Safe As Milk

Michelle and I ran in the Monumennt Avenue 10k this morning. Neither of us had done hardly any training so we’re happy with our time of 91 minutes.

Next year we’re running the whole thing.

[image from Penny Arcade's new store]

Frankly, the URL is funny enough.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/tamagotchi-mobile-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-247685.php

I don’t like horror movies but I love horror comics (and Westerns, but that’s for another post). The Grave Robber’s Daughter (Amazon link, but you should get it at your local comic shop if you can) is the latest installment of Richard Sala’s Judy Drood mysteries.

Like a lot of Sala’s work it’s exceedingly creepy and I love it.

Here’s the setup from the Fantagraphics‘ site:

Something is very wrong in the town of Obadiah’s Glen. The streets are empty. The phones don’t work. The cars are all gone — and so are the people, at least most of them. The ones who are left are hiding and shivering in fear. They know it’s only a matter of time before the clowns come and get them. Because the town of Obadiah’s Glen now belongs to the clowns. And these clowns have a special secret, one that lies buried in the old cemetery on the hill…

Deadspin told me so.

I had really made my peace with my Thiesmann-hate. Yes, he was an arrogant, know-it-all doosh most of the time he was talking but if you could look past that you could see that he knew a lot about football. And I don’t mind telling you that I sometimes learned something from him. But those pearls of knowledge were so dramatically outweighed by the hours and hours and hours of him blathering on about whatever his prepared talking points were, regardless of what might be happening on the game, that I am glad to see him gone.

He will be replaced by Ron Jaworski who is also a little excitable but damn if he doesn’t go out of his way to teach football. I *always* learn something when Jaws is talking.

I’m still not excited about games running until midnight, but the announcing team just got a huge upgrade.

Brad (at the ‘Nac) has the 3.15.07 Shins concert at the Orpheum in Boston posted online for your listening pleasure.

To celebrate the PS3 launch in Australia and New Zeland, Microsoft sent a clever suggestion to the computersandvideogames.com crew:

“What would you purchase for £146…? (The price difference between an Xbox 360 and a PlayStaion 3)”, asks the included Xbox 360-headed notice. “Well, for a start we thought you might like £146 worth of beer to kick start your weekend early.”

Here’s another one. Same joke. Still funny.

All the right notes and at the perfect time. Peter Bjorn and John’s “Writer’s Block” is a great album.

I first heard this Swedish trio on the follow-up to the now-classic (to me, because it introduced me to a ton of good music) Las Paletas mix from Janet at Out The Other. The power pop of “It Beats Me Every Time” (from “Falling Out“) only hinted at the major-league hooks and clever song structure every single song on “Writer’s Block”.

I’ve been listening to this one steadily for the last couple of weeks and I just can’t get tired of it. Boasting 2 Song Of The Year candidates and 9 other songs that would be standouts on just about any pop record this album restores my faith in new music. Thank you Sweden.

And for the record, I hope this album is **huge**. I refuse to fall into the trap of the music snob who wants to keep all of the best music for himself. People need to hear this.

“The Chills is the *other* world-class single off of this album (”Young Folks being the first, obvs.). I should warn you before you download that song. The bass/drum hook is deadly in there and once it has you you’re done for. Enjoy.

Here’s the video for “Young Folks”:

And for overkill’s sake, here’s the video for “Objects Of My Affection”:

I haven’t rebuilt the Nice 6 page since the move but that doesn’t mean I should deny you the goodness. Nice 6 #11 is a return to what Nice 6 was supposed to be about in the first place: a snapshot of what I am listening to at any given time. There is so much good music out right now that I could have easily come up with a Nice 10 or 13. Each of these songs is really, really good. I think you’ll enjoy them. Happy Spring.

You can download the Nice 6 number 11 zip here.

1. “Well…All Right” - Albert Hammond, Jr.
2. “All The Night Without Love” - Elvis Perkins
3. “Paris 2004” - Peter Bjorn and John
4. “Rehab” - Amy Winehouse
5. “Sugar Assault Me Now” - Pop Levi
6. “Someone Great” - LCD Soundsystem

Albert Hammond, Jr. (MySpace page link with a couple of songs to stream) is the guitarist from The Strokes with the brutal haircut and the 3-piece suits.

His first solo album “Yours To Keep” has been getting decent reviews and I think they’re well-deserved. This isn’t an album of the greatest songs evar but they’re solid little pop songs. It’s a little jarring at first to hear the Strokes-y chord changes and guitar noodles without the greasy rocker-whine of Julian Casablancas on top but after a few listens the songs stand well on their own.

I don’t think you need to be a fan of The Strokes to get into this record but I don’t think anyone outside of The Strokes’ fanbase is even going to know it’s out. That’s too bad, really, because this album is pretty good.

“Bright Young Thing is just a nice little song, and like most of ‘Yours To Keep’, should be on many a hipster Summertime soundtrack. “Well…All Right” is one of the U.S.-only bonus tracks and I think it’s great. It’s the best-case scenario for a bonus track: simple song idea without too much thought or overproduction. It might be my favorite song on the cd.

‘101′ is the first single off of the album. Here’s the video. I think the zombie-ness is completely necessary.