Strange Pulse

Daniel discovered that one of our favorite Mexican restaurant chains from Washington has expanded into California, and since we all were home yesterday, we decided to drive down to the nearest one. It was all the way down in Vista, near San Diego, and took us nearly two hours to get there. And longer to get home. But I swear I had the best fish burrito I’ve ever eaten.

On the way home, right outside our apt complex, we noticed a skywriter beginning to write a message in the sky. The first letter was a “W,” and we immediately began speculating— “Will you marry me?” being the number one guess. But the first word was:

So our thoughts turned…to:

“Who will marry me?”

“Who ate the last piece of pizza?”

And of course… “Who let the dogs out?”

We got home, and Cat and I watched the writing unfold in the sky…

By the time the last word was done, the first words were obliterated.

So, who will she choose?

I just made myself a playlist of all 80’s tunes, based roughly on what I used to hear at the teen dance clubs back then. Good stuff:

Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
New Order - Blue Monday
Depeche Mode - Just Can’t Get Enough
Yaz - Don’t Go
Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination
Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter
PIL - This is Not a Love Song
Tones on Tail - Go
Cure - The Lovecats
A Flock of Seagulls - Wishing
Talk Talk - Dum Dum Girl
Prince - Erotic City
Berlin - Sex (I’m A…)
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Visage - Fade To Grey
Gary Numan - Cars
Bronski Beat - Run Away
Smiths - Hand in Glove
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dazzle

I’ll post a couple songs to the radio.blog. But if you want the whole thing, download it here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vw3seq

(Although technically, “Cars” is from 1979.)

The other night before I left work I burned myself a cd to listen to on the way home. I do that a lot. Usually it’s a mix, but sometimes it’s a full album. This particular time, I’d been listening to a Ryan Adams mix all week, and I was still in the mood for something mopey and sad. But somehow, I ended up burning Converge’s new album, No Heroes.

Converge are a hardcore band. Not just any hardcore band, though. They’re seriously brilliant. No Heroes is the third in a string of magnificent albums. Not many bands can put out three albums in a row of the caliber they’ve managed. It’s really an accomplishment.

And I was blown away by it all the way home.

It was still in the cd player the next morning when Daniel ran Elijah to school. When he got back, he said to me, “Man. Converge is really gnarly.”

I said, “Isn’t it amazing?”

He said, “It’s really abrasive. It’s almost too much. I mean, really abrasive.”

This from Mr. Metalhead himself.

I’ll post a couple songs to the radio.blog.

Began with the Butthole Surfers and Big Black as a teenager. Or maybe it was industrial stuff like early Cabaret Voltaire, Psychic TV, and Einsturzende Neubauten? Not sure which came first. But my love of Big Black’s distortion and rawness is what led me to love doom metal and hardcore today.

First time I heard the doom metal band Electric Wizard, I thought of Big Black. It’s the distortion on the guitars.

Big Black were the perfect teen angst band. So much anger in their music. But I also found it funny. Singing about carrying kerosene around, setting things on fire. It’s funny.

Electric Wizard sing about—um, witches? I’m not even sure. But when they start saying “SUPER! COVEN!” over and over, it makes me chuckle.

But it’s the low end distortion I love. And the repetitive riffs. So cool. I’ll post a Big Black song and an E Wiz song or two to the radio.blog.

Low’s new album has leaked. I’m in heaven. It’s way different than I was expecting. Although I wasn’t really expecting anything. But it’s not as accessible as their last one was. (Which is kinda funny to say, because a lot of people didn’t find it very accessible at all. But in terms of Low, it was.)

This one has a lot of interesting drum sounds going on. In fact it’s called Drums and Guns. And lots of their harmonizing vocals, which I love.

I was a bit worried after The Great Destroyer that they’d turn into just another typical indie band, but I should’ve had faith. They’ve really come through with this release. I LOVE it.

I think it doesn’t come out officially until March.

We just got back from the beach. Since moving to Cali, our Christmas day tradition has been to bring a picnic lunch to the beach.

The kids weren’t being co-operative with the camera.

Not a lot of people were there, but more than I expected.

Daniel caught a couple waves.

We went to Seal Beach.

Other guys surfing:

Well, most people, anyway. Singers that retain their accent:

Billy Bragg
The guy from the Alarm
Damien Dempsey (a *very* Irish singer)
Arctic Monkeys

Who else?

Singers that have weird (fake?) accents when they sing:

Natalie Merchant
Colin Meloy (Decemberists)

Who else?

Andy Williams’ Christmas record was one of the only Christmas records we had growing up, we used to listen to it every year, it seems like. I still love it.

Another one that I have no clue where it’s from. I like it. It’s nice.

Got this from a mix cd trade a year or so ago. The Jetsons meets Frosty!