catherine's pita

i guess we can wave goodbye to those low(ish) ticketweb service charges now that evil ticketmaster has acquired the cute little online company. though i must admit, the fees had been creeping up over there, too, from the $1.50 i paid for my first ticketweb ticket to something like $3.21 for the last one.

ya gotta love this media hoax, in which joey skaggs, a well-known prankster, got a *lot* of respectable news outlets to faithfully report on his fake "cemetary theme park." it just goes to show how incompetent some people are: the l.a. times didn't even bother to call?

some of you have been baying for more interactivity on the pita. and so, i ask you:

vote or i kill you.

salon rags on bazaar, part two. the writer seemingly fails to understand, or at least disapproves of the fashion context of our "family issue." well, duh, we are a fashion magazine! jeez. we put out 12 issues a year. i wonder how many salon stories we'll see about them.

damn! i set the vcr to tape "survivor" tonight, but forgot to change the channel on the cable box, so now when i get home i'll have an hour of new york 1 on tape. i hate it when that happens.

tuesday, may 30, 2000
i tried to update from the gym yesterday, on one of their "netpulse" stations, which is basically a computer attached to a stationary bicycle. it was a really annoying interface, but i was doing it, at 75 rpm, peck by peck, and just as i was about to send, whammo! "congratulations! you have completed your workout!" not that i was going to say much, just that this album is near-perfect workout music.

saw "time code" this weekend, finally. it actually was not very difficult to watch and comprehend at all, and managed to squeeze quite a lot into its real-time 93 minutes, plus the performances were so fantastic, it was hard to believe they were mostly improvised. like "blair witch," "time code" is notable primarily for its reinvention of the movie-making process, but so much more successful on its own merits. i also took in "small time crooks", which took a different direction than i was expecting but was really funny nonetheless. i do disagree with the old biddy who afterward declared it "smart as hell," no doubt towing the old woody allen line -- it's more of a lighthearted romp. highly enjoyable. okay, on to the links, if i can find any.

ewwww...a pair of siblings want to keep their mother's corpse in a glass case in their basement.

time magazine's cover story on ecstasy reveals that a lot of the e out there -- as much as 40 percent -- is fake.

friday, may 26, 2000
citysearch picks 20 musicians who "hold the next generation of pop music in their hands." like, um, billy corgan. ha!

wednesday, may 24, 2000
it seems i am not the only one who hates the salon redesign. (ex-new womaners note: patricia cunningham took time out of her "busy" day to email jim romenesko.) basically salon has forsaken headlines (back to journo 101 for them) and now force readers to click on their subject-sites before getting to any story, instead of clicking through from the main page. abominable. however, it's worth noting that the archive by date page is basically just like the old design, except still uglier. change your bookmark and you're set.

hey kids, rejoice! it's a mini-marathon of freaks and geeks!

what can i say about sleater-kinney except that they rocked? i had a dream about them last night where we hung out and they were cool....my friend nate, who had never heard them before, fell in love with carrie brownstein within 30 seconds and could not stop proclaiming his love for her....corin declared last night one of the "funnest shows this tour"....and i got a "show me your riffs" t-shirt that i'm going to make into a tank top.

i'm getting a little antsy. it's 5:10 p.m. and the urbanfetch man has not yet arrived with my book and cd fixes. that's 10 minutes late. how dare they make me wait.

tuesday, may 23, 2000
very interesting article on the gender gap in the presidential election, past and present. it points out where the gender gap has made a difference, and where it hasn't. apparently this year men and women are actually supporting different candidates, while that hasn't been the case in the past. [via bird on a wire]

finally, a rolling stone i will buy. (hint: tom green tom green tom green!!!)

courtney love's digital makeover.

tonight is tom green's cancer special, reviewed here by the new york times. i'm kind of bummed i won't be able to watch it, but god knows mtv loves those reruns. i had to choose between taping it and the fabulous WB tuesday night, and of course, buffy and angel won.

why does modern humorist freeze my browser? how inconvenient for you, dear reader, for i would have linked to their airtoons feature, and told you it is a good diversion if you don't have the kind of job (or life) where you can patiently click through 56 images of airline cartoons with sometimes-humorous captions, like i did. now if you want the truncated, just-the-funnies-ma'am, you'll have to, i'd imagine, click on the table of contents button at modern humorist, which would be currently one of my favorite sites except for that it sucks so bad.

brill's content's june cover story on the "big brother" show i mentioned yesterday. all i have to say is, if i wanted to be stuck without a phone, tv, internet, and all contact with the outside world, i'd join the peace corps.

i haven't actually read brill's content for months, but i am catching up, a tiny bit, via their archives. for instance, now i know all i need to know, ever, about the queen of dishy celebrity journalism, lynn hirschberg.

monday, may 22, 2000
this weekend's edition of the times magazine featured a cover story called the electronic fishbowl, which examined the fascination we have for lives lived on camera, as seen in the glut of new "reality" shows like "big brother" (coming soon to the u.s.!) and "survivor," and in the massive number of hits enjoyed (or not) by webcam sites like nerdman.com.

the Bad Music issue of freaky trigger is up, with more to come. be sure to check out the affiliated i hate music blog, where they will be slagging off mostly sacred-cow-type bands. my request for the disembowelment of my bloody valentine was promptly and satisfyingly filled. thanks tom!

tom green talks about his nuts. it turns out that i was wrong to be suspicious. it seems the man does in fact (or did) have cancer. oops.

this sleater-kinney story was originally written for harper's bazaar (can you tell?) but, sadly, killed. i sorta wish it had gone further with the "what will they do if they become rock stars?" angle, but it's still worth reading. and here's another one to chew on. [latter via kickbright]

looks like cmj is finally getting around to creating a feature archive. sample quote: "we fancy ourselves to be dirty douche bags."

friday, may 19, 2000
so, modest mouse were not fucking around last night. they were definitely on. isaac had that deranged look in his eyes. oh my god, it was a furious, footstomping good time, especially for "doin' the cockroach," "cowboy dan," and "trucker's atlas." i could give more details but i think a limited number of people would care. but what the hell: they also played a couple of songs, at least, from their upcoming album, the moon and antarctica (out june 13), which i figured out from looking at the lyrics. here's a decent interview with isaac, who did indeed sing into his guitar, which you can find out more about from kempa. and for the love of god, people, go see them if they come to your town. (vanessa was unfazed by the screaming and enjoyed the show quite a bit, perking up especially for the jams, being a phish fan and all. hi vanessa!)

where is irvine, california, and why couldn't this festival be the week before, when i will be in the state? why why why?

quentin tarantino must be trying to get hip again with this new video he's directing for NWA.

awwww, man. giuliani is dropping out of the senate race. not that i blame him, but it's going to be so boring now.

i love this piece on why it's okay for women to sit down on the toilet. i have always thought crouching spectacularly awkward and ridiculous.

aha, so that's why "american beauty" was not on the shelves at my blockbuster last week, yet listed on the new-releases board. how very evil of them.

thursday, may 18, 2000
david duchovny, so glad you love me.

weird, annoying modest mouse review. tonight i drag vanessa with me to see them, and i am giddily curious to see what she thinks. i don't think i'm going to tell her about the screaming aspect.

no shortage of giuliani satires these days: take your pick of, so far, the village voice's opera, i, giuliani or salon's don giuliani.

for all the fellas: the bastard test. girls can take it too, though: i am 30 percent bastard, apparently.

tricky, common, joan jett, mary lou lord, and, yes, more! all appearing this summer in central park's summerstage series.

wednesday, may 17, 2000
i refuse to believe that the new sonic youth album could possibly warrant a 0.0 rating. i think pitchfork is just trying to be as hateable as possible these days. i mean, did they really have to also include a news item "reporting" on their review? the answer is no, they did not.

looks like the x-files will keep on sucking right through to a an eighth season. apparently the powers that be think it can survive without david duchovny. noooooooo!! x-files without mulder would be like the cigarette-smoking man without the smoking! i saw gillian anderson on letterman a few nights ago and she was breathtakingly stupid. (and yet...kind of charming too.) it gives me new respect for the stretch it must require for her to play to the smart, serious scully.

there's going to be a sequel to easy rider. i could use a little more info, like...how? why? [via twernt]

here is an insane story from my friend randi about the sickening culture of the new york city police as exemplified by one officer:

so yesterday amy and i went to central park and had this crazy episode that involved a perverted man filming us while we were just sitting there reading. a cop busted him and then told us he should've beat the shit out of him because that's just what cops do. "your fathers would do the same thing, the only difference is, i'm trained to do it." and of course i loved the line, "well of course there are too many people around but i could've taken him to a quiet place and nobody would have known the difference." i think i was more disturbed with the crooked cop than the perverted sleaze. gotta love nypd blue.

tuesday, may 16, 2000
lots of reloadable fun at shakespearean insults, thou artless clay-brained pigeon-egg. [via usr/bin/girl]

oh that is so annoying. i had a longish entry on new blogs i like and someone's damn link opened in a new window where i was writing my words, which were lost upon going back. grrrrr. despite the annoyance, i still urge you all to check out some of the new blogs i've been discovering of late. i know for some of you, this is the only weblog you read. repent! and have a look at steal this blog, us against them, skykicking, jejune.net, pearls that are his eyes, in vaguely descending order of music-focus. some of them are members of something called the star chamber, which must be some kind of sinister indie-rock cabal. i have no idea.

too much for me to handle right now, but later i will peruse everything philosophical on buffy the vampire slayer. [via skykicking]

after "ghost dog," i have high hopes for this feminist martial arts film from ang lee, who also directed "the ice storm."

i know i was vaguely aware of it before, but pollstar is a pretty good resource for concert information. [thanks whitney, loved yer chat!]

monday, may 15, 2000
inside.com is in sneak previews. the only thing worth clicking, for me, was this story about what it's like to work on the millionaire show. i sure won't be shelling out the $20 a month subscription fee. read the buzz, courtesy of media news.

god bless priceline. i finally did it, and got my ticket, on american, NONSTOP baby! woo-hoo! (i am pretty scared of airports.)

and i thought i was being all cool, but it turns out that blue lines is not a reference to the massive attack album after all! go there and find out the real story. and because he loves love and rockets and we all love love. (uh...i don't really know what that means. just fyi, as we say in the biz.)

thurston moore says sonic youth's new album, due out tomorrow (i love how these things always sneak up on me!), contains 42 minutes of songs "based on visions of shared color and greyscale meditation." yeah?

friday, may 12, 2000
mike figgis makes lots of musical analogies in this interview with salon. do you know he actually had some events where he did a live mixing of the sound for "time code" (director as DJ!), and the DVD is going to feature an interactive option where you can choose which quadrant you want to listen to at any given time? that's definitely the best use for DVD i've ever heard of.

holy mother of media, another interview with figgis, this time at feed.

the liner note preservation society: not quite like the real thing, but a good idea nonetheless. [via pith]

sonicnet just a little slow with this story about the cbgbv show, heh heh. i think i might be about to get really obsessed with robert pollard. oh yes. and here is the motherlode.

cool intro, at least, at bionic music.

thursday, may 11, 2000
so, the guy behind the fabulous new york london paris munich, apparently a reference to a lyric by some band named M, also runs a big ol' music zine called freaky trigger (up now: the english issue), AND a more general weblog called blue lines, whose reference i do get. another blogger also splits himself into "music" and "other" portions: witness josh blog and his toy, his dream, his rest, highly poetry-centric at the moment.

these pages have highly stealable links, i must say. and so: band-a-minute, a distillation of a lot of bands into one- or two-liners. very funny. (modest mouse: retarded boy sings pixies songs) [via josh blog]

wednesday, may 10, 2000
gbv rocked again. and today the white noise is deafening.

what's that you say? something about hearing damage and loud music? what?

say it loud, say it proud: astoria is cool. if enough people say it, you might start to believe it.

the world's hardest movie quiz, good for a $150 gift certificate if you win, which you won't.

most hilarious thing thus far today: urbanfetch has this new cd they're giving out that contains songs written and performed by their couriers--all about urbanfetch. actually i think it's just one song remixed a bunch of times. "what can we fetch for you?" has a whole new context now.

most annoying thing thus far today: man on subway in blue giorgio armani sunglasses on a very cloudy day, determined to flaunt both his expensive clothes and his dubious masculinity, making a show of taking off various items of clothing, spreading his legs as far out as they could go, and generally taking up as much space as possible. most baffling thing thus far today: was this man really yanking out his chest hairs one by one?! i couldn't turn to look directly b/c he was sitting right beside me, but i really think that's what he was doing. i exchanged a look with another passenger but it did not ease the horror. this guy clearly is long overdue for a good ass-kicking.

my officemate is talking a lot today. right now she is reading aloud from random bed 'n' breakfast web pages. please shut up! i do not need to be informed of everything that passes through your head!

a truly great bouncer story from mike dowd:

I live in Washington DC, and a few of my friends work on The Hill or in the surrounding area. One Friday, after work, a bunch of us meet at a bar down in that area. Coincidentally, the bar was an old stomping ground for classmates during college years. On occasion, you can still catch a few students and alumni from my old mamma there. On this particular night I ran into a buddy of mine and found out he was bouncing that night. So, periodically throughout that evening, I would visit with him, chat it up for a bit, and then continue on my way.

Now, we must remember that I got there right after work, so at around 9:00pm, when the Friday night crowd started rolling in, I had probably put back a third of a bottle of whiskey already. I was noticeably, blindingly, stinking drunk. It was at this point that on an occasion to visit my friend while bouncing, a large volume of people streamed through the door. So I began to help him out. While trying to keep my balance, I took a few ID's. I remember trying to look convincing as I swirled them around four inches in front of my face and attempted to stare at the middle. I remember handing them back after not seeing a date on a single one.

The following was related to me.

I did a few pointedly ridiculous things.
1) There was a cover. From a few people, I tried to take money and make change with my own cash.
2) I would get mixed up between the necessary motor functions of checking ID's and taking cash. On two occasions I took someone's ID and put it in my pocket; with one, I tried to make change. At one point I checked to see if a $10 bill was 21 years old.
3) A buddy told me that he saw me take an ID from a guy who was probably 10 to 15 years older than I was, and study it severely before allowing him in.

The greatest thing about all this: PEOPLE KEPT GIVING ME THEIR ID'S!

That is the blind following that "The Bouncer" commands from the thirsty minions. And for one brief, shining moment, I was a part of it all.

way to go, mike! you win!

tuesday, may 9, 2000
funny story about some guy giving his cat an enema. [nowhere if not memepool]

i seem to be otherwise linkless today. BUT i am going to see guided by voices (calling themselves "homosexual flypaper") at cbgb tonight, so all is well. for those of you not as cool as me and pete, you can watch them on conan, which reminds me: the late-night tv page compiles all the guests for those kind of shows. [megnut had that a while ago]

the british film institute's top 100 british films, via strange brew, who's sorta-but-not-completely throwing in the towel. :(

why do they turn off the air conditioning after six o'clock?! it's inhuman!

monday, may 8, 2000
this weekend's times magazine examines what-all americans think. about lots of stuff. with appropriately smart-assed "analysis" by dave eggers.

western homes points to new york london paris munich, a seriously great music blog that has the sort of meaty links bring the rock used to pour forth. and, uh, lots of eminem commentary.

friday, may 5, 2000
now that i've seen this guide to british swearing, i know how to spell "pillock," one of my favorite words from childhood. i am quite disturbed, however, at the stated meaning of "how's your father"....

now, this is the dog's bollocks, eh? the harper's index, a little behind but so what. particularly curious: Number of U.S. Census respondents in 1990 who identified their race as "other" : 9,804,847. Percentage of them later requestioned by the Census who reported being white : 59.

"time code" might make me smarter, says the new york times.

interesting take on the irrelevance of women's mags in salon focusing (and not) on how we don't really identify as males and females in this crazy, uh, dot-com world. still, a large part of this woman's argument seems to be based on "you are what you buy," which is kind of icky.

another sad description of a prominent weblogger.

i thought feedmag was cool. why did they print this awful judgment of the "high fidelity" type? the writer, who believe it or not doesn't like mix tapes, is obviously just jealous of boys (not him) who have good taste AND get the girl.

thursday, may 4, 2000
who do you want to kill today?

cool idea, weird name/domain: i'm talking about easter eggs, where they compile "hidden treasures" buried in songs, albums, software, tv, books, art, etc.

who wants to be a senator? gary coleman, apparently. [via ribbit]

"a brief history of astounding bummers" by ben hamper, whose hilarious book "rivethead," an account of his work at an auto factory in flint, michigan, was one of the few saving graces of the only business (history) class i ever took.

some sleater-kinney stuff: cmj's review, and the village voice's, an interview with carrie brownstein, and a rolling stone story, and....should i go on?

a hip-hop musical in harlem!

wednesday, may 3, 2000
jim romenesko gets an $80,000 salary now for doing MediaNews. the description of his apartment kind of made me sad though. [via bird on a wire]

oh my goodness, this is intriguing: the people who brought you the real world are gearing up to start casting a new "reality" venture featuring actual new york journalists working on a start-up webzine about "life as it is lived by manhattan's elite." it sounds insane, maybe kind of fun. i'm just not sure i wouldn't hate it, though i may apply anyway, dave eggers style.

this bouncer story stands head and shoulders above the rest. check it out, from matt rossi, an *actual* bouncer:

I used to work in Washington, DC, at a sleazy dive which shall go nameless because I don't want to get anyone fired, as a stealth bouncer. Now, a stealth bouncer doesn't work the door, or take tickets, or wear a T-Shirt with the name of the bar on it, or anything like that...a stealth bouncer instead mingles with the crowd, acts like just another patron, and watches the bartender and waitstaff's backs. It was my job to intercede when some drunken college yahoo decided to take a swing at Jim, or paw Paul or Evelyn. Also, when we have live bands, I was expected to keep people from harming them.

One night, I was leaning against the bar, sipping a beer and pretending to watch some english guys play pool, when a reject from the Mod Squad decided to throw a Heinekin bottle at the lead singer of the interchangeable Heavy metal band we had in. I grabbed his wrist to keep him from doing it, and his friend stabbed me in the arm with a pocketknife, leaving a nasty two inch scar I still have. Luckily for me, I didn't feel the pain right away, and it wasn't until after the police came and fished them out of the dumpster that I noticed how much I was bleeding (it was running down my arm and pooling on the cement outside the back door) and let Alaine take me to the hospital.

So my request to all you kids out there? Don't stab the bouncers. It's rude. We don't come to where you work and stab you.

tuesday, may 2, 2000
someone in pennsylvania is sick, just sick. baked beans?! [all hail steve]

sebastian bach on broadway. i remember him. ha.

leanne and randi have already received their prizes (randi for her "my boyfriend was dumb enough to buy an obviously fake ticket from a scalper but the nice bouncer felt sorry for him and let him in" story), but i would like to extend a public congratulation to the first stranger to weigh in with an admittedly not-quite-bouncer story. mr. richard allen will be receiving his prize in the mail shortly. [remember, you can still win! i have a virtually unlimited supply of prizes.] and here it is:

One of my coworkers was out drinking with friends, including some people he didn't know. One of the girls he was with was all liquored up and apparently tried to go into a French restaurant just off Union Square to use the ladies' room. An angry French maitre d' told her to get lost. She got in some sort of argument/shoving match with him. There was a loud noise and suddenly a big crack appeared in the restuarant's front door. The AFMD seized her by the arm and started screaming about calling the police. My coworker headed over from across the street to try and sort it out. The AFMD grabbed him and started throttling him. The owner of the restaurant came out and grabbed the AFMD and told them to leave. As they were about to flee, the AFMD broke partially free and kicked my coworker in the chest, knocking him askance and leaving a big footprint in the middle of his white shirt. He is still in shock over this.

somewhat amusing, no?

monday, may 1, 2000
"i will now sell five copies of the three ep's by the beta band," says rob in "high fidelity." but guess what? sales have quadrupled since the movie came out. and it really is good.

red-red-pink, the color on my sidebar over there, is *the* hot color for spring, fyi. H&M department store (new in new york) has tons of it. i bought two shirts in this color there, very cheap. find one near you.

an idea whose time has come: rap the vote.

i did not realize that the new sleater-kinney album is out tomorrow. rock! here's an interview for the occasion.