WHY I HATE EBAY

Because I always get outbid at the last second. It's not like I'm not willing to pay the money, just some creep who waits until it says 2 seconds left always beats me. There should be some rule that says that you have to bid at least once in the hour before the auction ends to have a shot in the last second. I have never won anything on Ebay...ever. It is really frusterating. I see all these happy people winning crap from ebay on commercials, how come my experience doesn't drive me to sing show tunes? Is everyone so goshdarn happy with this system but me? Today, I found this great vintage Van Halen t-shirt. NO ONE BIDS ON IT BUT ME IN THE 6 DAYS PRIOR TO THE AUCTION ENDING. One min left and I'm the only bidder. 30 seconds left I'm the only bidder. 20 seconds left some jerk ups it by 50 cents. I rush to up it, only to have to sign in (damn you security features) I manage to get my bid in. I think I've won. NOOOOOOOOO. some dude, never bid before, ups it and wins. I DESPISE YOU, s_beck1. I hope the shirt shrinks in the wash and the iron on transfer peels off...all things that would not happen had I won this auction. This same thing happened to me when I tried to buy an Epi Mandolin during x-mas break. price stays steady for 6 days...last minute the thing's price goes up $150, after only increasing $50 in the previous 6 days. WHY???? Currently I'm in the bidding for a gold lame smoking jacket ($5), 1950's bowling shirt ($1) and a 1950's leather jacket ($1). I have no doubt I'll get screwed over yet again at the last minute. But I'll keep trying until I win at least one thing. Seriously, why would anyone want a men's small bowling shirt be me, and me alone? I think I'll be the jerk and wait until 2 seconds left to bid... I'll do it Ebay. Which means being a douche and ruining the dreams of a young college student who's only goal in life was to buy a vintage Van Halen shirt. Because I spent all day reading Dante's "Inferno" I know there is a special circle in hell for people like that, and it's called "YOUR SHIRT IS GOING TO SHRINK AND YOU'LL BE TOO FAT TO WEAR IT YOU JERK."

Thank you.

EBAY STRIKES BACK

I think just to taunt me, EBay sends me an outbid notice this morning. LIKE I DIDN'T KNOW THAT ALREADY. This isn't over, Ebay, it's not even close to over.

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CD's I Never Gave a Chance That I Am Listening To Now:

I dunno if anyone else does this, but I'll buy a cd and then listen to the first song, deem it sucks, then never listen to it again. I have decided that this is grossly unfair of me and I'm seeking the repay the injustice I have inflicted on these artists who had this misfortune of having crappy opening tracks.

1. Lake Trout - I bought this thing in January. I got pissed that it sounded just like Ok Computer from the get go. Now I'm listening to it right now, and it's not half bad. Not original, but not half bad.
2. The Shins - I know everyone is all crazy over the shins. I'm not. A decent band, but nothing to get excited about. Listened to them a few hours ago, still not totally impressed.
3. The Walkmen - Ok, this was a mistake on my part. I listened to the first Walkman cd, thought it was unremarkable, and forgot about them. Then I heard a lot of hype about their new cd so I bought it but didn't get into it right away. Now I love it. It's awesome. Go buy it.

Time for the NCAA championship, gotta go!

A Look Back in Time, Part II

This installment begins a series of entries in which I take a look back at all the mix cd's I made in high school and ask "What could I have possibly been thinking?"

Disc One - my friend Cody made this thing for me out of mp3's I had since I didn't have a cd burner. My first mix cd ever.

Track 1 - Sublime - "Summertime" - this song just grooves...still passes the coolness test all these years later
Track 2 - Ramones - "Carbona not Glue" - um...they were innovators? I dunno.
Track 3 - Phish - "Lawnboy (Live)" - This song started my interest in Phish. Trey's guitar playing was insane. It totally does not fit in with the rest of the tracks on here...at all.
Track 4 - Me First and the Gimmie Gimmie's - "Science Fiction" - I didn't realize this was a cover song until a few years later. Kinda sucks.
Track 5 - Incubus - "Pardon Me" - Ok, first off, I hate it when this song gets lumped into the rap-rock category. I heard this song on KTSW and I was floored. Too bad they haven't done anything interesting recently. The new cd is horrible, and makes me wish for the days of informed social commentary.
Track 6 - Creed - "My Own Prison" - I am ashamed.
Track 7 - 311 - "Beautiful Disaster" - wow, a veritable rap-rock song. Well, not really. But close enough.
Track 8 - Beastie Boys - "Paul Revere" - I used to be able to rap this whole song. I can get pretty close still.
Track 9 - Ramones - "Carbona not Glue" - makes a repeat appearance. Cody, you tard, learn how to use a cd burner.

And that concludes this installment of "A Look Back in Time." I hope you enjoyed it.

A Critic's Response
Jon Alaniz, a man who I hold in high regard when it comes to hip-hop matters, had these words to say about my list:

Zinala85: ok, lets get something straight
Zinala85: The Seed 2.0 is one of the GREATEST SONGS ever
Zinala85: i mean "ill push my seed in your bush for life"? thats brilliant, and provocative writing
Zinala85: NEVER, EVER PUT IT ON THE SAME SONG LIST AS "gigilo" by "Piss on your face" Kelly and his apprentice, Nick Cannon
Zinala85: Also, P.I.M.P. hot song
Zinala85: more reason for "gigalo" not to be there
Zinala85: and Tupac
Zinala85: he's dead eric, show some respect

Thank you, Jon A, for your commentary. Despite your dislike of R Kelly, I hold the Giggolo is a worthy song to be played during the Atlanta drive.

I'm out!

Hotlanta Hot Traffic Jam Hot Mix
So, Eric, you might ask...how did ya'll survive driving through the hell that is Atlanta traffic? Well, I made this mix cd of some hits that let us blend in like a US Marine in the Bay of Pigs. I give you, the Hotlanta Hot Traffic Jam Hot Mix:

1. "The Way You Move" - Oukast
2. "Party All The Time" - Eddie Murphey (yes, that Eddie Murphey)
3. "Rosa Parks" - Outkast
4. "Seed 2.0" - The Roots (w/ Cody Chesnutt)
5. "Change Clothes" - Jay-Z and DJ Danger Mouse
6. "Whoomp There It Is!" - Tag Team
7. "P.I.M.P." - 50 Cent
8. "Stand Up" - Ludacris
9. "California Love" - 2Pac
10. "Hell Yea" - Ginuwine
11. "Yeah" - Usher (ft. Little John and Ludacris)
12. "So Fresh, So Clean" - Outkast
13. "Just A Friend" - Biz Markie
14. "Wanksta" - 50 Cent
15. "Church" - Outkast
16. "Tennessee Boys" - Grits
17. "Wanna Get To Know Ya'" - G Unit (ft. Joe)
18. "Giggolo" - Nick Cannon (ft. R Kelly)

Lest you doubt the effectivness of the mix, ask me how many akward stares we recieved while going through downtown Atlanta. How many? Zero. And Jo Haag...you're going down old man, you're going down hard.

Peace.

It's Valentine's Day!
Or as my buddy Ryan says, S.A.D: Single Awareness Day. But that pimp has a date so I don't know what he's complaining about. So what are some good V-Day songs? Let's think....first off, "Love Song" by the Cure. I don't think the average public knows just how great a, yes, love song this is. 2nd..."Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye. I don't need to explain that one. 3rd...I dunno I ran out of ideas, it seemed like a good one at the beginning. Anyways, I'm listening to Logh's Everytime A Bell Rings An Angel Gets It's Wings...best band to come out of Norway, in my opinon, that isn't Death Metal.

New Shizzle From Sigur Rosizzle!
Yes, they released the Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do EP on iTunes. What the title means, I have no freaking clue. It's the music from the dance thing they did in conjunction with Radiohead. They are keeping with what a like to call the "twinkle bell" sound of their Hellemur (sp?) soundtrack they did this summer, so it's quite a departure even from ( ). It takes a few listens to get used to, and overall is not their best work, but it is worth the $3 to download from iTunes if you're a serious fan (like me).

New Shizzle From Modest Mouseizzle!
I saw this thing where some black guy was saying the -izzle thing wasn't cool anymore cause the nanny said in on an old navy commercial. So that means I can say it now
Modest Mouse just released their new single "Float On" on iTunes as well. Even with the departure of Jerrimiah Green on drums, the band has never sounded better. It's got this crazy major key thing going, quite unlike anything they've ever done...it's almost happy. In fact, it is happy. Is this the same band that gave us "3rd Planet?" Anyways, it rocks.

Damn, The Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse is a good record...still.

You know what song is awesome? " Your Woman" by White Town.

Oh, you know it, sing it..."I will never be your woman..."

But was the singer a man or a woman? So hard to tell.

Bad Omission! I totally forgot to consider Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People for the top 10 records, and it's easily in the top 5. My fault...go buy it.

Been back in Nashville for a week or so now. It snowed today, very cool. Oh yes, here is my list of the top 10 records of 2003.

10. The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of...
9. Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
8. The Strokes - Room On Fire
7. The Mercury Program and Maserati - The Confines of Heat
6. Robert Randolph and The Family Band - Unclassified
5. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
4. The Rapture - Echoes
3. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Commatorium
2. Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
1. The Postal Service - Give Up

And My List of The Best MP3's I came across in 2003. (In no real order)

1. Wheat - "I Met A Girl"
2. Debussy - "Arabesque #1"
3. Imaginary Baseball League - "From Arkansas, With Love"
4. Anathallo - "A Song For Christine"
5. Arab Strap - "Girls of Summer"
6. The National - "Murder Me Rachel"
7. The Russian Futurists - "Crumble"
8. Coldplay - "Clocks (Royksopp Trembling Heart Remix)"
9. mewithoutyou - "bullet to binary"
10. Death Cab For Cutie - "Photobooth"
11. The Album Leaf - "The MP"
12. Bexar Bexar - "winter99"
13. Ladytron - "Seventeen"
14. Outkast - "Hey Ya!"
15. Godspeed You Black Emperor - "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antnnaes To The Sky"
16. Sufjan Stevens - "Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!"

And There you Have It. Love,
Me

It's been a while, huh? I went to SA and came back, surviving the plane ride, amazingly. I had breakfast tacos, and that was pretty much my main goal of the trip. And now I'm going back this comming Monday for x-mas break. Anyways, as far as music goes, the new cd from Sun Kil Moon is excellent, I recomend buying it to anyone, providing you can find it...I was amazed I found it at Tower Records, maybe they have it at Borders as well. Very Neil Young influenced, which is odd that i like it because I don't stomach Young very well. Also, I stumbled upon Emergency &! by the Dismemberment Plan...freaking amazing. Go buy it. It's a couple of years old but that doesn't diminish it's greatness. Ok, that's it, probably no more writing in here until after the break...I know you'll be waiting for more.

Wow, I'm going home in less than a week. It will be the first time I've been back this entire time so it will no doubt be weird. I still consider Texas my home even though I swore to myself it wasn't.
Things I'm looking fowards to: Breakfast tacos, my dog, Fanta Apple, Mexicans, my room not smelling like beef jerkey or something else unexplainable, a real bathroom, Montanio Drive, my friends, driving a car that's not a Mercedes...ok, I'm not looking fowards to that, crappy TV channels, REAL FOOD, the heat, cigars, inside jokes that I haven't used in 3 months, speeches on why I'm so irresponsible with money, my mom doing everything I say,

Things I'll Miss: fast porn downloads...no, j/k. The comraderie of the third floor, Miss Tonya, the back shower, ESPN, Comedy Central, Family Guy DVD's, obscure music references.

Is it ok to be deathly afraid of flying? Because I am. And I can just see them going "I'm sorry sir, you don't have the right stuff, you can't board." and I'll be stuck her for thanksgiving, eating at a chinese restaurant with "It's A Wonderful Life" on a low rumble behind my head. I swear, I almost pee myself whenever the plane hits turbulence. Too bad I'm not old enough to drink or I would be downing whiskey like crazy in a feeble effort to calm my nerves. Maybe I'll sit next to a fat person and they can cushion me when the planes finally crashes in a field south of Little Rock. Ok, I'll stop.

I want to go see Hey Mercedes this Sunday, I got to find people to go with me...go vangrant cheapo emo! Any takers?

Hey, everyone who gets to go home before Tuesday...I hope it's so boring until I get there.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything significant. First off...The Death Cab For Cutie Show. As one of the bands that has shaped my musical outlook these past years, it was an experience of great importance to me. They are my favorite band, bar none, and it was almost a surreal experience to see them on stage. I dunno if this is how cult worship starts, but I think it's along the same vein. They touched on just about every stage of their career, from We Have the Facts....To Transatlanticism. They played "Photobooth" which I had entirely forgotten about and launched me into an obsession with The Forbidden Love EP. Their set was 2 hours long, quite taxing on the legs. Madeleine had to sit down for a bit, her legs being tired from meetings all day. All in all, it was an amazing show. Was it the best I've ever been to? No, that's still reserved for Los Lobos, but it was up there.

Along the Ben Gibbard line...There are some songs that stripped of their gloss, are beautiful. I found this cover of "girls just want to have fun" by Gibbard that was just him and his guitar. Now it might be ironic that he's singing this, but the simplicity makes the song become something more than a Cindi Lauper vehicle. If anyone wants to have this song let me know, I'll be happy to send it to you.

Wheat was pretty good last night. Reminded me a lot of Guster for some reason. Imaginary Baseball League rocked, as always.

Mercury Program, Maserati, Appleseed Cast...awesome. You can knock post-rock instrumental all you want, I still love it. God, to be in a band like that.

Anyways, peace.

One of the greatest things ever written about the decline of pop music, and another person who hates Madonna as much as me. It's from pitchforkmedia.com

Britney Spears [ft. Madonna]: "Me Against the Music"
Oops! Looks like it's all over for your girlfriend, and it's not just 'cause her fanbase has grown up-- Britney's been accosting all of us too fucking long with her Disney-fried, sub-Abba teen-pop, and now, like the awesomely savage barbarians we are, we want blood. Even her record label seems to want to end it here: they've tossed her "Me Against the Music", one of the greatest disasters in pop music history, as a surefire ship-sinker.
An abomination even by Spears' standards, "Me Against the Music" is rank enough that last weekend's SNL audience was as reluctant to applaud for it as they were to acknowledge Jimmy Fallon's mock-Asian accent. The ridiculously defiant title ambitiously pits her-- not a typo-- against the music, suggesting a final showdown in which Britney suits up to, once and for all, eliminate that colossal aural evil by turning it on itself. It almost works: I think I felt a ripple in the fabric of sound around the 3:30 mark. There are so many subtle intricacies here conspiring to form the ultimate musical horror: the frogthroat effect buried at the bottom of the a capella intro, the blink-and-miss-it prechorus lyric "chic-a-tah" (seriously! like four times!), the orchestra hits slamming like a Fox news update, and-- okay, this one isn't so subtle-- Madonna.

The Material Mom-- desperately paddling to float her own tanking career after bombing with American Life and her recent "Into the Groove" rehash-- follows a dialogue with Britney that actually tops Wendy & Lisa's intro to Prince's "Computer Blue" for most heated inane Lesbian-themed discourse in a song ever. The breakdown is shameless, and not just from the obvious sex-sells angle, as a sultry (did I mention 40-year-old?) Madonna pants, "Hey Britney, you say you wanna lose control/ Come over here, I got somethin' to show ya/ Sexy lady, I'd rather see you bare your soul."

"Me Against the Music" is a true feat: it not only hideously topples "Lucky" in terms of sheer patience-testing, but actually ranks, with ease, among the all-time most devastating pop chart embarrassments: Bobby Brown's "On Our Own" from Ghostbusters II; C + C Music Factory's "Things That Make You Go Hmm" and Twisted Sister's cover of "Leader of the Pack". If there's ever a hall of fame for American culture's laughable nadirs, this one'll have its own room. --Ryan Schreiber

Back from KY...pretty fun, had some good memories. It inspired me to grow a crazy redneck moustache. It's beautiful, and I'm the first at Belmont to have one. Anyways, to keep with the music theme, the new Death Cab for Cutie is amazing. It didn't get that good of a review on pitchforkmedia.com but I'll get mine up soon, a much better review. The contrasts between Transatlanticism and We Have the Facts are readily aparant, but still great music. Also, my faith in a revival of new wave has an embodiment: Interpol. Their cd came out a while back, but seriously, it's brilliant. It's the next logical step for what Mitch and I entitled "Nuwav:o" The second comming of new wave. Hot Hot Heat is part of that, they're like the Cars, Interpol is more like the cure or Depeche Mode. Awesome. Anyways, gotta go watch the series!
Peace!

Correction! It's not the tight end, it's the wide reciever. My mistake.

Comming up...BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE REVIEW!! Amazing!!

MY FAITH IN THE ALL MIGHTY DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE HAS BEEN RESTORED!

Don't you just love how all my headlines are in all caps today?

I'll admit it. After I heard "The New Year" off of DCFC's new album, Transatlanticism, I was worried. Very Worried. It was too loud, too...too mainstream. I was dreading that this would be their sell-out album and they'd get snatched up by a major label and turn into the next Train. But no fear! The Barsuk website posted "Title And Registration" on their site, and I just downloaded it. Beautiful. This is classic DCFC. It sounds a lot like "405" which was a stunning song, and with Chris Walla's improved production skills this song is amazing. A harken back to We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes. Wow. And Ben Gibbard isn't resorting to the inane lyrics! Thank God! Something to make me think! Anyways, yes this is a biased review since they are my favorite band, but screw you, this is an amazing song. Let's hope that the rest of the record is like this.

I think this a record for the most posts in a day.