What price hit count?

Everything suddenly seems so...significant.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Well, it seems to be one moral dilemma after another these days.

This is an article in the New York Times about the Dragostea Din Tei kid and how, (big shock), he isn't exactly too pleased with his new found "fame."

"He has now sought refuge from his fame in his family's small house on a gritty street in Saddle Brook. He has stopped taking phone calls from the news media, including The New York Times. He canceled an appearance on NBC's "Today." According to his relatives, he mopes around the house."

Breaks your heart, don't it?

A while ago I posted a link to the video in question and, to this day, the majority of people who visit this blog get here b/c, apparently, if you google "fat kid singing dragostea" I'm one of the sites that comes up.

Weirdly enough, the rest of the people who come here seem to find it by googling "umbrellas death." Ponder that one for a moment.

Also, more and more people are making me feel bad about quitting my op-art gig at the Phoenix. Ugh.



Oh well, on the up side, I finally made myself an awesome coffee table. It's made from an abandoned wooden spool, finger paints someone left in my room a few months ago, and my old Pog collection. I wonder if this means I can add "furniture design" to my resume's "interests" section?

WWPD? (What Would Panofsky Do?)

So sweet
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Dylan recently sent me this marvelous photo. There's something so disturbingly sweet about it...

I also find that it reminds me in a very strange way of Jan van Eyck's "Arnolfini Portrait."



I'm including a close-up to further illustrate this point.



In the course of googling said painting in order to shamelessly steal some photos of it from other websites, I came across this page. Believe it or not, someone ELSE out there also sees a similarity between Putin and the figures in this painting - but, see, they think that it's evidence that Putin is the Antichrist. Um, judge this one for yourselves, I suppose. Personally, I think that just having a uniquely Northern Renaissance looking face doesn't exactly make you, well, evil, but it's probably a decent start.

By the power of Greyskull...

YES! Let this be the final battle!
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So I recently watched "Masters of the Universe," the live-action He-Man movie that I hadn't seen since I was a wee tot who couldn't even pronounce words like "homoeroticism." I highly reccomend this movie to all of you. The final battle between "Skeletor - to the MAX" (seen to your right) and He-Man is truly legendary. Plus Courteney Cox is in it...and Dolph Lundgren...and lots of other people whose faces you won't quite be able to place.

Of course, that "where do I know that actor from" confusion will certainly not be alleviated by the many celebrity look-alikes in the movie. To name a few:

He-Man/Paris Hilton





(you see it, don't you? I'm not crazy.)


Skeletor Minion/Meg Ryan





and, the obvious choice, Skeletor/Michael Jackson





In other news, Hunter S. Thompson's body will probably be shot out of a cannon soon. Best last wishes...ever.

Also, you should download the song "California" by Low. It's very good.

I'm still here - swear to God!

Nick is going to be so angry when he sees that I posted this photo.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Hey, everybody. Just a friendly reminder that I have not, in fact, forgotten about this blog thing. Work has been a bitch lately. Will return with a serious update soon.

Until then, here's a pretty funny blurb from gawker:

"I saw John Stossel - looking almost as handsome as on 20/20 - outside Reebok last Friday. Spoke to him; he was sweet and when I told him I love his segment he recommended I 'buy his book.'"

Who wants to bet that John Stossel wrote that one himself?

Fuck you Haverford.

The Animal Collective
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

As it turns out, The Animal Collective and Ariel Pink are going to play at Haverford College the same day that Bonnie Prince Billy is coming to Swarthmore. That is very irritating.

Oh well, you should all listen to a couple Ariel Pink songs - especially "Until the Night Dies."

Good news is that Joanna Newsom is coming to Pennsylvania. Bad news is that she's going to play at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg...can you say "roadtrip?" How about "road trip to Pittsburg?" In fact, just say "Joanna Newsom" and try to forget about the Pittsburg part. I have no idea how to find tickets, but we'll figure this one out, god dammit.

The Decemberists are also coming to the TLA in Philly on May 5th. Mark your calenders, kids.

Well, the Bauhaus' "Metal Dance" probably isn't actually "needed" anymore...but what does that have to do with 9-11?

The Bauhaus' "Metal Dance" probably isn't needed anymore - regardless of 9-11.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So my brother e-mailed this Op-Ed to me from the Wall Street Journal. It's about where art should be headed now that, apparently, modernism AND postmodernism are "dead."

I disagree so much with almost everything that this guy says - except in regards to Duchamp's 'Fountain' - I love that damn fountain.

One quote:

"The iPod, for better or worse, may be our Duchampian icon, the most important cultural signifier of an age just aborning. It's beautiful. Its lines are pleasing. It is even the color of classical sculpture."

WHAT!? Is that what makes an "important cultural signifier?" Is that why he thinks people like the Fountain? Because it's pretty? Talk about missing the goddamn point...

Another quote:

"Everyone in the world watched the second World Trade Center tower fall in real time, and will do so the next time. The world we inhabit now is Iraq, Sudan, tsunami, weapons of mass destruction, Rwanda, Bosnia, Beslan. Knowing -- and seeing with our own eyes -- so much that is so bad is not normal. We don't need to be shocked by art. We now live in a constant state of shock."

Does this guy understand anything about modernism? Has he NEVER read Benjamin? Does he really think that advocating a return to classical forms is a good thing? Seriously, is he a fascist?

Anyway, I'm holding myself back from a mega-rant here - I need to stop myself from typing.

I'm curious what other people think about the article. Comment on here. Even better, find me in person, we'll have a couple beers and argue this thing through.

Oh, and if you think that I'm the bad guy here...that I'm just being even more pretentious than usual...well, he used the term "iPodian."

I rest my fucking case.

iPodian.

And now I'm satisfied.

Man, I am so fucking meta.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So the picture which you see on the left here is of a woman painting the gates - and a man who is taking a picture of her painting of the gates - and so I took a picture of someone taking a picture of someone painting the gates.

On the way to Central Park we ran into a very tired looking Teach for America type with a pretty rowdy group of 14 yr olds. She immediately came up to us and, upon finding out that we were college students, started telling us about the unbelievable benefits (karmic and otherwise) which would be ours if we, too, joined the well-meaning yet under-trained teacher brigade. Not convinced - there is no good fight I want to be fighting these days.

She wanted me, since I'm an art history student, to talk to her class about what was going on. I wanted no fucking part of that, so I just told her to ask the kids what they thought "art" was. Think about it - whatever level class you're in, no matter what, if someone brings that question up, well, then it's all over. When in doubt, just ask the most basic question possible and watch them all squirm.



I'm still not sure how I feel about the Gates. I mean, I bitch and moan about how overpublicized the thing is, and then I spend almost every inch of my blog talking about them, so who knows. It's an irresistable topic I suppose.

Anyway, walking through Central Park and realizing that absolutely everyone around you was arguing about art - that is so nice.



Pretty tantalizing bit from a review of "Constantine" in Slate:
"Tilda Swinton, as the angel Gabriel, seems to be doing a send-up of Emma Thompson in Angels in America. (At least, I hope she is.) And it's worth sticking around for the appearance of the certifiably strange Swede Peter Stormare as someone referred to as 'Lou.' He's like an Ingmar Bergman devil by way of Joel and Ethan Coen, a genuine hipster from hell."

Tomorrow I'm going hopefully be posting a list of the best flash animations of yesteryear. Sure, it's all well-worn territory, but, hell, when was the last time you watched Hyakugojuichi...or however the hell that word is spelled.

Finding parking in Manhattan should be easy, right?

bottom_img_06
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Going on a day trip to New York, ostensibly to see the gates. I'm definitely going to try and wrangle my companions into going to a couple museums, but that can be a hard sell sometimes.

Here is a note which I recently found on my dashboard. It was on lined paper and written in very large rounded letters. I found that funny. My car, I should mention, was parked on the only side street in the town of Swarthmore where they have overnight parking:

"We would appreciate it if you would not leave your car parked here for such long periods of time [the car had been parked there for 2 days]. We have to back out of our driveway and with all of the cars on the street [like all of the other streets in Swarthmore, this is not exactly a very busy road we're talking about here], it is difficult to see especially with a car so close [over five feet away from] to the driveway. Thank you."

Is the "Real World" nothing but a TV show? Also, I hate postmodernism.

Someone stole Jack White's clothes!
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

I've spent the entire day, it seems, discussing the baby carriage in "Battleship Potemkin," so that may explain the mood I'm in.

Oh, that picture you see on the right is a shot from "Be Cool," the upcoming sequel to "Get Shorty." I can't say I'm terribly excited for it to come out, but there is something rather amazing about seeing The Rock in that outfit.

Things have been rather boring around here, so there isn't much to report.

Today had the following conversation with my film professor during seminar break:

Me: ...Well, my car got a flat tire and I realized that I had absolutely no clue how to fix it.

Prof: Yes, [laughs], those gaps in our knowledge...always very upsetting.

Me: They should have a class for this sort of thing - teach kids how to jack their cars, fix appliances, put out fires - it could be, like, a "real world skills" minor or something.

Prof: Ah, but there IS no real world.


Also, to add even more to the Gates mania, here is a particularly funny "reader's opinion" of the installation from The New York Times:

"But then, as evening spread over the park, the intense color began to take on a more appealing hue and a magical tableau of people, dogs and horses emerged, enhanced by the umbrella of bare winter trees and the many gates snaking through their thickets and pathways. Suddenly, the alarming orange of the day transmuted into an engaging saffron, that felt warm and intimate in the evening lamplight."

I feel bad ragging on this person, especially since I'm always bellyaching about how art shouldn't just be for the elite blah blah, but man, that is one annoying piece of writing right there. Sounds like they're about to launch into a short story about some disaffected teenager smoking cigarettes or musing about the meaning of life on the subway. Oh fiction writing classes of years past.

Comprehensiveness for Dummies.

I wonder if Dubya's birthday is coming up...
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

(Well, in my own defense I really did try to find a better word than 'comprehensiveness' which, unlikely enough, is actually a real word!)

On a recent trip to Borders to throw away another $14.95 on a replacement "Illiad," I was kinda half amused and half disturbed to see a copy of Diabetes for Dummies on sale. Am I the only person who thinks that this is odd? Really, would you trust something that serious to the "For Dummies" series?!

Furthermore, yes, I do understand that the term "for Dummies" is essentially meaningless at this point...but...well, I mean, isn't it bad enough that you've just been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, let's say, without having to buy a how-to book that is calling you a "Dummy?"

This problem seems especially important in regards to Depression for Dummies. I, for one, think that there should be even more vaguely insulting products targeted at the clinically depressed consumer. If only the book came with a flashing neon sign that just said "EVERYONE HATES YOU." You could put it in your kitchen!

Some other titles I got from the Dummies homepage (I linked them up, in case you doubt me):
Prostate Cancer for Dummies
Addiction and Recovery for Dummies
Spirituality for Dummies
Robot Building for Dummies

and my personal favorite:

Raising Smart Kids for Dummies

More Ritalin side-effects.

I really hope that this is his dad.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So apparently this Brazilian kid is the world's youngest body builder...or something along those lines. Visit his website to see more.

According to said website he's due to be a guest on Dr. Phil's show. Not surprising. It's only a matter of time before I devote an entire post to my hatred of Dr. Phil. Sure, most people these days - except for, perhaps, the Thomas Kinkaide Calender owners among us - hate Dr. Phil, but god dammit I hated him first and I still hate him most.

You too, O'Reilly. I'll get to you later.

Thanks, Tim, for pointing out the picture of him in Sports Illustrated.

That's all for today.

Christo's Umbrellas...of death.

Christo's Umbrellas...of death.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

I stumbled upon a pretty hilarious article about "The Cult of Christo," i.e. the volunteers working on the Gates project in central park. Go read it. It's good.

To steal a particularly choice quote:

"The Umbrellas [another Jeanne-Claude and Christo project] -- that had an unfortunate ending," recalls Fulks [a volunteer]. "Someone actually died. An umbrella fell on them."

"What most people don't realize is, the woman had cancer and she literally had weeks to live," she says. "She went up to one of the umbrellas to grab onto it because she was starting to falter. And the wind came by -- it was a totally freak accident -- and it fell and crushed her.

"What a great way to die! I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but what a cool way to die!"

One problem I have with the article is how they seem to imply that it's somehow unusual or wrong that Christo and Jeanne-Claude take all the credit for their works. I have to disagree, if only because there is a long and beautiful tradition in Western art of famous people taking the credit for work done by their minions. I don't care what anyone says, Michelangelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his own, but then again, to quote a former professor of mine, "he was a gay."

Now, what is unusual and wrong is Jeanne-Claude's hair - then again, she can pull it off I suppose. Man, if I was French maybe I could pull that shit off, too. Damn French women.



On a completely unrelated note, I recently rediscovered "Hotel," this very cool "interactive tale" (their description, not mine). Leave it to the Dutch to make something this fucked up. If, after being completely baffled by "Hotel," you find yourself hungry for more Han Hoogerbrugge, check out his homepage. Also, the Faint's incredibly cool video for "Agenda Suicide" has a very similar feel. I suspect that Hoogerbrugge actually made it, but this has been hard to figure out - because I'm lazy.

My guide to writing cover letters:

This has nothing to do with anything.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

1. Write sentence.
2. Delete sentence.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 at least 10 times.
4. Give up.

Emily and I tried to make our website "check minus" on Dreamweaver today. As you can probably tell from what is up there so far, "user friendly" isn't, as it turns out, quite friendly enough for us. We need something more along the lines of "developmentally challenged user friendly" web design. And so "Swarthbore" keeps lumbering on...

Found out yesterday that someone stole my copy of the Illiad from the lost and found at the gym. Further proof that there's no justice in the world. If I run into some buff swattie (an oxymoron, I know) reading The Illiad, I will fight them...and I will lose. Using "Troy" as the primary source for my next "Classical Epic" essay is going to definitely make for some interesting professor comments.

So, have you heard about Tom Sizemore's fake weiner? Yeah, apparently, over the course of years of court ordered drug testing, he has been caught several times using "a prosthetic penis attached to a pair of [his] underwear with a plastic container filled with clean urine." Man, I love imdb.com.



Also, check out this website that I stumbled upon today. It's dedicated to people who enjoy seeing unconscious women being carried by monsters and/or men. I feel as if the "video captures" that this guy has are just begging to be made into bad quasi-feminist art installations.

Finally, I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I couldn't wait: the grape stomping video. Emily thinks that it's upsetting. I think that local tv news personalities deserve whatever they get.

Art History is where the big money is.

Would you like some critical theory with that no. 2?
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Yeah, I'm having those "why didn't I major in Econ" regrets again. I think that this was brought on by recent attempts to revise my resume. Trying to somehow legitimize my experiences as a tour guide at the Salem "Witch House" and write sentences such as "effectively managed admissions"...well, it's kinda sad.

As is already clear, I suspect, I don't have too much to write about today, but I felt the need to post since I've apparently peer pressured Ed and Nathan into tending to their own blogs.

Things to share with you all...Well, first of all, apparently a Welsh soccer fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating Britain (see article). I wonder if he feels like that was a mistake or not, because, really, how awesome would it be if he was just like "yeah, no regrets - every time I see my junk (or lack therof) I'm reminded of how awesome that game was."

Also, stereogum posted a link to a pretty amazing video today. It's a fat kid singing along to "Dragostea Din Tei," this song which kind of followed me around in Italy. I am so glad that I've never been recorded doing shit like this cause, man, I do love drunkenly lip synching to music. I'm sure that my rendition of "The Final Countdown" would make this kid look like Justin Timberlake.



These days I'm also pissed off that Marcel Dzama designed the cover for the next Beck album. I like Marcel Dzama so very much, and I'm so amazingly ambivalent towards Beck. Equally unsettling, you can apparently buy a Marcel Dzama book from Walmart. I'd feel bad about that except that, wow, $29 is a really good deal for an art book.

Anyway, you should also check out this, the best goddamn ad ever made. Yep. Found it.



Tomorrow for my class, "Cyberculture," I'm going to have to get kids to answer a questionnaire about "gaming" (oh how I hate that fucking word). I expect to find out that more Swatties than I could ever imagine are frequent Everquest players. As if I'm not disillusioned enough about this place already.

It's just like looking into a mirror!

Vince Neil
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So I was just reminded of this while surfing the web:

In VH1's recent special, "Remaking: Vince Neil," in addition to a facelift, etc, Vince Neil gets a new, dramatically un-blonde hair 'do.

Observe if you will, dear reader, that Vince Neil and I now have THE EXACT SAME HAIRCUT.

That's all I have to say about that.

In the middle ages they would have thrown him down the well long ago...

Yeah, peace out, fuckwad.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

I'd like to register an official complaint. It's about Neighborhoodies.

As if it wasn't bad enough that Pitchfork has recently had those gigantic ads for Suicidegirls. I can't help but digress and say that Suicide Girls is the creepiest website on the planet, if only because its existence implies that there are people out there who seriously think "man, I can ONLY jack of to pictures of cool naked chicks."

But back to Neighborhoodies. I mean, look at this guy. I want to punch him. I bet you do too. Let me get my thoughts organized, however.

1. How has he-hipster hair gotten so out of control? This is having disasterous effects on teenage boys everywhere, I feel. Just watch MTV. All the "cool" high school guys that you see on their reality shows have these gigantic friggin hair helmets on their heads. Maybe this is something that only I have noticed. Clearly I must find more evidence to support my point, but try googe image-searching for "douchy hair." Not much comes up.

2. Why must pitchfork continuously remind me, with these ads, that the majority of people who share my taste in music are absolutely terrible?

3. Why is it that, no matter how much outrage I feel when I look at photos on the Neighborhoodies' site, I still find myself thinking "man, one of those 'milkmaid' t's with 'panopticow' written on it would be sweet?" Why is my resolve so easily broken, my morals so easily compromised?

4. Venture into the neighborhoodies's site and read product descriptions. They are infuriating. A sample (for the "Girls Communitee"):
"Part princess, part guttersnipe, with a penchant for Bukowsky. The Girls' Communitee is a snuggly, traditional tee cut especially for women. 100% cotton."

Oh well, enough about that.

So who else thinks that the trailer for War of the Worlds looks mega-lame? Leave it to Steven Spielberg to take all the fun out of aliens...again. Furthermore, he deserves a good kick to the balls for so many reasons, not the least of which is "A.I." which, frankly, I'm still pissed off about.

Which brings me to superbowl ads. Capitalism rocks. You can watch those suckers here. My personal favorites were the FedEx Burt Reynolds one, either Ameriquest ad, and the Emerald Nuts "you killed a unicorn" spot.

A friend of mine (Skippy?) commented last night on the lack of any "cliffhanger" ads. I agree that this is a disturbing trend. I miss epic advertising. Specifically the Taster's Choice couple.



Far more disturbing is the fact that McDonalds seems to be running with this retarded "lincoln fry" thing. If you didn't see the ad, well, it's a mockumentary style interview with these people who have a french fry shaped like Abraham Lincoln. It's not even a little funny. Now, what is actually hilarious, however, is the very fact that they have a website that they expect people to visit which is ABOUT the fucking lincoln fry. You can download, for instance, graphics with which to make iron-on lincoln fry "commemorative" t-shirts.



I'm sure that you've all already heard enough about my amazing weekend in Atlantic City, so I won't take the time to write the stories down.

This morning I got a wake-up call at 8am from Public Safety who ordered me to "remove my car" from its parking space "IMMEDIATELY." Plus there was a shard of glass in my shoe. That was awesome.

Let them eat shorti

A Hoagie for Everyone!
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Sometimes life is just too goddamn good.

So far today our quad has had a veritable hoagie feast, watched new episodes of Arrested Development, and have started what promises to be a marathon of playing video games on May's Genesis. All I need right now is for someone to drop off a carton of American Spirits and a case of diet coke and, shit, I just may die of joy.

I also have discovered that stereogum, as it turns out, posted an mp3 of Final Fantasy's amazing "Peach Plum Pear" cover. Go get that shit.

In an hour or two I'll be heading with Elizabeth to Atlantic City for an ill-advised weekend of gambling, drinking, and broadway revues. Promises to be an orgy of irony. I'll be back to post photos on Sunday.

For those of you staying behind here at swat, some rules for my room:

1) No snooping. There are bear traps everywhere. It's not worth it.

2) Please don't download too much crap onto my computer. No more Boyz 2 Men mp3's, for instance.

3) Clean up your own goddamn beer bottles.

4) Do not remove the text books from on top of Franzi/Heatherette's cage. They are our last line of defense.

5) If you guys watch Showgirls without me, I will get violent.

I would also like to, before I go, immortalize my new favorite word: Panopticow.

Alright, Swarthmore, I take it all back.

Get off of that damn chair.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

So it's official: Bonnie Prince Billy is indeed going to come to Swarthmore. It's going to be on April 23 and I would bet the family farm that I'm going to have a paper to write that night. Perhaps this isn't exactly "post worthy" but, fuck it, I'm excited.

In art history class today the professor got very excited about the fact that I used the word "other-ize" since, apparently, he'd never heard it used before. Sure, I was flattered, but I kind of felt like stabbing myself in the eye. I have become an obnoxious lingo spewing bastard and I don't even the brain power to back it up.

Oh well, in other news, someone died of an alcohol enema!

But does she speak Chynese?

So Chyna is now one of my favorite people. First of all, if you haven't already, watch The Surreal Life 4 pilot. I wanted to get an image from the show, but google image search let me down (and, in addition, burned some terrifying pictures of her naked body onto my retina). Also, here's a particularly amusing tidbit from a recent Star Magazine (yeah, fuck you, I read that shit) interview:

Q:What's the most misunderstood thing about you Chyna?
A: That I'm stupid. I speak five languages, and I love to read. I studied Spanish literature and I did it in Spanish so I would learn how to speak Spanish. One of my dreams has always been to be on a Spanish soap opera -- they wear bumblebee outfits!

Okay, back to work.

Take my hamster please.

Franzie
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Well, Franzie escaped...again.

To make a long story short, when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning (as I usually do) to the sounds of an insane rodent trying to gnaw her way to freedom, I noted that it all sounded a bit louder than usual. I was hungover/still drunk, however, so I just went back to sleep.

Now, this happened a couple more times, and eventually, sometime around 8am I finally decided to check out what the commotion was...by which I mean I sat up in bed, and, even as I was screaming "fuck off," I see this lump of fur leap across the room.

She has also somehow figured out how to open every door to her cage.

Franzie, as it turns out, had been backstroking Scrooge McDuck style in a gigantic bag of feed. I'm sure that she had been planning this particular binge as a fun prelude to eventually gnawing away at my jugular.

I should probably mention, in case you haven't inferred as much already, that she is diabolically intelligent and, judging by her inexplicable jumping ability, also far stronger than any hamster should be.

I wish that I could just let her go into the wild with a clear conscience, but I've been told that that would be cruel. To all you readers out there: I would really welcome any PETA-esque criticism as long as the eventual result would be someone taking Franzie away. Yes, I am a terrible person, certainly - just take the beast with you when you storm off in disgust.

The STD that you got from that dude with the Bright Eyes T-Shirt...Priceless.

Seriously, the German art school rocked so much harder
than these jokers could ever imagine.
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

I was looking at the list of bands playing Coachella this year and, as usual, I found myself feeling fairly enthusiastic about some acts ("hey look, the Bloc Party"), really unenthusiastic about the rest ("why won't Weezer just fucking die already"), and just plain old fucking confused about others ("Prodigy? Shouldn't that dude with the horns have OD'd by now?").

Apparently the big news is that Bauhaus will reunite. THAT is the big news. I include a picture of Bauhaus because I hate them.

I do have to admit, however, that every time they announce one of these huge festivals I have this moment of "hm, that might be really fun - maybe I should look into it." So, because I had nothing to do this afternoon, I did look into it.

What I found was that in addition to the dubious (I'm being kind) quality of the overall line up, there is also, of course, the issue of price.

According to my calculations...

roundtrip tickets from philly to CA: $283
+
2 Day concert pass: $152
+
two nights in a best western: $298.97
+
concert t-shirt you'll never wear: $30

= too fucking much.

So, my groundbreaking conclusion for the day is that no, I probably won't go to Coachella this year, or ever. How could anyone make a pilgrimage to one of those fucking things?

I will, however, be going to Atlantic City this weekend. More on that later.

Well, at least Matt Pinfield was there.

pinfield
Originally uploaded by swarthbore.

Brian and I went to see The Arcade Fire play at the TLA in Philly with 'Man Man.' This is the third time I've seen Arcade Fire (probably the last) and the only time that I've been lucky enough to spot a real life TV star at one of their shows. Matt Pinfield (see photo) was standing at the door bellowing something incoherent along the lines of "man, that's why I had to get out of the industry!"

Apparently Emily also had a Pinfield sighting at a New York bar. There he was apparently reminding people that he was famous. On second thought, replace "reminding" with "trying to convince."

The concert was okay in and of itself, but entirely ruined by some guy standing behind who sang along, very loudly, the entire time. He looked kind of like what the Bubble Boy's profile picture would look like on Makeoutclub.

Highlight was actually the opening act, The Final Fantasy Band, playing a cover of Peach Plum Pear.

I fear I may have to stop liking The Arcade Fire. Bubble Boy's rendition of Crown of Love may have cured me forever.