okay, cats and kittens, i have some MAJOR news to report. three days ago i thought i was moving in with nate and holly, wayward-girl style, paying a ghetto fabulous rent for a couple months so i could save money and afford a ginormous broker's fee for my mythical new apartment. two days ago carl was all, "can you move into sean's apartment this weekend?" yesterday morning i presented my financial info to a nice chick named guyana, and by yesterday afternoon i was approved! so, details: one bedroom, park slope, cheaper than i'm paying now, with utilities included! the drawback is it's a basement apartment, but it's not like there are NO windows, and as you can see above, it has a totally sweet back garden/patio. tomatoes included! (giant inflatable pool not included.) and it's all mine; only i have access to it. think barbecues, and sunbathing, and, if carl gets his way, a haunted backyard halloween party. in other weeds, i mean words: YAY!

i can't decide on a punk song of the week, so you'll get this nonpunk song of the week, from a pleasant yet ultimately pretty forgettable album of 2006:

::: The Essex Green, "Slope Song" :::

it is interesting to sort through your stuff. makes you realize certain things about yourself and how you've changed. i am a totally different person than i was eight, and even five years ago, i think. for instance i no longer think i need to keep all bills and bank statements ever printed, as my mom made me think. and it's very freeing to pitch stuff into the trash (even though i have a fear that someone will find it and use it for evil purposes: should i get a shredder? i don't think my 1998 emails need to come to light). i couldn't really even read most of those old intermittent diary entries, though. never been much of a diarist. i like myself well enough but not enough to read the crap i wrote eight years ago.

carl fed me blue point blueberry beer (so delicious!) with a "snack" of cheese and crackers and hummus the other night, followed by pork loin and collard greens and couscous. my dad wonders how i can eat all this food i talk about and still maintain my girlish figure. i'm not sure what's going to happen when i move and don't have access to the dolphin gym. i may just have to fidget a lot; the magazines actually tell you to do this.

so i may not get a television when i move. i can always download my one must-see (project runway, duh!). i watched the first survivor: racist but it was kinda boring. cable news sucks ass, network shows blow, mtv doesn't even have any good guilty pleasures, and if i'm going to get into the good hbo shows at this point (like the wire, yes i know, paul), i'm going to have to get 'em on dvd. maybe i'll get a tv, a dvd player. and a netflix account. that'd be good for the soul, no? i'll keep you informed. but if i don't get a tv, i can read more books! (by the way this paragraph is totally adapted from my semi-frequently updated myspace page! rock and roll!)

also, last weekend i went to the atlantic antic and fashion-blogged it.

finally, we have a PUNK SONG OF THE WEEK! (never just one song of course.) i find it hard to believe this band is considered hardcore b/c it's so damn listenable. it's fucking pop, people! i love it. don't be scared! download!

::: Dead Kennedys, "MTV Get Off the Air" :::

::: Dead Kennedys, "At My Job" :::

i've been listening to the new yo la tengo, the retardedly titled i am not afraid of you and i will beat your ass, and i must say i think it's way better than the last (snoozer). honestly makes me love them again. and then i got this email from matos about all the emusic stuff on the band: a review by david cross (who didn't listen to the album) and a review by douglas wolk (who did), plus ira kaplan's dozen list. i'd like to say here that i think emusic does some quite good editorial work (and not just because i know the editors). in the course of my packing so far, i have come across several printouts of their "dozens" guides to various genres (like, say, stoner rock) and found them worthy enough to keep and learn from, while my emails from the late 90s, revealing my unsureness and broke-assness in my new-to-new-york stage, i pitched pretty promptly.

ben kweller has got a new album streaming over at his myspace page. like ben himself, it's quite lovable. it's making me really happy. in sum: yay, ben! [thanks to a brooklyn life for the tip!]

the hold steady are also streaming their album at amazon if you preorder it. you might as well listen to that while you're making your video, right? also, here's craig finn's "guest list" listy thing at pitchfork (he just discovered the kinks). it's list season, y'all. better get used to it.

in fact, catbirdseat did a funny handy music-blogger best-of-2006 cheat sheet. it's funny because it's true. (though the destroyer bit is probably just wishful thinking....)

lindsay uncovered a bunch of weatherman mortses and this one is just too effin' good not to share: gay black weatherman freaks over a bug.

finally, the wall street journal had an article about the rise of fashion blogs. are you reading my fashion binge, punk?

weekend update on a monday, y'all! started out friday night with an impromptu double date with matt and tamar, in which we went for old-school italian to sam's restaurant, a bare-bones basement place with a VFW-hall-like atmosphere and a wisecracking waiter. here i had my first (and last) sloe gin fizz. we ordered a couple entrees that turned out to be mediocre and a pizza that was possibly the best ever. seriously, go there and eat their pizza. so delish.

saturday i woke up early to go help tamar set up for our stoop sale. we had a ton of stuff, and the early birds descended on us like vultures before we could set our first bags of stuff on the sidewalk. the first 45 minutes were absolutely insane, and then it settled down to a manageable pace. quite an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, even more enjoyable when you consider the $142 i made off my unwanted books, cd's and clothes. that night we went out to union hall for the teeth/gaskets/bling kong show, the latter of which two bands were pretty hilarious. i am still haunted by the outrageous eye makeup of the boy cheerleader in bling kong, who is a dead ringer for will ferrell. a bunch of people came out, so it was a good time. then we cabbed over to abilene, a cool little spot with excellent bartenders and good music. so nice to be able to actually sit in a bar on a saturday night (brooklyn wins again!). on the walk home i remarked to carl that i was hungry, and he promptly led us to the back of mazzola bakery, where we purchased a loaf of warm bread that was just about the best thing i've ever eaten. so perfect. wow, this is turning into an epic tale requiring paragraph breaks....

sunday featured a failed attempt at playing tennis (lesson learned: go early, or go to the suburbs) and then an afternoon spent working on our next meal: soy cumin chicken, beet salad with plums and goat cheese, and for dessert, fresh figs with goat cheese and peppered honey. in case you were wondering, yes, i do nothing but eat.

it's thursday; do i really need to do a weekend roundup? i guess, for those readers who like to know about my comings and goings, i will, but labor day weekend is a distant memory at this point. i was unable to get to the beach due to horrendous weather, which pained me (not a single day spent lying on warm sand this summer!). i did enjoy a lovely friday afternoon off hanging with amy in her hood of park slope, drinking coffee and window shopping (purchased a lovely little jacket at beacon's closet for ten bucks), then met up with holly and nate back on smith street at cubana cafe, then to carl's studio space for some beers followed by mediocre wine and okay paninis at paninoteca. that whirlwind of a day was followed by a rainy, windy mess spent watching another eh movie (the illusionist), having a couple drinks with the soon-to-be-brooklynized eileen and jesse, and letting carl make a delicious pasta meal out of nothing. sunday i made it to the met's "anglo mania" exhibit and got dissed for tennis (new york is totally effed up for making you pay to play tennis); monday the fam and i were blessed with great weather for the u.s. open, where we stood in many lines and saw some decent but not exactly thrilling tennis. i really liked watching those strong ladies (and we saw mostly women) kick ass. but you can see their muscles better on television.

okay, let's talk about some music. first up, i can't believe i haven't discussed what must be my favorite record of the year so far: oakley hall's "gypsum strings," the band's second full-length of the year. i remember when they used to have like 12 people onstage, but they've since pared down and honed their sound, so that it's now a thoroughly sophisticated take on country rock. there are plenty of guitars (papa crazee was a founding member of oneida), and just a hint of twang. i love the psychedelic drones, and the way the girl's voice will kick in and sweeten it up. it's really just a great, great album and i can't recommend it enough. buy it.

::: Oakley Hall, "Lazy Susan" :::

also getting a lot of time on my ipod, and also, conveniently enough, on brah records: home, whose most recent is their sixteenth (!) album. this one's called sexteen, and it's all about sex.

::: Home, "Bubble" ::: loooove that buzzing guitar sound. this song's also got a video that gets kinda dirty there for a sec. go get more tunes, including my fave, "teasin' pleasin," on their myspace.

and get a bunch more juicy mp3s here. and whaddaya know, miss jami interviews the band for nerve about their penchant for certain sexual activities (hey, this is a family blog; click the link if you wanna know what), and here is home's top ten albums to fuck to. they're playing a FREE show coming up for the east river music project, on saturday, september 16. it's a pretty good lineup: love as laughter, home, professor murder, and the end of the world.

meanwhile, dfactor (who's doing a cool "12 covers, 12 months" project) points to a post about a new bob pollard mp3 (in addition to the officially released one) over on a cool new-to-me mp3 blog called marathonpacks . bob's got that "16 two-minute pop songs" album, normal happiness, coming out soon. also, bob will be playing bowery ballroom november 13 on his upcoming mini tour. yay!

i haven't heard peep one about the new beck album. what's up with that? this wired interview where he talks about the idea of having many different versions of an album doesn't even mention the title of the new one. it's called "the information" and apparently will come with a DVD of homemade videos for each song. or you can just download 'em from the internet, and beck seems to be cool with that. beck. he's just so damn cool. it also comes with stickers and a blank sleeve so we can all participate in the artistic process, which...eh. stickers. i guess they're cool too. most important, now: a couple of mp3s from the album from the tastily designed culture bully blog.

here's a good time waster: the bubble project, where you can see pics of all those thought-bubble stickers that are placed up over ads all over the city and filled in with witty (and not so witty) commentary by regular folk.

also, hotel bed jumping.