well the back-to-back Rock It's in May had fairly poor tunrouts, around 50 apiece, but I seriously think that I did one of my best sets ever at the one on the 14th. On several occasions throughout the night I had people rushing back inside to flood the dance floor. That Sunday was a very weird day, it was the day that I found out that I won't be living at 720 next year, which really bummed me out. But then Rock It happened and I got to hang out with Dana afterwards, so the night was a good one overall. I already found a house to live in next year that is going to be almost 100 dollars cheaper than 720 was and except for proximity to the Grad it is in a better location.

but enough about that, on to what I have been digging lately.

I have a friend who just started a music blog and who has been posting some really cool italo-disco/electronica tracks and i have gotten pretty into some stuff like Dinosaur L and Vivian Lee.

I found the latest single from Outkast, from their forthcoming soundtrack to the movie Idlewild, which looks like it will be an amazing movie. Andre and Big Boi in a prohibition-era musical. The song is called "the Mighty O" and it sounds like "Minnie the Moocher" or at least something along those lines.

Aside from that I have been watching a lot of Red Dwarf (thanks Dana) and the other night I watched The American Astronaut
which might just be one of the most innovative films that I have ever seen. It's basically a Sci-Fi/Musical/Western/In Space which is definitely a genre that needs to be explored more. Kai, if you haven't already seen this you must ASAP.

Also, my friend allie gave me the CD of the music from "Once More With Feeling", I haven't listened to it yet, but I am convinced that it is going to be amazing.

the first of back-to-back weeks of Rock It! went down the other night. overall it was a sorta disappointing night, the turnout was only around 45 people. it baffles me that 200 people can show up to a dance party at a house (that ends up getting broken up by the cops) and 100 can't show up to Rock It! at this point it feels like there are only a few people in this town who care about the night as much as i do. i pretty much keep doing it for them and i will continue to do it as long as the grad is happy.

but enough of that, all i can really hope for is a better turnout this sunday. sorry Mom.

recent tracks i have been digging:

there is this one track from the Pipettes that i keep hearing about called "Pull Shapes" and i finally listened to it on their myspace today and quite frankly it is amazing. they are this adorably attractive girl group that harkens back to the heyday of Spector-produced groups of the 50s and 60s. unfortunately, at this point i have not been able to find that track anywhere, i have other tracks of theirs and some are quite good, but "Pull Shapes" is addicting. i need it.

in the midst of some really intense beer pong matches on cinco de mayo i heard most of the Kirb and Chris album N*#$%z and White Girls and it is pretty damn cool. all of the instrumentals on the record are from classic 80s artists; the Cure, U2, the Cars, etc. then Kirby Dominant and Chris Sinister rap over the top of them. i loved the concept when i first heard about it, and i can say at this point that the record succeeds on almost every track that i heard.


i watched Kingdom of Heaven awhile back and it was pretty disappointing, i am a total sucker for "dudes in chain mail hitting each other with pointy things" movies but this one was really not that good. i will say it was better than troy, but overall Empire (the miniseries) was better. season 6 of Buffy is kinda bumming me out, i am most of the way through the season and thus far i am not nearly as invested in it as i have been in past seasons. i think it might be the fact that Giles has left, Dawn is pretty annoying and thus far there is no "Big Bad" in the season, we will see how it finishes.

i have actually gone to the movies quite a bit in the last couple of weeks which is a rarity for me. i saw Stick It the day it came out with Jesse and thus far, it is my movie of the year. utterly enjoyable and fun, basically the perfect movie for the perfect weather that we have been having. since then i have seen Thank You For Smoking and Tsotsi (we just got and art house theater in davis...so awesome!) both were good movies, but neither got to the level of Stick It
. TYFS was very good and quite funny at times plus the glut of really good actors was almost too much at times. Tsotsi was good, but i felt that while it avoided a lot of problems, it never really delivered on its potential. i may go see Brick today in sac, so we will see if that can top Stick It. i have heard that it is very noir-ish and i am more of a sucker for that than i am for the medieval hack-and-slash.