I can’t stop listening to this song today. Why did I wait so long to listen to Love is Overtaking Me?
The Target Of Their Ambivalence
To quote Henri: holy beejesus, your town sucks.
Bragging Rights.
You’ve heard me talk about the book project that we put together at Capitol Letters. One of my students, Javairia Henry, has a poem featured on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour blog.
You can purchase the book here, if you like.
Another installment of Q&A Mad Libs, a weekly/monthly/wheneverIfeellikeit feature on HisNerdJig. The gist: I give my friends questions from old Q&As with musicians, and they fill in the blanks. Any which way they chose. You can read more about that here.
When I realized my engagement was falling apart, Jessica Guilfoyle knew what to do. She took me to the El Salvadorian tacqueria place on 14th Street—the one in the basement where they put avocado and manchego cheese in the burritos.
She told me the chicken burrito was the one I should order (trust me), and that if it were anyone else she might hesitate to say this, but I deserve much more and it will not be hard to find someone to love. She passed me the salsa verde and told me that I was easy to love.
“I feel so stupid,” I told her.
She shrugged. “I mean, what else are you going to feel?”
It reminded me of when my roommate first introduced us in the suffocating humidity of July in the backyard on Euclid. I complimented her dress. She gestured to the air. “I mean, what else are you going to wear?”
We’ve been through this kind of thing before, less severely, when I fell out of love with DC. She would take me at Polly Sue’s to find a new dress, and then to Dos Gringos for grapefruit spritzers and chipotle grilled tofu, and then to La Casa to stand in the back of the room to watch a few local boys play something that does and does not sound like music.
She’d introduce me to a few people, squeeze my arm, and say, “See? Everyone loves you. This city loves you. Any city would love you.”
I gave Ms. Guilfoyle a few questions from an AV Club interview with Lilly Allen, because there was a time when she couldn’t stop listening to The Fear on repeat. For your pleasure, here’s Jessica.
AV Club: What’s been your most rewarding collaboration so far?
Lilly Allen: The one with my hairstylist.
AVC: Who would you like to work with in the future? Who’s on your dream list?
LA: Bruce Springsteen! I grew up listening to Born in the USA and Nebraska. I’ve always thought he managed to maintain this quiet soulfulness while cranking out dance-y pop music at the same time. Also…Kanye West.
AVC: You were kicked out of 13 schools, and you dropped out at 15. How did that happen?
LA: Drugs, mostly. And fuckloads of diamonds.
AVC: When people write about you, they inevitably mention all the other musicians or journalists you’ve dissed or argued with publicly. Who’s tops on your annoyance list right now?
LA: Katy Perry and Perez Hilton. Also, Paul Krugman inexplicably annoys the shit out of me.
AVC: You’ve complained about how you’ve been portrayed in the press at times, especially in NME. Is there some specific image of you that you want people to get instead?
LA: I want people to see me! I’m not perfect, but I’m certainly not the crazy alcoholic party girl people make me out to be either. Plus, when I see these super photo-shopped pictures of myself on the newsstands, I barely recognize myself. It’s pretty disturbing actually.
AVC: You’ve talked a lot about way women in rock tend to get patronized as “the female version of this male artist,” instead of being written up for themselves. And you took on NME over a comment about how you can rock “even in stilettos.” Why do you think there’s so much of a problem finding positive ways to talk about female musicians?
LA: Well, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that women in rock are either hyper sexualized or not sexualized at all. The assumption is that if you’re too sexy, you’re not a serious musician, but if you’re not sexy enough, your marketability is put into question. However, I do think there are plenty of women who are both incredibly sexy and musically talented who combat this. MIA is ridiculously sexy and talented. That chick from The New Pornographers. Her voice makes my knees tremble.
Also…me, with or without stilettos. But I guess that goes without saying.
How the Fuck Did I Get Here: I’m a Music Critic?
The DC Decider site officially launched today. More specifically, it launched at midnight last night. So you can read my Ida Maria interview that didn’t get printed last week. Also, I called Travis Morrison a needy, petulant frontman and learned that Poor But Sexy is a new favorite DC band. Behind the Deleted Scenes, and definitely way above Sean McArdle.
Mad Libs aren’t the only kind of Q&As I do lately. My interview with this pretty intelligent chick is out in the DC Onion. It’s only available in print though. How quaint.
If you’re in DC, pick up a copy and go see her show tomorrow. Unless you’d rather come to my birthday party. I would like that.
Q&A Mad Libs: John Bakum on Carl Newman
Another installment of Q&A Mad Libs, a weekly/monthly/wheneverIfeellikeit feature on HisNerdJig. The gist: I give my friends questions from old Q&As with musicians, and they fill in the blanks. Any which way they chose. You can read more about that here.
John Bakum has Colson Whitehead’s phone number, but he doesn’t use it. He just stares at it, and keeps it safe in case of an emergency.
John Bakum doesn’t need advice from Steve Almond on how to write a sex scene. John Bakum kind of hates Steve Almond.
John Bakum has a short story published in Touchstone. He also won an honorable mention in the Atlantic Monthly Student contest in 2007. But lately, he writes about wheat for Cornell.
John Bakum has a dry, withdrawn humor that will cure anything. Even the gout.
John Bakum loves hook-drenched songs, like the New Pornographers. We both have a crush on Neko Case.
Pitchfork: How are you doing?
JB: I’m fine, thank you.
Pitchfork: You’re recording with the New Pornographers now?
JB: If by “recording” you mean “listening to when they pop up on my mp3 player” then yes.
Pitchfork: Do you have a name for the record?
JB: Ok, I know we haven’t been in touch as much since I moved from DC, but we still talk sometimes. And I’ve never mentioned a record or the new pornographers. I’m not even a musician. So all those times we talked about music in the past 3.5 years, you think I just sat there and said to myself, “I could mention that I’m a musician but I’m going to withhold that information and simply relate an anecdote about, I don’t know, writing.” Do really think I’m that much of a jerk? Or do you really not know me at all?
Pitchfork: You’re pretty confident about that?
JB: I don’t know what to think. Neither possibility is all that attractive. Either you think I have some sort of hidden life or you are a really, really poor listener.
Pitchfork: Do you think that your style of hard-driving pop would be hard to take for 70, 80 minutes, like the length of a rap album or a double album?
JB: Well, that answers that doesn’t it? I’m just going to start repeating a word over and over again, what’s the difference, it’s not like you are paying attention. Bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat
Pitchfork: Do you get tired of that descriptive repetition?
JB: So that got your attention? What other annoying thing can I do to get your attention? We should listen to some music that is antithetical to your hipster leanings. Let’s see what I have on my mp3 player. How about we listen to New Jersey by Bon Jovi?
Pitchfork: Did you listen to that album a lot in 1988?
JB: Oh yes. In my defense, I was 15 years old and I lived in New Jersey. That album really spoke to me. I remember singing along with Lay Your Hands on Me all the time.
Pitchfork: With all these other folks singing, how many opportunities do you have to get your voice in?
JB: Jen, I was signing along with the record, there was no one else in the room with me so I had no trouble getting my voice in.
Pitchfork: Depends on who you’re talking about. Kiss did.
JB: Are you on the phone with someone? Kiss? What are you talking about? You’re not even pretending to pay attention!
Pitchfork: Does it seem odd to be connected with a sketchy university?
JB: Ok, now I’m mad. It’s one thing to ignore me but to call Cornell University sketchy? That is beyond the pale. What would Andy Bernard say? You think 13 Nobel Prize winning alums is sketchy? Or 28 Nobel laureates on faculty through the years, I bet that’s sketchy too? I’m Ivy League, bitches. This interview is over. I’m out.
Anagrams for Barack Hussein Obama
A Cabana Kiboshes Rum
Chubbier as as an amok
I am a cherub’s as a knob
A Maraca Hobbies Sunk
A Baa Horseback Minus
I didn’t get out of bed in time to see Bono yesterday, but I did see the top of Anderson Cooper’s head.
The Washington City Paper has a pretty good coverage of the chaos that’s happening outisde my door. Jason Cherkis kind of sums up how most residents feel about things.
Liz Langton had my favorite #inaug09 Twitter feed yesterday: Does anyone know why Joe Biden is screaming? And my second favorite: Media guy to souvenir guy- Obama’s paying off our rent.
I passed three different groups (fleets? brigades? bouquets?) of the National Guard marching down North Capitol when I was walking the dog this morning.
They’re advising DC residents to walk to the Mall tomorrow. Even if you live in Van Ness.
Shopping at Giant today, my fiancé saw a sign that read: “Our deli says: YES WE CAN! help you with your inaugural party tray need!”
In short, dear inaug09 tourists, thanks for the revenue and the 4 a.m. last call, but please leave as fast as you can.
Also, Bono? Do you just not care anymore?
Mad Libs: Besterberg
Welcome to the first installment of Q&A Mad Libs, a weekly (monthly? bimonthly?) feature on HisNerdJig. The gist: I give my friends questions from old Q&As with musicians, and they fill in the blanks. Any which way they chose. You can read more about that here. First up: Matthew Barney Gumble.
MBG and I don’t really have conversations. He’ll send me a link on gchat, I’ll probably exclaim how that blew my mind, usually with “ooo” or “wow, that blew my mind.” I’ll send him a link, not quite as amazing. We’ll both lapse into work-related silence that is completely okay and non-apologetic. He doesn’t make me guilty for responding to a link an hour later. I suppose that’s all you can ask for in a friendship, really.
His loves are dark ‘n stormies, bonerz, Achewood (though he’s resigned not to proselytize about it any longer) and The Replacements. I haven’t known him for very long, but we’ve quickly bonded over the usual things.
I handpicked a few questions from a Paul Westerberg interview for him. Because who doesn’t want to step into the shoes of the man who once wrote, “All I wanna pick is your nose honey”?
Ladies, Gents, I give you MBG.
Pitchfork: This past endless winter made me consider how much the weather in the Midwest plays a role in people forming bands. How did cold weather affect your development as a songwriter? Do you think you would have written the same songs had you formed the Replacements in Hawaii?
MBG: It’s weird that you say that, because Don Ho was such an inspiration for me. Without him I don’t think I’d have entered this business.
Pitchfork: Do the Replacements make you any money?
MBG: My contract specifies that I get paid in cigarettes and gin.
Pitchfork: People hear the records, and they hear 1981, or 1985, or 1989, but here we are in 2008 and it doesn’t seem all that long ago.
MBG: Not… really… a question. I can’t remember what happened on Saturday but then also I remember the lyrics to the “Tato Skins from Keebler” jingle without any difficulty. Time’s a weird thing.
Pitchfork: Is what your music has meant to so many any consolation for missed opportunities?
MBG: Missed opportunities? Lady, what are you talking about? I am married to a sexy rock goddess and plus I once got to title a greatest hits album “Besterberg” – makes me giggle even still. I mean, if I thought that I’d missed any opportunities, then no, it wouldn’t be.
Pitchfork: Was there ever a sense that you were writing songs that maybe even you yourself weren’t quite old enough to understand?
MBG: Seriously, interview-lady, you are blowing my mind right now.
Pitchfork: There’s some unspoken rule that you’re not supposed to cover Kiss and write a song like “Unsatisfied”. But why not?
MBG: Because the people formulating those rules are embarrassed by how stupid they are. See what I did just there? It’s kind of like I called you stupid.
Pitchfork: Did you feel at all left behind by your friends who left town?
MBG: Usually I get asked this about my pseudonymous literary output.
