making a list

The 11-day office closure that I've been looking forward to has already been interrupted by work and is expected to be interrupted by further work next week. In an effort not to succumb to bad mood bears, I've made a list of all of the fun and relaxing things to do when not working.

1. Read about Roosevelt and the Night Circus.

2. Make many cookies.

3. Practice Moroccan recipes for January's cookbook club.

4. Listen to Buble's Christmas.

5. Eat some oysters and see A Christmas Carol.

6. Taste wine. This is a separate blog post in and of itself. After spending hours of research time on tripadvisor, my Sonoma wine country itinerary is a thing of pride.

On repeat

Snack on repeat: wasabi peas. Pro column: spicy and amazingly crunchy. If you put too many in your mouth, the wasabi shoots up your nose and clears your sinuses. Con column: contains MSG. Why, wasabi, why?

Song on repeat: It Will Rain by Bruno Mars. This song is a trifecta: it's a slow jam, it's from the latest Twilight movie soundtrack, and Bruno Mars happens to kind of be adorable.

Sometimes you go to a music festival and end up liking a bunch of hippies

We Are Scientists present ... the rules of wine

We Are Scientists present ... the rules of wine

There are two basic types, or "varietals", of wine: red and yellow. Not surprisingly, there are different words for red and yellow wine in different countries. The French call them "bordeaux" and "sancerre", respectively. The Australians say "shiraz" and "chardonnay"; Italians, "nero d'avolo" and "pinot grigio." Germans, refreshingly, call everything "riesling". 

Study these rules while listening to WAS' new album, Barbara.

I get pinkeye just from listening to this song

Idol

Dance Little Liar

I am currently having a love affair with this song:



Who can forget the unfortunate pink eye incident from the We Are Scientists show, but the Arctic Monkeys concert is another truly memorable concert-going experience. I came very close to being dead that night in New York City. Or at least I had overwhelming feelings of impending doom and imminent death when the high schooler mosh pit swallowed me up, sat on my head, and made me scream uncle. No joke, these kids were intense, almost maniacal, at least six years my juniors. And no, I did not feel bad about quickly figuring out the real purpose of my elbows. I spent that concert concentrating more on staying on my feet and having enough air in my lungs than on any band of brothers playing some tunes.      

This December, the Arctic Monkeys are arriving in DC on the night of my Tax-Exempt Organizations final. Which reminds me, did you know that Harvard's endowment is as large as the Gates Foundation's? And as an institution that is recognized as a charitable organization by the IRS, with all of the appropriate and favorable tax consequences that this status entails, instead of using its tremendous funds to perhaps assist its medical and law students in completing their educations without ratcheting up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt in exchange for the students maybe providing their services in underprivileged areas -- you know, doing something charitable -- the school uses the funds to invest in a private equity and hedge fund portfolio. Do those investments sound like they promote a charitable purpose? Hardly. Is Harvard a charity?

But the point is, I can't go to the concert this year and redeem myself with the DC crowd. And the second point is, that one Tax-Exempt class last night was like sweet, sweet propaganda to my ears. A welcomed change from my War on High-Fructose Corn Syrup, it surprisingly came from a staffer who works for a Republican Senator from Iowa (who loves corn syrup). Worlds are colliding.

So far so good

It is only two days past Halloween and already I am thinking about my Christmas music. You see, I have this wish to some day be the proud owner of a glorious Christmas music collection/playlist. So far there is only:

Christmas with the Rat Pack









Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas

Josh Groban's Noel

Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (Kirov Orchestra & Choir)

and

Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful Christmas

So far so good. What is throwing the entire endeavor into jeopardy is Bob Dylan and HIS new Christmas CD, Christmas In the Heart. One part intriguing, three parts terrifying, it looks like this

and sounds like this.

I covet this album. And then I listen to the amazon song samples and my soul starts to instantly shrivel. A half hour later, I covet it again.

I mean, if you were in my kitchen, working diligently on a cookie batter, and the scariest rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" that you have EVER heard starts blaring from the speakers, pop quiz, hotshot, what do you do? Back away slowly from the mixing bowl, throw the garbage can over to create a diversion, and run for the door? Not before you spit in my general direction and throw your arms up to the heavens?

I am going to need to do a little bit more soul searching concerning this one.

You're all chrome

Tickets to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show sold out in like 2 minutes while I was watching coworkers play a friendly game of softball. They are still on sale however on craigslist and eBay. FOR ONLY $70-$90. Heads will roll.

Let me take you on a trip around the world and back

Last night I attended my third Depeche Mode concert in twelve years. That's right, they come around every four years, like clockwork, except that one year when they came back several months after I saw them, on the day that I was graduating from college, and I wasn't allowed to go to the concert since my parents thought it was important for me to graduate from college and all. Rats. Side note: Paul Sarbanes, of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for all of you accounting nerds, spoke at my graduation about something Benjamin Franklin something, something. In case you were wondering what I would have missed had I gone to the concert instead.

So last night we packed ourselves into the Accord and drove to bumblefrick Virginia. My brother, sister-in-law, and Papa T. That's right, I was on a date with my dad. HOT.



And also literally, it was a very hot outside.

Papa T brought binoculars and lamented the fact that he did not have his Nikon D90 and a big lens with him because that definitely would not have been at all burdensome. In between losing my voice from all of the WOOOing & SINGING and dancing up a storm in my one square foot of sweaty dance floor, I took some extra blurry photos and videos.

This here is a fairly accurate representation of our view. But probably a little zoomed in. If my memory serves me correctly, I bought these tickets online pretty much the minute they were released to the public.



One of the screens was just to the right. Here I captured Martin, my lover brother from another mother.



I also shot some shitty video snippets. In your room your burning eyes cause flames to arise.



Are you clapping for an encore? I leave you with the more upbeat Enjoy the Silence.

Hard to be soft, tough to be tender

Enjoying this song a lot:

"Help I'm Alive" by Metric

Getting pumped up for the Depeche Mode concert in July and my Depeche Mode cover band some time in the future

This video gives me nightmares.

Pinkeye outbreak averted

I wouldn't want to preemptively make the call, but I think I left tonight's We Are Scientists concert at the Hard Rock Cafe without contracting a severe case of pinkeye or ear infection or bubonic plague. You may or may not remember my concert diseases from last year. I wrote this post after coming home from the concert but before waking up in the morning and finding out that I had turned into a full-fledged zombie. At that concert, Keith had walked out into the crowd, singing one of their songs. As I was swooning, I reached out and touched him, and then again when he was coming back to the stage. Then I blacked out from sheer joy and woke up the next morning ready to film Part II of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Tonight, Keith walked out into the crowd again. The venue was tiny, and I was standing at the top of three steps leading up to the bar area, so not right on the main floor area. He made it to the steps, right in front of me, stood there for a few seconds -- I could have reached out to him -- and then had to abort mission and retreat as his mic cord got stretched out a little too far and he started losing sound. Come back! I want to make out with you! Give me more pinkeye! It was too late.

We Are Scientists tonight

Bloc Party tonight

Can't be everywhere at once

In honor of the Vampire Weekend shows I missed in DC this week, here is, in my humble opinion, their best song and their best video:



Yes, I've posted this video before. It's just that enjoyable.

Even if you cannot hear my voice I'll be right beside you dear

Great cover. Chill-inducing.



Let's compare to the original.



After a thorough and detailed analysis, taking into consideration the hotness of Snow Patrol's lead guitarist, Nathan, the winner is clearly Snow Patrol. Although I must say that their new album doesn't do it for me this time. I have promised several people to give it another chance though. In return I hope that Snow Patrol promises to come back to DC to give a performance at a respectable venue such as the 9:30 Club (where I have caught their guitar picks on two separate occasions and now proceed to carry them around everywhere I go in my wallet like a crazy person), not a pajama party on the basketball court of American University. The Black Cat is also acceptable, as long as none of the band members have me contract pink eye (I am looking at you, Keith Murray from We Are Scientists). Thank you.

On a related note, I've started watching The X Factor on Irish TV, and last week the guest was Britney. I felt embarrassed for her. She lip-synched the entire performance, or "mimed" as the Irish would say. If it weren't so sad, it would have been hilarious. "That's gas" the Irish would have said.

Walk to work

By the end of my stay in Dublin, I will have made the walk to/from work one hundred and twenty times, give or take a few times. Even though there's nothing especially beautiful or special on the walk, I wanted to create a photo project. I am just being sentimental. Of course often such projects always sound grander and more inspired in my head than they end up being in reality. No matter. Click here to see what I see on my walk to work.

Notes: 1) I took the photos on a Saturday. All of the photos are missing crowds of people that I am trying not to run down and that are trying not to run me down. Dubliners walk fast. 2) I listen to iPod Jr. The song that often puts an extra bounce in my step is the Kaiser Chiefs' "Never Miss a Beat".

What did you learn today?
I learned nothin
What did you do today?
I did nothin
What did you learn at school?
I didn't go
Why didn't you go to school?
I don't know

It's cool to know nothin

GET READY

Depeche Mode has announced a TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE in 2009.

Six years ago I went to see the EXCITER tour with my brother, and it was a defining moment in my life. I had grown up hearing a constant stream of Depeche Mode in our household for as long as I could remember, watching my brother watch their videos and concerts on video, yelling at him to turn down the speakers. They were as familiar to me as my mother's pierogi (called vareniki in Russian). It wasn't until I saw and heard the live show that the realization came: I just couldn't get enough. It was as if I had been eating vareniki indifferently all this time, and then after a huge vareniki feast, I realized that vareniki were the essential staple of my sustenance. Deep.

This is an excerpt from the Exciter tour from their DVD called "One Night in Paris". Watch Martin get a little funky on the guitar at around the 4:40 mark.



Two years ago my brother and I saw the TOURING THE ANGEL tour, which was even better.



My brother skipped my graduation and got to go see them again that year in Atlantic City. I was not so lucky.

Papa T has actually never wholly approved of us listening to Depeche. Says it's too dark and depressing. Well. Each and every one of their songs is a love song. Of course sometimes things get a little dark and depressing.

You can fulfill
Your wildest ambitions
And I'm sure you will
Lose your inhibitions
So open yourself for me
Risk your health for me
If you want my love
If you want my love

It's just gonna get into this ridiculous Russian doll situation

Flight of the Conchords on youtube. Amazing social commentary. I can't embed, so you'll have to click here and here and here.