yeah, we jumped in the fire truck. firemen are still hot, by the way. jami has more pictures of it. boy did we get ridiculous last night. i think we ate some crack cookies or something. (note to concerned parents: this is a JOKE. no one in my circle eats crack cookies. i don't even think you can put crack in cookies.) but what is the deal with random smoke coming from the ground on the LES? alex saw it a couple of weeks ago, too. is the lower east side on top of the hellmouth or something?

forgive me, but that's gotta hurt. [blame leanne, who wouldn't you know it finally updated her knee.]

concert ruined by guy enjoying himself. at an ONEIDA! show.

checking in on my, uh, colleagues around the web, i find that lindsay is an evil genius and todd levin is completely hilarious. click these things! [latter link via new yorkish, a new favorite of mine]

freshdirect is coming! freshdirect is coming! this means salads not from tiny's! we are excited! and we have lockhart and some crazy neighborhood lady to thank. say what you want about the guy (and believe me, plenty is said), but he gets results. dude, next project: removing the surface hotel.

turd birds. that is one craft i will not be getting into.

the walls have ears. people, do not talk about blogs in public. it is undignified. i got the following exasperated text message from tamar last night: "ovrhrd peeps at din saying some1 is trying 2 'out' the minor fall major lift writer. These peeps r blabbing about blogs and spiers. That is so morts!" i concur. people, if you must discuss these things in public, at least have the decency to lower your voice and look sheepish and not be, as tamar put it, "catty fags." most important of all, look around to see if you are being assailed with disgusted looks. people are eating.

do not miss ryan's assessment of the democratic candidates' musical preferences. this is necessary information.

wow. 2004, and sleater-kinney has gotten around to putting up a website. fun pics.

what the hell is up with radio 4 selling a song to mitsubishi? that doesn't seem very get-behind-the-struggle of them.

everybody saw the pope enjoying some breakdancing, right? i know, i know, that is so yesterday. in other old news, i finally watched the move-on anti-bush ad that cbs won't air. rah.

how about dead whale explodes on truck in taiwan, spattering passers-by with blood and stomach-parts? nice, right? also, once they exploded a dead whale on a beach in oregon. not the same thing.

here's a good argument in favor of the matrix production team: ben gibbard doing "complicated." this is weird, but i'd rather hear avril.

is it scarlett JOhansson or scarlett YOhannson? these are the things that keep me up at night. please advise.

what's so fine about art? old 97's felt a teensy bit like a nostalgia act saturday night, but whatever: they were really good, played all the hits, etc. i can't tell you a damn thing about any of the new songs. i can tell you i danced a lot and took 100 pictures of rhett. favorite moments were either: a) rhett telling the story of some gaywad at the d.c. show who decided to propose to his girlfriend at the show, at which time i thought it appropriate to erupt into a loud "boooooo!" and b) randi collapsing into mortzification after asking, "donde esta el gigante?" right in front of said giant, the same one we've been seeing at all the alt-country shows for years. also, rhett's shirt, as you can see, tested the limits of heinosity. not quite as bad as the vertically striped multicolored button-down, but still very, very bad. his wife is a model; can't she do something?

gin-blossom wannabes the damnwells opened and sucked really, really hard. i did not talk to one person who thought that what they did was okay. tamar, seriously, your championing of this piss-poor band really badly damages your cred. everytime i tried tromping upstairs, they were not done yet and i had to run back downstairs because they hurt my ears. ugh.

earlier that day, i convinced jami to come out in the bitter cold to cheer on the freaks competing in the idiotarod, a shopping-cart race from dumbo to union square. crazy costumes, jello shots, and shopping carts. jami has a more in-depth report, with pictures, as i was incapacitated by hunger for much of the proceedings. sarah actually finished sixth and was just as cute as can be in her mouse ears. i recognized quite a few santacon people, unsurprisingly. next year, we race.

newish oneida tour reports. apparently there is good weed in holland.

finally, does anyone have modest mouse tickets for me? let me know...

how to wrap your friend's apartment in tinfoil. genius. [via geekpunk]

nytimes discovers "loLES." ugh. lockhart steele, of course, has the in-depth version of this sentiment.

get your war on, mars edition.

people told me this was old, but i don't care. it's still funny. and plus, there are lists there. subpop parodies pitchfork.

is howard dean too emo?

grand royal being auctioned off; mike d under investigation.

amy found a ticket for saturday's old 97s show. now she has an extra. want it?

you know what is a great stress reliever, actually? the retarded monster. i just want to make sure that everybody clicks this, okay? make sure your sound is turned on!

braved the face-freezing cold to check out tv on the radio at sin-e last night. hey, it's only four blocks. you can't really whine about four blocks, i don't care how cold it is. you get to be warm when you get to the spot, you know? they were damn good, too. their new album leaked to the internet, for you file-sharing types.

what i want to know is WHY i did not make the "best blog" category on the ballot for new york mag's best of new york! come on people, write me in. you love me. i am best.

i'll have you know i have several black friendsters.

do you think my cat would get along with beck's bunny?

oh my god, best thing on the internet.

although...this dude going crazy on the price is right is a close second. [thanks slatch]

bob mould blogs. [via catbirdseat]

i just read this very positive review of the new oneida album, secret wars, and then i downloaded these two mp3s and found them very nice indeed. anybody for friday january 30th at tonic? i feel like having my brain fried and fed to me.

love this guy: the american undershirt.

finally, in case you missed it: shits and giggles. not for the faint of heart. i am warning you: it is gross.

god, winter sucks. it was like one degree on saturday. ain't nothing to do but sit around the house. at least i'm getting good reading done. and hairpins! i made hairpins similar to the magnets! soon you will see me with snoop dogg in my hair, if you're lucky. and i did manage to make it out both nights despite my mother's warning that i would contract pneumonia and die from my little cold if i wasn't in bed by 10. i am holding on, though. not dead yet. saturday night i met my friends maura and joe and gin and tonic and we danced along to the scissor sisters at bowery ballroom. great electro fun. note: less than two weeks till old 97's! and amy still needs a ticket! someone help her!

i don't know what to think about this elliott smith news...

apparently mythical monkey kings wear rollerblades. [via ypersound]

this is very last week, but maybe some of you didn't hear the message ryan adams left on the answering machine of chicago critic jim derogatis, who understandably leaked that shit to the internet. please listen to it. it is funny as hell, in a sad, desperate kind of way. oh my god, check out adams's response to derogatis's leaking it: he is such a ponce. he needs to get his shit together and not be so petty and stupid. how about writing a good song? we haven't heard one of those in a while. "rock and roll" is embarrassingly bad; do yourself a favor and don't purchase it.... catbirdseat has an amusing ryan adams sanity analysis chart that sums the whole thing up quite nicely, i think.

do you like mix tapes? the making or receiving thereof? then check out this mix-tape fanzine, with interviews and essays galore. sadly, i recently donated my old stereo to the sidewalk, the last piece of equipment i own which had a dual tape deck. no more mix tapes for me.

top ten bestest albums of the year:
1. the yeah yeah yeahs, "fever to tell." why is this not on more lists? they totally justified the hype with this, the freshest, fiercest thing i heard all year. all hail good rock.

2. the shins, "chutes too narrow." sublime.

3. grandaddy, "sumday." see above.

4. the thermals, "more parts per million." addictive. perfect workout music, too.

5. the strokes, "room on fire." love love love.

6. tv on the radio, "young liars." spooky and amazing.

7. ted leo, "hearts of oak." the first ted leo album i really loved. literate, frenetic punk pop that takes some getting used to.

8. the natural history, "beat beat heartbeat." works that sexy, nervous tension thing.

9. fountains of wayne, "welcome interstate managers." okay so there is some filler, but it's got a wealth of great, catchy, repeat-1-able songs.

10. the gossip, "movement." rawk.

top four albums that were perfectly good but failed to move me:
1. the white stripes, "elephant"
2. new pornographers, "electric version"
3. my morning jacket, "it still moves"
4. radiohead, "hail to the thief"

top ten songs from albums that didn't make the list that are, shall we say, "hella good":
1. outkast, "hey ya"
2. my morning jacket, "mahgeetah"
3. white stripes, "seven nation army"
4. clem snide, "all green"
5. postal service, "such great heights"
6. gbv,"secret star"
7. the kills, "cat claw"
8. fruit bats, "slipping through the sensors"
9. the rapture, "house of jealous lovers"
10. liz phair, "why can't i"

top two most retarded albums of the year:
1. liz phair's self-titled travesty
2. "a people's history of the dismemberment plan": nice in concept, useless in reality

best late-night album of the year:
calla, "televise"

best leaked album of the year:
the hold steady, "the hold steady almost killed me": you will be hearing more about this.

worst leaked album of the year:
liars, "they were wrong so we drowned"

best shows of the year:
1. the hold steady at northsix, 5/30 (the one where i went insane)
2. clem snide at tonic, 1/15
3. yyys, sinZ�, 3/31
4. the polyphonic spree, summerstage
5. johnsons big band, luxx, 9/12
6. the kills, sinZ�, 5/2
7. gbv, warsaw, 9/4
8. measles mumps rubella/trans am, southpaw, 6/14
9. oneida, luxx, 3/15
10. grandaddy, warsaw, 8/10

whew! aren't you glad that's over? don't you want to go look at cormi in cornrows now? i knew there was a reason i loved him.

whitney's top 100 people of 2003. what, no bloggers this year, whit?

are you guys reading tricia's site, asialand diaries? hilarious bit about taking her dog for a walk and frightening the chinese children:

"Gao" is the Cantonese word for dog. And we heard it continuously in decibels ranging from: "gao" (as in "oh, a dog"), to "Gao!" (as in "uh oh, a dog"), to "GAO!!!" (as in "Run for your lives!!! A DOG!!!").

travis morrison has a new mp3 up. i am going to go out on a limb and say this album is going to disappoint a lot of dismemberment plan fans.

finally, a little help, please. amy needs a ticket to the old 97s show at bowery, 1/24. can anybody help?

happy new year, blah blah blah. thank god that's over. our party was okay: slightly underattended and badly soundtracked. my favorite activity was playing the kazoos. at midnight, as some terrible hip-hop song was making no one dance and dick clark was counting down the seconds, i gazed woefully into the eyes of eileen, sitting next to me on the couch, who responded, perfectly, "best new year's EVER." i mean, it wasn't *that* bad. we did have the giant inflatable microphones to beat each other with and plenty of alcohol. and of course the digital camera. and free license to kiss anyone you deem worthy. other highlights: tamar's repeated declaration that "little matt is so cute, i just want to kick him in the face"; michelle f.'s impressive rendition of the theme from "the jeffersons," one of only like two uses of the karaoke machine (expect another party, y'all; i paid $30 for that damn cd!); the arrival of krucoff, who showed up in all-white speedracer regalia, breathing new drunk life into the party at 3 am. more photos are here.

all right, plug time. some kids i knew back in delaware are putting on a big art exhibit/party in long island city january 31. it's called superluminous and will feature tons of artists, djs, bands, etc., including the works of mista ricardo rivera, aka "vj kaboom." here's a wired story on ric's work.

speaking of delaware kids, oaklandchilders.com is now live. and yet no content. hmmm.