The Music Bucket: Halloween in the City

When in doubt, put up a mix.  That’s our motto.  Also Abutebaris modo subjunctivo denuo (literally: “You’ve been misusing the subjunctive again”).  You can never have too many mottos.

As many of you already know, EEPB is moving to Brooklyn.  This means that you can safely forget all about the previously unfinished Virtual House Tour.  It will soon be replaced by a new (and more easily finished) Virtual House Extravaganza which showcases another motto of ours: Locus enim est principum generationis rerum (“For place is the origin of things”.)  Happy Halloween and never forget that: Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum <— that’s for you and Google to figure out.

Download Halloween in the City Mix here.  You’ll like it.

At least they didn't bleed on the chair.

Only the DOOMED see double

The Music Bucket: Summer Haze

Download the Summer Haze Mix

This summer has been somewhat of a blur – and with new jobs, a new cat, and a new apartment lurking on the horizon (actually only the apartment is lurking, the cat and the job are already squatting squarely in the living room), I thought it best to offer up something to drown out the silence that has been Everything Else Plastic Bag as of late.

Wait 'til he hits a pimple...

Tracklisting

Sabio Mancát Supreme Pet Confirmation Hearings Underway

Sabio Mancát and some dude in a tie

After weeks of speculation and rampant punditry, Supreme Pet Nominee, Sabio Mancát, appeared yesterday in front of the full U.S. Senate.  Mr. Mancát, who has dazzled the Faust/Noyes administration with his ability to turn everyday cat events, like sleeping and walking down stairs, into concussive blasts of pure cuteness, seemed relaxed and poised as he calmly batted a ball of aluminum foil around the Senate chambers.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada was predictably laudatory in his opening remarks, stating that, “[Mr. Mancát] has proven that he can purr loudly in the hallowed Halls of Justice”.  He went on to describe Sabio’s “intense dedication to pursuing that fuzzy blue thing dangling on the end of the elastic cord” as well as his “decisive role in desegregating schools and getting the U.S. off the gold standard.”

A young Sabio Mancát experiments with cross-dressing

Debate was spirited, but even Sabio’s main detractors, Republican Senator Brian Staveley of Utah, and Independent House Representative Colin Woods of Ohio, were hard pressed to come up with any substantial reasons why confirmation should be delayed.  “Sometimes he hides under the couch,” grumbled Rep. Woods, “and then I can’t be loving him the way my heart wants to.”

“I just want the record to show that I think Sabio Mancát is a total pussy,” said Senator Staveley, “a shorthair, mottled gray pussy.”

Mr. Mancát at home

Though Mr. Mancát seems to have a penchant for controversial out-of-court statements – claiming that a “wise male cat” may be more suited to judge certain cases than “your run-of-the-mill mutt”, such proclamations seem to present few problems for an administration that, by its own admission, would “rather invite flesh-eating goats to share our bathtub than have a dog as a pet.”

If confirmed, Mancát would become only the third cat to hold the position of Supreme Pet during the Faust/Noyes era.  Long-standing Supreme Pet Gita has gone on record as saying that she looks forward to “licking Mr. Mancát’s head, sniffing warily around his tiny private litter box, and shedding inordinate amounts of hair together.  And also probably upholding Roe v. Wade.”

Summer Sublet – Please spread the word to your cool friends

Morgan and I just had what we thought was a done deal of a sublet fall through…so we are looking for a subletter this summer.  Here is the basic info, all of which can be conveniently passed along to people by referring them to our temporary webpage about it: http://sites.google.com/site/subletmhnewyork/ (which has pictures)

Remember when we helped you find a subletter?   And you said that if you could ever return the favor, you would? Hmmm?  ‘Cause we remember it just as vividly as if it had actually happened.

Le Details

Where: Morningside Heights (Between Upper West Side and Harlem)

Near to: Columbia University (2 blocks), 1 train (3 blocks), A,C;B,D trains (3 blocks)

Availability: June 7 – Aug 15th, 2009  (dates negotiable)

Price: $1380/month, includes electricity, gas, water, $700 deposit.  Laundry in building.

Please contact us at patricknoyes@gmail.com with the Subject: Summer Sublet if you would like more details/have specific questions

The Music Bucket: Currently Awesome

Download the Currently Awesome Mix (zip file)

This is not plastic bag. Quite the opposite.

Many things have recently conspired to keep this blog less-than-current, most notably all the time I sink into changing my GChat status so as to antagonize Paul Campbell.  In a penitential spirit, I dedicate this mix to him.

Currently Awesome is a represenative sampling of the music I had in heavy rotation a few months ago…please pay particular attention to the last track, by Heroes of Popular Wars, a local Brooklyn band that is cool.

Almost as cool as Paul Campbell.

The Music Bucket: Guiltless Pleasures

In which we welcome our first pre-teen blogger and do our best to disseminate his musical taste to the interwebs.

Kevin did a photo shoot just for this mix. No kidding.

Kevin Alexander, older brother to Sean (featured in the karate pose above), was so inspired by the Guilty Pleasures Mix, that he searched his soul and iPod to come up with his own top 10.  He claims they need no explanation and are, in fact, guiltless.  My carefully cultivated ice sculpture of detached hipster cynicism has now melted into a puddle on the floor – thanks, Kevin.

Download “Kevin’s Top Ten – Guiltless Pleasures”

P.S.  These are in order, with the first song being Kevin’s favorite, and there on down….

1. Baby Please Come Home (Christmas) – U2
2. Africa – Toto
3. Down Under – Men at Work
4. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown – Jim Croce
5. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
6. Pocketful of Sunshine – KidzBop (originally by Natasha Bedingfield)
7. Teardrops on my Guitar – KidzBop (originally by Taylor Swift)
8. Funkytown – Alvin and the Chipmunks (originally by Lipps, Inc.)
9. Through With You – Maroon 5
10. Rumors – Lindsay Lohan

Morgan’s Week of Wonder – A birthday, a trailer, a haircut

In no particular order, ’cause it’s all great:

Click here to go see the trailer!

1) The trailer for the Columbia Film Festival, dreamed up, wrangled into reality, directed, and then shepherded through post-production by Morgan and her magic, is now up on the website: http://www.cufilmfest.com/ It is positively stunning how much work goes into an endeavor like this: no fewer than 10 Columbia students gave up most of their spring break week to make it happen (click on the extended credits to get an idea of the crew size)…Morgan not only pulled it off, but turned it into an amazing bonding experience.  I heard people say that it was one of the defining moments of their Columbia education.  In addition to being on the website and the Festival DVD, the trailer will begin showing on the Reuters Jumbotron in Times Square in a week or so.

2) Morgan’s birthday was yesterday.  If you missed her online birthday survey, don’t be shy, click here. My favorite response so far is to the fill-in-the-blank: “If I could give Morgan a gift, with no regard for cost or practicality, I would give her…”: a more fuel efficient/dolphin safe/free range/childproof version of Patrick. My bias is obvious.

3) Morgan got a haircut.  I am now the long-haired hippy of the family.  ‘Nuff said.

Frigid Infliction: A Tale Of Two Teams

In which Adventure Racing is undertaken and certain whopping differences exposed.

A long, long time ago (March 7th), Morgan and I, along with erstwhile teammate Karen, turned the spotlight of our considerable athletic prowess on a winter adventure race called the FRIGID INFLICTION .  Our team name: The Cold and the Beautiful.  Despite colossal and systemic misgivings, we let our participation be known to a team named UltraBambi spearheaded by Brian Staveley.  Brian has since made claims to the effect that “they (UltraBambi) invited us (The C+B)”, “we (UltraBambi) have been training for months”, and even “we (UltraBambi) won the race”.  Sometimes pictures speak louder than words.  Especially when those pictures have captions.  We submit for your approval the true story of the Frigid Infliction…

(Also, for those readers desirous of a more complete description of adventure racing, I remand them to this online resource of dubious parentage)

more about “Frigid Infliction: A Tale Of Two Teams“, posted with vodpod

The Guest Bucket: Darcy’s Guilty Pleasures

During this recent dry spell of postings, (during which Morgan and I have been doing many, many, fascinating things…none of which leave us any time to blog,) one woman has stepped into the breach.  Darcy, inspired by her own juggernaut-like musical guilt complex, contributes the following:

Click here to download Darcy’s Guilty Pleasure Mix

Darcy's other guilty pleasure is relabeling food products

“I should probably start with I love music. However, I live in a place called Groton, MA. The biggest news story from the past year was a group of Black Angus cows escaped from their pen, and six are still missing. Yes, we have feral cows in our woods. Needless to say, it’s hard to find anything particularly obscure or indie. Lucky for me, I’ve got groups of friends and family who supply me with a steady stream of new material, which spurs new searches etc.

I’ve always seen guilty pleasures in music. It’s the music that you’ll blare until company shows up. You make sure you’re not on “THAT” playlist. It’s not the cool, hip, trendy music. It’s usually pop, and it’s so damn happy! My father, usually a reliable source for really good music, admitted to picking up a song by Miley Cirus. My reaction: Thanks for telling me, but please also say I’m adopted. After cutting back on songs for this list, I’ll admit, I’m my father’s daughter. So, open up that bag of cheese-puffs and let’s dig in to my guilty pleasures.

1. Set Adrift on Memory Bliss – PM Dawn: I love this song. The samples of True by Spandeu Ballet, the hypnotic voice of the lead… you can’t really call him a singer, but he’s not really rapping either. I dare you not to smile when you hear it.

2. Kiss – Prince:  I think this is a guilty pleasure for me because I can’t help but sing along towards the end. And the fact that Tom Jones sang it too can’t hurt its credentials.

3, 4 , 5, and 6.  Love You Madly/Friday I’m in Love/Be My Yoko Ono/Milkshake Song – Cake/Cure/Barenaked Ladies /Angry Salad: Why is it uncool to have a song that’s happy? These songs are happy to be in love (Sometimes only on a specific day but cut me a little slack.). It might be argued that Angry Salad can’t be a guilty pleasure because most people have never heard of them. I would argue that if you lived in Portland, ME (and what I hear, a good portion of NE) during a summer in the late nineties, you would have heard this song in heavy rotation.

7, 8, and 9. Melt With You/Life In a Northern Town/Tenderness – Modern English/Dream Academy/General Public:  My eighties fix. Really how ridiculous are these songs? I can see the keytars in my sleep, but only through the fog of hairspray.

10. Ticks – Brad Paisley: Country music is all about guilt. And I love this song with abandon. On top of all this, we live in a crazy active tick area and I have used this as a pick-up line. Oh yeah, I’m that smooth.

11.  Good Love Is On the Way – John Mayer: Recently this song came up on my iPod and a friend of mine reacted with “Are we listening to John Mayer?” I quickly skipped forward, but I realize that I might be the only person over the age of 11 who likes his music. Some of it gets overplayed, sure, but all in all I think he’s gotten a bad rap.

12. Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth with Money In My Hand – Primitive Radio Gods: The first embarrassment is I actually know the full name of this song. The second is that I really like this song.

13. I Believe in a Thing Called Love – The Darkness: Admit it, you love this song. It’s completely over the top; the video features a spaceship and a giant squid which they destroy with lightning from their guitars.

14. Your Dog Has No Tail – Jay Mohr: For sticking with me, I give you one of my favorite impressions of Christopher Walken. Be forewarned, you will be quoting from this by the end of the day. “

As a variation on the Chinese Fortune Cookie game, I will add “in bed” on to the end of everyone’s comment and forward it to Darcy.  Comment away.

The Music Bucket: Guilty Pleasures

Download the Guilty Pleasures Mix (.zip file)

I think the title of this month’s oft-delayed, much-anticipated mix says it all.  I have been accused, in the past, of only giving airtime to my more obscure musical loves, and cultivating a decidedly anti-mainstream bias.  All I can say is that you don’t know obscure musical loves until you get a peek into the NYC hipster scene.  There are people here who only listen to bands that are so underground that the band members themselves don’t know they’re in a band.  So here are some of the things I listen to when I think no one is listening.  (Also, in case my double-posting today ends up burying my rant about the new EEPB masthead, please scroll down and read it after this post)

1. Believe – Cher: Joseph has a saying for doing the hardest thing first. He calls it “eating the frog”. This presupposes that you are at a primarily edible buffet of options and, in the case of this mix, it might be hard to discern the true frog. But admitting I love this song is it. I feel horribly ashamed for the deep, deep feelings of personal triumph that ‘Believe’ evokes in me. It’s like my own personal ‘I Will Survive’. Sigh.

2. Neverending Story (Cover Version) – The Canadians: This cover is, if anything, even sparklier than the original. More humiliating than liking the song is the fact that it makes me imagine I’m riding on the back of a giant, furry, not un-phallic dragon who talks like James Earl Jones. No one wants that.

3. 100 Years – Five For Fighting: My “mist-up” percentage for this song is about 75%, and there’s a totally befuddling 20% possibility of actual tears. But only when it comes on the radio unexpectedly. Go figure.

4. Irreplacable – Beyonce: Never since Steve Miller has anyone more felicitously rhymed a word with itself, c.f. “I could have another you in a minute/matter of fact he’ll be here in a minute.” There’s something totally genius about this – she’s saying “I could replace you right now,” and then decides that not harsh enough and says, “Actually, I forgot, I already ordered your replacement,”. Then, in a strange volt-face, she backs off and claims the replacement won’t be there until the next day…  Go hard, Beyonce, or go home.

5. Escape – Enrique Iglesias: This song was the anthem of the “cool guys” clique that formed on a trip to Spain I led years ago, and so the awesomeness of the song gets mixed up with the awesomeness of knowing this was the chink in the armor of feigned indifference they wore into the daily battle of teenager-dom.

6. I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) – Meatloaf: Forget trying to figure out what “that” is. Semantics are a total red herring. This song is so amazingly anthemic that it works even if you substitute: “But I won’t do crack” or “I won’t screw cats” or even “I’d do anything for love/but fight Chow Young Fat”.

7. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol: One would think that if you are going to have embarrassingly generic lyrics like: “We’ll do it all/Everything/On our own/We don’t need/Anything/Or anyone” which build to the rousing conclusion: “I don’t know where/Confused about how as well/Just know that these things/Will never change for us at all”, then you should sing those words quickly, or maybe mumble them…but Snow Patrol draws them out like it is a dictation exam. I think this song works by just piling on the mistakes and coming up with a “six negatives make a positive” sort of gold.

8. Aicha – Khaled: This song is not necessarily embarrassing because it is cheesy, etc…but because I thought I was so cool for having discovered it first among my friends. The fact that I pimped out Aicha in order to gain some vague music cred makes me feel dirty.

9. Baila Morena – Zucchero: Probably the least widely known song on this mix. It was HUGE in Spain about 5 years ago. The guilty part of this song is a rather complex notion to convey – brace yourselves. The chorus, as I understand it, is: “Baila/Baila morena/sotto cuestar una piena/under the moonlight”. “Baila morena” means “Dance, you brunette” and I have no idea what “sotto cuestar una piena” means, (or even if that is a decent approximation of the Italian) BUT to me it sounds like the Spanish “solo cuesta una pierna”, which means “it will only cost you one leg.”  Soooo, I love a song which, to me, means:

Dance, brunette
You’ll only lose one leg
Under the moonlight

Macabre at best.

10/11/12. Walk On Water/Ray Of Light (Natasha Bedingfield Cover)/Take Me To The Clouds Above: My disco triumvirate. And a sneaky way to smuggle U2 into this mix.

13/14. Major Tom/I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You: Why is it that you can love acapella all you want, as long as you are a college student, but the instant you graduate it becomes a shameful secret? The only person in the known universe to successfully resist the temptation to repudiate acapella is Ben Folds…who is putting out an album in April of his stuff sung by college acapella groups. No joke.

15. Me – Paula Cole: As many of you know, I have a soft spot for chanteuses. This extends even to the degree that I accept without hesitation or qualification lines like “It’s me who beats me up”. This is not one of those songs that I belt out whenever it comes on the radio, but I stop and actually listen to the lyrics every single time.

Thanks for letting me get those off my chest. I expect brisk traffic in the comments field. If you’ve read this far, you owe it to me to leave one or two of your own guilty pleasures below ↓.