first up: gbv released an album this week. it's called "earthquake glue,", it's a really pretty album, not as heavy as the last one. you can stream it and see. i haven't purchased my copy yet, but i'm hoping for one of those "golden tickets" that entitles the lucky lout to a free copy of their upcoming (third!) box set. i tend to be lucky when it comes to gbv.

tomorrow night is the hold steady at northsix. if you're looking for a new favorite band, you should be there. we will rock out; it will be insane amounts of fun.

ted leo played in the blackout! story in the news section. this morning i pulled out "the tyranny of distance," which i never really got into despite everyone jizzing all over it. it's so much better now that i "get it."

gawker is hilarious and even (gasp!) smart now that choire is writing it. i particularly enjoyed "avoid dreaded opening act ben folds."

couple new strokes songs, bootleg style.

you know, i've seen gideon yago around at shows and stuff, so i always thought he was cool. now he says the album format is a "bloated, outdated, overused, unnecessary idea." hey gideon? how about demanding that record companies court artists who actually *can* make albums without "twelve tracks of filler" (by the way what albums are you buying?), cause they are so out there. clearly gideon is a tool. [via catchdubs, who cracks me up with the phrase "pumping up to get his rape on"]

shit. the booze cruise is sold out. damn, that sucks. someone hook me up. there's cool stuff at the east village howl festival, though.

IM handbook. [via hardglitter]

how 'bout that blackout? mine was scary at the beginning, when i called my brother after the computers died and the lights in times square went out and he blamed it on "the e-bomb" just before the phones went dead. our managing editor then called us together and assured us that "this is not that," but i and a few other people were clearly wondering, how does he know? meanwhile the clueless lobby security yelled over the building PA that "there is no need to panic!!" every five seconds. so i walked downtown with coworkers, arriving at my block about an hour and a half later. through a series of random, weird encounters ("wait, who was on our scaffolding?"), managed to gather together some friends and hangers-on, and we all stood around outside iggy's with our beers. then tamar realized that between us we had about 500 veggie burgers in our freezer and we might as well grill 'em up, so we decamped to holly's deck. all around us other people were hanging on their fire escapes and roofs, enjoying the newly visible stars and the air of craziness. it was kind of scary because the city was so vulnerable, but as i'm sure you've heard we new yorkers really "pulled together." anyway, eventually the beer ran out, so we went home to sleep in the hot, unmoving air. i discovered there is a baby in one of the neighboring buildings. it cries a lot.

friday we woke up and did not have power, despite the mayor's assurances. i cleaned, awaiting the arrival of weekend warrior betsy, and sat around reading the times in the intense silence. (love that cover shot of the darkened skyline.) i went to the chinese grocery store, where a worker was trying to foist dixie cups of milk on people to show how good it was. "miss, you try!" uh, no thanks. betsy showed up and a bunch of us retrieved holly from her apartment and returned to iggy's for a rousing game of scattergories. what fun! then we journeyed to the west side, where they had power, ate dojo and haagen dazs, and returned home, wondering what to do now. it was 9 pm at this point. two minutes after walking in the door, the lights went on, and we all danced around and cheered like idiots. 29 hours....dammmmmn.

saturday i'd organized a small picnic in central park before the polyphonic spree show at summerstage. leanne had finally received permission from her mommy to come to nyc, so she was able to enjoy the cheese and crackers, chips, fruit, and smirnoff ice (ahem) with the rest of us. the spree were a maelstrom of happy hipsterdom, a flaming lips-ish cult of white robes in chuck taylors singing epic odes to the sun. you couldn't help but smile. later that night tricia opined that perhaps the blackout could've been a preemptive measure to prevent an imminent attack on nuclear power plants. note the microsoft worm, note the relative calm among officials and the extremely quick assurances that it wasn't terrorism, etc. i don't know but you never know. they could totally take down the grid.

more blackout stuff: jami's story and photos, group photolog of the blackout, one blogger's stuck-in-the-subway story, and jesse's photos.

great interview with jim james of my morning jacket: "To me, reverb is the difference between heaven and Earth, and the difference between feeling like I could sing like the Righteous Brothers or not sing at all." dude really loves that reverb. [via les.Yper-sound]

did you know aol has blogs now? yep, it's true! you can update from your AIM and even from your phone, creating an mp3 post. crazy, no? opens up new frontiers of drunk blogging. my roommate tamar has jumped into the blogging fray with this service. looks like she's caught the bug: two more posts since this morning! she's one to watch, i tell you.

ha: that is james truman, not spike jonze. [thanks leigh ann]

how cities make their own weather. very interesting considering this summer's seemingly constant rain and oppressive humidity.

so that guy from the gbv video is actually a real guy. [via largehearted boy]

i'll call this one Inexplicable Things That Happened At The Ween Show:

¥ well, for starters, i attended a ween show. paid $28 for the privilege. dean and gene ween are funny and weird, but let's face it, they are just not that good. i like "voodoo lady" and "ocean man" as much as the next person, and it's totally fun to scream that "you fucked up" song at the top of your lungs. but do they rock? i submit that they do not. they also have this contingent of hippie fans, and there IS a certain jam-band aspect to their live show that is inescapable. (and that is not a good thing.) it is instructive that i declared to john during the inevitable post-show phone call that "i just wasted three hours of my life."
¥ security confiscated a pill they found in mugsy's pocket, a pill he described as "either ecstasy or a vitamin." he later peed into his plastic beer bottle (unconfirmed).
¥ randi and i sang the theme song to "the golden girls" on the walk back from penn's landing to ryan's car.
¥ i changed my voicemail message. go on, call me. you know you want to hear it.
¥ i chacked up my eggs at the classy establishment ryan took us to for a 1 a.m. meal, an establishment, you understand, that chooses to advertise the fact that they serve seafood via a large orange neon sign bearing the word "seafood" on the building. nice. i should've known the eggs would be bad. some people have said things along the lines of "why were you eating eggs over easy after nineteen beers, anyway?" and to them i would say, "shut up. i have eaten eggs at 1 a.m. innumerable times. it was totally the eggs."
¥ on our way back to the pulpy's house, randi asked him what we were going to do next. he replied: "we're going to buy you bitches some pie, you're going to blow us, and then we're going to sleep." i don't think you had to be there to consider that the funniest thing you ever heard, right?

so yeah, good times with the crew. i did have a lot of fun. and then yesterday randi and i visited our old friend vinnie in his condo in south jersey, ate barbecue, and reminisced about the good old brain-destroying days of yore. vinnie, by the way, is pretty much the original metrosexual. his place was impeccably decorated. it looked like the president of pottery barn had moved in. what guy do you know that paints his bathroom bright orange? the mushrooms for the hamburgers were also to die for. he's a keeper, ladies. here is a fun shot of the three of us:

oh and then friday night was tamar's birthday party at the local bar. i left early due to horrific stomach pains. so it's 12:30 and tamar and kurt burst in, all commotion-like. i'm like, "what is this early return?" tamar turns around and there is chocolate frosting all over her face. "kurt thought it would be funny to smash my head into the cake," she says. i stop laughing long enough to ask if she hurt her nose in the process. "no, my nose sank six inches into the betty crocker," she replies. i probably would have killed somebody. but my girl was a good sport. she cleaned the frosting off her face and went right back out. let's go ahead and give her the pita shoutout i forgot to deliver on thursday: happy 25th, dude! now you are immortalized as per custom:

wow, i wonder if i can write lyrics.... frenchkiss records is giving away two passes to the tinkle booze cruise if les savy fav pick your lyrics for their song "get me now"! how cool would that be, eh? [thanks jinners] in other news, the label has signed the hold steady. i've heard half of their album and i'm certain it will slay at least half of you. they're in the studio right now; i think the album will be out in the fall.

i can't remember the last time i went to the shitty angelika. if it's not playing at the sunshine, i don't want to see it.

good news for the undersexed in the city (hi!): 85 percent of new yorkers between the ages of 18 and 64 years old reported having either no sex partner or 1 sex partner in the last year. [via gawker]

jesus jones frontman explains the corporate-event gig.

what dave eggers is listening to. [via fimoculous]

nerve interviews travis morrison.

last night was the walkmen/adam green/oranges band show at pier 54. i got there early and ate a blackened-chicken sandwich on white bread. what the fuck is that? white bread?! who eats white bread? plus, on blackened chicken?? weird. anyway, eventually jami rolled up, and we went backstage because we are cool. we found chris and alli and watched the oranges band from the sidestage part. they are some nice pop-rock-y goodness, a little superchunky. i still think there are too many of them, though. it was during their set that it began to rain. lightly at first, more so as the night went on. it did not ever stop raining. it was just the hardcore people who stayed, i guess, if by "hardcore" you mean "people who like free beer." wait, i guess not everyone had the free beer. i guess this was people with either a) umbrellas or b) an abiding love for the walkmen. no one really likes adam green, do they? hmm. something to ponder. anyway, it was a good turnout for a concert that took place entirely in the rain. the walkmen were pretty great, though i don't think i achieved concert nirvana. i was too busy fiddling with my bunky umbi and trying (unsuccessfully) to get a decent picture. maybe there was a moment though. that band is straight-up brilliant. after the show ended we drank some more beer and huddled under the tents. i had a lovely conversation with one of my favorite rock stars in which he told me that a picture i took was the best one ever taken of him (!). later, we (sans rock star) jumped in a cab and headed to hi-fi for, uh, a nightcap? i squished home the twelve blocks in my saturated flip-flops wet and happy. in short: good times. luckily someone else (jinners) got some great shots of the walkmen.

ha: some brit got the brilliant idea of photographing people being scared by his backfiring van. [via the morning news]

nerve's pickup-line contest winners.

wow, this is probably the most interesting thing christina aguilera has done, like, ever. check these new versace ads. i may be in the minority, but i think she actually looks really cool all white and de-makeupped.

whoa. liz phair's "why can't i" (evil crack song) has made it to #10 on vh1's top 20 countdown. you can watch the video on the site. it's really really bad. the capitol logo appears about 30 times. [via whatevs]

speaking of videos, here's the latest from GBV: the video for "my kind of soldier."

the new york press has an article about a few of the new york rock blogs. it's getting kind of hard to keep up, actually. i mean we all love miss modernage, right, but did you know about these: divestar, im losing my edge, garagedream, hard glitter, jenyk, new york doll, the jean genie, jinners (dotcom), and jinners (blogspot). some of them have been kickin' it a little longer than others, and most of them love stellastarr waaaaay too much. but i won't hold it against them. let me know if i missed any.

i can't believe i ever thought that a trip to staten island (the final frontier as eileen called it) might not be the funnest thing ever. it totally was! the ferry ride is pretty great, what with the water and the cheap 16-oz. buds and the friends and the wind and the digital cameras. we enlisted the aid of the minor-league yankee stadium security staff as well as local law enforcement to find "the bar with the creamsicle martinis" (as seen in time out). they actually knew, too! so we went to this very nice bar with crazy murals and a big ol' horn band and veggie nachos and had a grand ol' time. the creamsicle martinis were heavenly, bested only by the caramel martinis. so insanely yummy. we all agreed we would go back.

oh my god, my little copyediting heart can barely stand it. a new edition of the chicago manual of style now! it gets kinda trashed by slate. (they're a little disappointed in the new grammar chapter, written by the author of a dictionary of modern american usage, a work that david foster wallace loves, incidentally.) the voice weighs in on both the new chicago and web 11. (can you believe those idiots actually put "noo-cue-lar" as an actual pronunciation?? thanks dubya!)

a link-stealing we will go: here's a thoughtful tour diary from the fruit bats. and then here are a bunch of interesting mp3s, mostly b-sides, from bands you know and don't know. [both via largehearted boy]

new ted leo song for your downloading pleasure. [via catbirdseat]

proof that californians are crazy #735: gary coleman, arianna huffington, freakin' gallagher, and of course ah-nold are running for governor. what the hell is going on? just deal with your governor, people! the rest of the country has to deal with bush! sheesh.

inexplicable attempt #2 to attend a ween concert will take place this weekend. weird, huh?

bill maher's blog is pretty funny. check out that hurricane item. [via the morning news]

"like a burn that never goes away": so true. an interview with ween. [thanks corn-in-my-pants]

get a c-list celebrity to call your friends. what a great gift! i'd like rerun to call me. [via gawker]

official sirenfest pics from the voice, plus a fashion slide show from style.com. (i didn't make it. apparently wedge espadrilles from parade are not cutting-edge fashion.) [via jinners]

new jersey in lyrics. that "jersey shore" song has made it onto more than one mix tape of mine. [via hi-fi ny]

it's scattered t-storms for the foreseeable future. except for next thursday. fabs!

oh damn. betsy has some extremely fun stalkerazzi pictures of rhett at his d.c. show. love the kung-fu shot! also i must go on the record and say that i think it is sort of fucked up of him to be premiering new 97s songs. do a show with them, dammit.

i guess the saturday afternoon shopping trip was the highlight of my weekend, because not only did i purchase a train-conductorish pinstriped multi-pocketed belt (i.e. almost like a toolbelt, or even, heaven forbid, a fanny pack) that is the fucking bees' knees, but i also ran into jesse (you know, jesse) in k-mart. he told me about the play he's working on, "buddy" cianci: the musical, which is about that corrupt rhode island mayor. i am totally going, as is the rest of the bloggerati.

big news in copyediting land: web 11 is out! 10,000 new words and meanings! this means we can throw out our ratty old web 10s, the publishing standard. yay dictionaries! oh, and my boss told me that you can get a lot of enjoyment out of clicking the pronunciation links on the naughty words on the webster's website.

randi has pictures of rhett's new yellow shirt. he's so...goldenrod. randi also alerts me to the fantastic story of a woman giving birth on the T (boston's gay subway). i'm sorry, i know it's sad because she's crazy and poor, but this is hilarious. you've got passengers vomiting as this woman gives birth while staring out the window, you've got the woman sprinting up the steps, absconding with her own baby, and stopping momentarily to pick up the dropped placenta and throw it in her bag...please read it.

finally, jami's back! go show her some love.

day off was spent at six flags great adventure, or simply great adventure as we new jerseyans call it. we rode many coasters (best: medusa; worst: skull mountain) and saw many animals in the wild safari, which i love. camels are so cute, and they come when you call! eileen drove away just as the lions started doin' it. what the hell. she liked watching the kangaroos hug, though; i guess she just likes to keep it PG. the monkey section was closed, sadly. we'd forgotten the munchkins anyway. that's it for me today; have a good weekend, kids.