Hi! Like the new look? I'm currently eating extremely salty roasted pumpkin seeds and pouring pumpkin ale down my pumpkin. Earlier this evening Carl and I carved pumpkins. Can you tell mine's supposed to be Bush? Pretty damn scary, I think. Carl's was supposed to be the Misfits skull but now it is just a mangled ghoul.

Anyway, I do hope you like the new, whole wheat pita. This month marks eight years of this blog, you know, and the black design had been around for, oh, a good five, so I thought it was time for a change. And luckily for me, my old buddy SDH! agreed to make it happen. I really love the lighter look. And guess what? I'm hereby instituting capital letters! Hoo boy! You likey? It's sort of ironic that I make this move away from blackness and immediately post the blackest pics possible, but I simply had to have the pretty colors TONIGHT!

This weekend we were in New Jersey, doing a rare double shot of parental visiting. Activities included a visit to a pricey burbal restaurant yet to be yelped; a viewing of Michael Clayton (a meditative character study that is compelling, if slow, and frankly not all that thrilling, not to mention strangely obsessed with Tilda Swinton's back fat, but does have a killer ending); apple picking, because I needed more delicious Jersey apples in my life; a visit to some sprawling "model homes" that almost made me question my urbanity (one word: closets! two words: walk-in closets!); and the dreaded dominoes.

Here's a pretty good interview with Travis Morrison. You have a couple weeks to buy tickets to his upcoming New York shows, including one seriously awesome bill at the Knitting Factory with Georgie James and Aqueduct. In the meantime, I need to catch up on my CMJ recommendations, and thus am currently streaming Old Time Relijun's Catharsis in Crisis (causing Carl to comment, "What's going on? Everything is confusing!"), with Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago to follow. Shit better be good.

The following two items earned both the "fashion" and "funnyshit" tags on my del.icio.us: a report on a bunch of pranksters who shopped shirtless, en masse, at Abercrombie & Fitch; a story about a designer making skirts that turn into vending machines so that scared Japanese can "hide" in public. As billed, no? Funnyshit.

i think i am now recovered from cmj. i actually went out five nights in a row! well past midnight! that hasn't happened in a long time, people. i wrote about my experiences for metromix each day: on night one, i sustained a bleeding injury post-rosebuds; on night two i joined the cult of dan deacon and was fascinated by deerhunter; on night three i developed a strong antipathy toward the mercury lounge lady (you know who i'm talking about) yet enjoyed sets from turbo fruits, the intelligence, the big sleep, and get him eat him; on day four i had another nice night at the bowery, with the 1900s, sahara hotnights, and the maccabees; and on day/night five i checked out ford & fitzroy, craig wedren, eagle*seagull, mussels, the forms, and goes cube. mussels were the best, yo. i get so happy every time i hear them. noted photographer amy nutty took that photo of them above, by the way.

carl wrote almost every day of the fest as well, so you can get his takes on the shows he saw at the above links as well. and there is plenty of coverage on the new york times' artsbeat blog, stereogum, idolator, brooklyn vegan, pop candy and whitney's twitter, billboard and probably a million other blogs. if you've see any good roundups out there, or saw something awesome at cmj, the comments link is waiting for you.

to sum up: i don't think i came away with any omg-awesome new favorite bands, and i don't really care that i didn't see the obviously, inexcusably overhyped black kids. but i do have a list of bands i missed that sound interesting, and after i post this i'm going to start some serious nerding on that tip. and if there's one thing i love, it's a random playlist of new shit.

oh! but! one thing that WAS omg-awesome?

on wednesday, i saw BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, who pretty much blew me away. my springsteen review is quite amusingly included in the cmj coverage at metromix — he may not be college rock, but he is still pretty damn awesome. i laughed, i cried, i drank beer through a straw.

finally, just a fun photo. did you realize that before the grocery story packs them in a little cardboard bucket brussels sprouts look like this?

i had no idea. hilarious and amazing!

all right, quickly now, because i need to get this on the record before i start going off about cmj and stuff: last weekend was awesome. carl and i joined jesse and eileen at her family place on cape cod for a weekend of oyster eating, beer drinking, hot tubbing, tennis playing, tree-platform standing, julia stiles spotting, and plain ol' hanging out. totes fun. although, really, i don't get the appeal of oysters. slimy little things that you don't even really get to chew? no thanks.

okay maybe just a BIT about cmj. here's my first night's activities in handy two-paragraph form. carl wrote about his first night too (same link), though i mercilessly edited him and he did not appreciate it. oh wells! testy writers. anyway, metromix (my sponsor, because i write for them, and they are awesome, and i am awesome, hence it is a symbiotic arrangement wherein they pay me--also awesome) has a fine assortment of cmj content for you to eat up. bon appetit!

first the new york times says there's no evidence linking fat and fatties, and then new york mag questions whether exercise really makes us thinner. it's enough to make a girl say buh-bye to the gym and order the bag of donuts at spitzer's corner.

speaking of donuts: anthony bourdain disses rachel ray for endorsing dunkin' donuts. "half of americans don't have necks," he says. i love this guy.

i think that i would love to be an arbiter of hyphens. i mean, i am an arbiter of hyphens for a living, basically, but i only dispatch a few dozen hyphens per month. this guy sent 16,000 hyphens packing in one fell swoop! does anyone know how you get in touch with the dictionary people?

• first up was moby's new band, the little death nyc. clearly the place was packed for moby (who played bass and did one guitar solo and also kept calling for beers like the diva that he is), but it was all about the big blonde lead singer, who christine correctly pegged as looking like "a giant reese witherspoon." she was a total bitch, but in a fun way. she kept calling the soundman "suave" (as in rico) while making her demands for various monitor-related adjustments from the stage. only a large lady with a voice to match can pull that off. she really belted it out, and they had backup singers and were all dressed up in black, and boy did they swing. good band! listen to "that bone" on their myspace.

• next up was endless boogie, featuring an older guy with long gray hair and bangs, black sweatpants, and white sneakers. stoner rock. endless indeed. christine and i would find ourselves bopping our heads along to a groove, and then five minutes later being like, "is this still the same song?" indeed it was. i was pretty happy we were sitting down for their set. there were lots of unkempt and older men around, and a guy with an eyepatch. lots of weirdos. gotta love that.

• this deserves its own bullet point: encounter with britt daniel! during endless boogie's set i went to procure some beers. on my way back into the performance room i was kinda startled to note britt daniel, lead singer of spoon (duh, though christine, not so much an indie rocker, had never even heard of spoon, making a shoveling-food motion when confirming the name of the band with me), standing by the door. i gave a slightly befuddled glance at my beer-containing hands when confronted with the closed door (as in, whatever will i do??), and britt LEAPT to my aid and opened the door for me. what a fine texas gentleman! apparently he's in town to do SNL this weekend, and i guess he was just hanging out at the club hoping to hear something good (although i didn't see him around for the headliner, weirdly). anyway, we'll be having our first child shortly.

• finally dax riggs came on. did you guys hear the last deadboy and the elephantmen record? killer! so dark and delicious. just like dax himself. he used to have these adorable puffy cheeks, but apparently he has gotten the rock god makeover, cause he's dropped his extra (cute) poundage, grown his hair longish and started wearing black eyeliner (hot). he and a bandmate actually came onstage shirtless -- uhhh, okay. but okay! he had a bit of an "i am possessed by the ghost of jim morrison" vibe going on that was pretty compelling. christine was pleased with his performance, declaring it "very porny." i concur. sexxxy rock, always the best kind. (is this going to affect my referrer logs, i wonder?)

now, everyone go watch this hilarious video of an 80s soap opera star schooling people on fashion. it's really awesome.

in between customers at the stoop sale, carl convinced matt and i to play dominoes. is it me or is this the most boring game ever? for some reason, of course, carl loves this game and would start yelling if anyone's attention strayed. his childlike love for this game is baffling. i played with him again tonight since he asked so nicely and so enthusiastically. to deny him would have been like refusing to pet a happy puppy. but i think i've hit my limit.

a.o. scott goes to asbury park to interview bruce springsteen, who i must say looks pretty hot for 58 in that photo. have you heard the new album, "magic"? it is pretty amazing, i have to tell you. one of my most-played of the year, for sure. i've been listening to it almost every day. i'm in full-on LOVE with bruce at this very moment, and i'm happy to have paid the ridiculous sum of $111 for a single ticket to a single show of his at madison square garden.

speaking of music, i have secured a CMJ badge yet again this year, so be sure to send any tips, party invites, uppers, etc., my way.

here's a funny interview with tim harrington of les savy fav. not often you LOL at these things!

jancee dunn discovered some weird hilarities in the 1975 j.c. penney catalog.

you gotta love david letterman. he just keeps needling paris hilton in this interview, and she just has nothing to come back with. it's pretty awesome.

in other news, i like shoes.

finally, i received the following highly amusing email yesterday. enjoy:

Hi this is random, but i stumbled on your site because i was googleing my name. yeah its a little lame but i like to see what funny stuff i can find under my name. anyways i thought it was funny how your website says catherine pita, and well my name is Katherine Pita lol. yeah sorry this was a random email. =)