense. Actually, the idea of having anyone make food for me makes me uncomfortable. Her suggestion of spending even more time hanging out was the last straw. That was too weird. I went home after the movie and never made out with her again.

A few months later she called me from San Francisco. A friend of hers was thinking of opening a movie theatre in Hawaii and wanted some advice. I tried to share my very limited knowledge, while writing a note to my roommate saying I was on the phone with "bathing suit girl." If that theater ever opened, I hope it was designed following principles of Feng Shui.

macrock 2004

anyone up for a trip to harrisonburg, va for this year's macrock? it's being held april 2-3.

i went to the first macrock. it was a lot of fun. i missed the pre-cursor to macrock which was held at old dominion university sometime during the spring of 1995 (or was it 1994?) and i'm still kicking myself about that. okay, i'm not really kicking myself about that. and i'm not really kicking myself about never organizing the first macrock either - long before it was called macrock. virginia college radio took 1996 off and sam was in charge of bringing it roaring back in 1997. he did a great job and it's exciting to see the event is still going on.

i am bummed that the wxjm online radio webcast is down, though.

the oc - our minds have been blown

how fantastic was tonight's episode of THE OC? there's so much to say! i don't know where to begin. i feel like everyone should meet at o'connor's in an hour to talk about it. every episode is like four episodes in one! the pace of the show is so fast. while watching the show sujan commented that she didn't want there to be a cliffhanger - she wanted this oliver trask nonsense cleared up by the end of the episode. with forty minutes left in the show i safely confirmed that it would be. the producers of THE OC don't mess around. and that leaves just one question - the one sujan asked after the scenes for next week's episode - what are they going to have in store for season two?

i mean - luke and marissa's mom! whoa!!! yeah. it makes me giddy like a teenager just thinking about how ridiculously overblown and amazing this show is.

and in typical marc fashion, i'll mention that i'm reading this interview with series creator josh schwartz at this very moment. i haven't finished reading it, but it mentions his recent writer's guild of america nomination and it talks about the nature of the oliver trask storyline being "season 2" like. let's all go read it and i'll see you at 11 for a drink.

we won!

working under a new moniker, THE NEUTICLES, jamie, kaci, jim and i won dr. fact's night of fifty questions at buttermilk. we managed to hold onto our crown! chris and mary brought popcorn and came to cheer us on. everyone contributed answers and the well wishing continued into the night. shots were poured. and we won the bonus question which ended up with us receiving a free pitcher of beer. we couldn't have been happier. i'm counting on T.S.O.A. to have the sober details tomorrow.

(flyers by sam horine)
(drunken scans by marc)
(my take on our first victory)
(jamie's take on the first victory)

dan's 2003 music list

with all the cold weather and snow, i'm still pretending it's like the end of december. in keeping with that spirit, it's still time to continue with the 2003 wrap-ups. the following excerpts are from dan's 2003 music list which is now online:

The Thrills - So Much For the City
Ohmigod. If Mayflies USA was the perfect band to listen to during cookouts at Prospect Park in 2002, this band will be the one to listen to in 2004. Every song is like sweet molasses dripping with pop perfection. One of Stone Groove's favorites of the year.

The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Done?
The Unicorns combine some of the more annoying aspects of Too Much Joy, Of Montreal, and Tullycraft into one unappealing glop.

Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic
Stone Groove couldn't handle them (too loud) but the kids know this band is where it was at in 2003. Ten brilliant songs, over and out, goodnight. It is almost like they were here on earth just to record this amazing record, they did it, and then they were gone. Sounds crazy, but the rock gods must have had a plan to take this young rock band from us so soon. If only we had an Eddie Cochran of our generation to write a eulogy for them.

And that's just a sampling of what Dan has to say about a few bands who released albums in 2003. The list also includes a quick revisit to his 2002 list, a brief essay on combining his record collection with Sujan's and "An Open Letter to Huey Lewis."

what's on my card?

wired news has a fairly in-depth story today about bars scanning driver's licenses. it's worth reading if you've ever wondered how much information is on the magnetic strip of your license. the story also links to a site called swipe that offers tools for you to determine what info is on your card. that site was created by some pittsburgh artists who, according to the story, did any interesting art installation recently.

more movie lists

in case you missed it, a few more 2003 movie lists have been added. check out lists from sujan, sarah f. & mitch.

my list is in the works. i'm still in shock that the academy nominated CITY OF GOD in so many categories.

send me your movie lists soon! and, comments for movie lists should be made after clicking here.