Thursday, June 29, 2006

Honda Museum

There was a Honda commercial.

One of those that make you empathize with the company.

There are Honda automobiles of the past

lined up in a simple dark modern museum setting.


"It all started with a dream", a narrator says.

"..and it ended with a nightmare."

night watchmen running away from motorcycles

being driven by the ghosts of those who had died on them.

The end of the commercial bore a warning:


Thursday, June 22, 2006

Long Blondes b/w Pipettes

The Long Blondes are to shortly release their new single:
Weekend Without Makeup.



Nice slithery verses with plaintive vocals A rebuke to those in relationships who've let laziness and complacency creep in. You are to be reminded:

"There are wants and there are needs,
and they're two very different things.
You can love or be in love.
Again, they're two very different things!
Yes, they're two very different things!"

Tell it, my wise sister.

The LBs have a very strong batch of 7"s, "Weekend Without Makeup" is the 5th. There will be a record coming out... oh god, sometime this year? i hope.

i dunno. check out their podcast on iTunes. i did.... i did.

i'm not sure if i ripped this whole entry off Pitchfork. i'm tired.

------------------

Speaking of whether i'm ripping off Pitchfork,
if i start going on about how cute The Pipettes are...


and how great their girl groups harmonies are, then you will have confirmation. um...





Look below! It's the Pipettes with their new single (buy here w-sunglasses) and video "Pull Shapes". love it.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Love's Got The World In Motion

Hey, where ya from? What town? Where'd you go to school? What major? OK.

I'm quite looking forward to the World Cup in Germany (official site).


Its about the only time i can stand to watch multiple soccer games on tv without falling asleep.

i mean, yes, there are shameless displays of nationalism that i always feel uncomfortable with. but its always different in this game. Its festive. Not that this ameliorates the blindness nationalism produces. But its fun to watch. Plus, the US national team is not respected by people around the world, not to mention people in the US. So my attention to them has more of an underdog leaning, more than just beating my chest bloody screaming USA! USA!

I'm curious about how they'll do. they've been getting stronger since World Cup 94 that was held on these shores. Now they are #5 in the FIFA world rankings. Actually down 1 notch from earlier in the year. Higher than Argentina, Italy and Germany. I want to see if they've really earned that complement. In the last tournament, they made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to the monster that is Germany.

I wish em well. Get in on the ground floor with this USA thing i've been hearing about.

I also am keeping an eye on England. Also known as ENG-GER-LUND!!! Those English seem to be attached to this game. Whenever their squad makes it to the Cup, there's a big contest amongst bands to produce the Official Anthem of that year's World Cup team. This year its unfortunately gone to boring band, Embrace with some horrid and no-fun-at-all song (here). Unless you think his earnest lyrics about "going all the way" are some plea to a 16 year old girl to get into bed, then its kinda funny.

In the past, New Order and others have put together some stomach churningly awful and wonderful anthems to cheer on the team.

Here is New Order's "World in Motion"


Plus they got this tall guy, Peter Crouch, with the best celebration dance: