Remi's Bloglet - Saturday 26 January 2002

I take it back. Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads bassist) isn't an idiot. Here she blows the lid off remixing and makes some points about the rather shady side of keeping a single hot and in the clubs. In this less-tawdry, but no less informative, post, she comments on the mastering process. (look towards the bottom of the page). _
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05:06:04 PM, Saturday 26 January 2002

OK, I said I couldn't do it, but I enjoy Googlewhacking. I also got over 16 billion points for one of my answers. And for once, this one is good enough not to do a catch and release on. So here it is, for the last time two words that only appear on one page in Google:

Athenian bitrate.

athenian : 115,000
bitrate : 141,000
Scores 16,215,000,000 Marks marks _
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05:15:53 AM, Saturday 26 January 2002

nutella perseverate, just to piss off Martin. _
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04:07:20 AM, Saturday 26 January 2002

Comic Exhaustion Pre-Valentines Day Massacre Madness! Start your pencils the morning of February 9th and go until 24 hours have passed, you've completed your 24 pages, or have plunged into a psychotic stupor! Moss and I will be doing a writer-artist thing, and would be interested to see if others would be willing to take on this Extended Challenge. So, Comic Exhaustion October: In February. February 9-10th. Be there! _
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02:36:41 AM, Saturday 26 January 2002

Everyone's favorite comicbook writer prepares to sue everyone's least favorite comic book entrepeneur. _
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01:49:33 AM, Saturday 26 January 2002

Just watched some taped episodes of TV Nation, which is just as delightful and subversive eight years after the fact. _
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10:28:53 PM, Friday 25 January 2002

I hadn't realized there was a place online where Tony Millionaire's Maakies were available. Check out his twisted vision and exquisite artwork in the main strips and be sure not to miss his black-as-night humor in the strip that usually runs along the bottom.

[via slush factory] _
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02:07:48 AM, Thursday 24 January 2002

What the hell happened to IMDb? _
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03:58:24 PM, Wednesday 23 January 2002

"He was all hopped up on Fresca and Nutella on Nilla Wafers . . ." _
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03:53:11 PM, Wednesday 23 January 2002

Cibo Matto's Sugar Water video. I had been hearing about this for years, but had yet to see it. Now I have. It may, quite possibly, be the best video I've ever seen. (click on the Mov link for the video).

[via metafilter, of course] _
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03:27:48 PM, Tuesday 22 January 2002

Just because there's nothing else like something (let's call this thing The Metabarons), does that make it good? _
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02:47:07 PM, Tuesday 22 January 2002

In response to Lizzie Austin's post:

Why else do you think Senior Essay Writing is in January? _
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12:16:55 PM, Tuesday 22 January 2002

Happiness is finding your assumed-lost copy of EDO's 'Waltzing with Dogs'. _
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12:05:28 PM, Tuesday 22 January 2002

Anyone who knows me knows that I love They Might Be Giants. This has been a static thing in my life since, well, pretty much since Flood came out. Yeah, I was a 'Floodie', and thus not as cool as the people who heard TMBG on college radio in the Lincoln days. (There's someone out there who may be reading this, and yes, I lied to you in the back of the polity van all those years ago, but I resented being called trendy by a motherfucker who listens to Billy Joel)

I've been to seven or eight TMBG shows. I've travelled from Baltimore to New York with three total strangers in a hatchback to see them on their opening date for the Factory Showroom Tour (Magnetic Fields opened for them, and sucked, Cub opened for them as well, and did not). I briefly dated one of the girls I went with, but was dumped a week later for a guy she met on the internet. I've seen them twice with Liz. I got into Soul Coughing because they opened for TMBG once.

My entire musical universe centered on TMBG. I was a hopeless addict of alt.music.tmbg, although I rarely posted, seeing it go through no less than three troll/no troll cycles. Chris Stangl and Embel and Mike Leffell (who i think has a comic on Keenspot, Fat Jesus), I remember you. Hell, I even submitted to We Might Be Giants, Too, the am.tmbg fan cover CD. I wasn't included, but it's the thought that counts. I have a setlist with John Flansburgh's signature on it. I can still probably name all of the people who have played in the TMBG Live Band. I can sing all of Flood while very drunk. If you could find a pathetic way in which to be a fan of a band short of following them around on tour, I did it.

But no more. I'm done with TMBG. I've finally grown out of them. I no longer wait rapturously for their next release (I don't own Mink Car). I won't buy another T-Shirt, nor their McSweeny's disc cum magazine. I won't be reading their newspage, I certainly won't see them if they come to Atlanta, and possibly not even if they come to Athens (which is unlikely, they rarely tour further south than North Carolina). Now, I don't hate them. I still enjoy their music and their lyrical stylings (don't use the dreaded 'Q' word!).

I can tell you what brought this on. When I loved TMBG above all other music (and I did) they were the center. But I've explored my musical tastes, developed a personality of likes and dislikes, and found a universe of bands, old and new, to enjoy and learn about. In short, TMBG can't hold the top spot and be the center because there no longer is a center. Without that, they seem terribly diminished. And it feels great. Music is wonderful and alive, you just have to look.
_
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02:00:49 AM, Tuesday 22 January 2002

Liz picked up Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Complete 1st Season today (okay, it was at my insistence) and it is very, very yummy. The characters are great, and watching the show set up its status quo is very interesting. Plus B-movie style monsters mixed with a high school show in an adventure style is just very, very delicious. _
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11:25:42 PM, Saturday 19 January 2002

Went to a comic show today, it will probably be the only time I can walk to one from my house. I bought some comics, talked to some people, and ran headlong into the Indie Mindset, which was so startlingly ugly that I had to escape (well, that and there were some truly atrocious bands playing). _
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10:06:28 PM, Saturday 19 January 2002

Artbomb: graphic novel reviews. Covers most genres. Even has some reviews by noted comics scribe Warren Ellis. Make me happy. _
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11:22:34 PM, Thursday 17 January 2002

After waiting a couple days, I've decide that Keenspace will never update any time soon. Here's the color strip I've had done since Tuesday. _
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04:35:19 PM, Thursday 17 January 2002

Wigu a comic that addresses hookey, fear, and a musical about cockfighting. _
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12:43:19 PM, Thursday 17 January 2002

For those of you who see me as a Godless socialist with no sense of morals, I present a Torah Commentary by the Rabbi of my childhood temple. The discussion page is also interesting and relatively civil.

(full disclosure: this site was designed and set-up by my dad.) _
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03:13:44 AM, Wednesday 16 January 2002

The online Over The Edge game is still going strong. We've been playing for more than four months, and I think only one game has been cancelled during that time. I just wanted to thank my players for playing the hell out of their characters, and really driving me to the edge of my GMing abilities. They haven't complained when I've pushed back, either, and have risen to every challenge. I can't list the sheer volume of 'great roleplaying moments', the things a gamer that have occured in the past few months. Not the least of which is allowing their characters to change and grow. Excuse my moment of hubris, but this has been the purest roleplaying experience that I have ever encountered. Everyone should have entertainment this good once a week. _
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01:07:41 AM, Wednesday 16 January 2002

There's a certain feeling one gets, after completing something to one's utter satisfaction that makes a person stand up and say, "Damn, I really want tacos." _
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02:10:19 AM, Tuesday 15 January 2002

"After much discussion, hair-pulling and futile phone calls to State Department 900 numbers (which was somewhat like paying $20 to listen to a pre-recorded tape loop of someone saying "you're fucked!"), the rest of the guys got on the plane and I stayed."

-Travis Morrison of the Dismemberment Plan, Tour Diary. They toured Europe just after Sept 11th, and it's an interesting view of the events. It doesn't hurt that it's not maudlin, and pretty damn funny. _
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04:24:50 PM, Monday 14 January 2002

An interview with the late, great Bill Hicks from Hypertoad. _
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03:13:49 AM, Saturday 12 January 2002

Dang it. Okay, the raw image file for today's Too Fat is up here, enjoy! _
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02:02:07 PM, Friday 11 January 2002

Okay, the raw image file for today's Too Fat is up here, enjoy! _
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02:01:11 PM, Friday 11 January 2002

Sort of half-watched Rollerball while finishing the strip this evening. I have no idea how they're going to remake that movie. I can't imagine them making sense of the plot, which is just an excuse to get to the actual Rollerball matches, and I can't imagine the new version making the games any more violent, kinetic, or exciting. Plus the new version doesn't have James Caan in it. James Caan is the fucking man. _
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04:32:47 AM, Friday 11 January 2002

I am finally out of the slump! All it took was walking around downtown Athens until I straightened out where I was going with the story. I also managed to call some of the various people who post 'musicians wanted' posters around town. Two of them actually called back! I'll be getting together with one to make some noise next week sometime, if my luck holds. Whoo-hoo! Also bought a Jack Vance book, mostly due to Andrew's praise, it's called, uhm, Jewels of the Overworld? It was three bucks and had won a hugo and nebula so it couldn't be too bad, I guess. Haven't had a chance to read more than a page or two. So more to look forward to. _
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04:23:53 AM, Friday 11 January 2002

Well, there's a new, albeit uncolored, Too Fat up. Or, there should be by the time people start waking up. I just hit the 'update' button and there were 1399 comics in the queue, so it might be a while. _
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04:21:43 AM, Friday 11 January 2002

Elizabeth, and anyone else curious as to the current 2 weeks on, 3 weeks off schedule of Too Fat as always I am apologetic about breaking promises, and I have no excuse other than I've been sort of off-balance from the holidays every since I got back home. I've started the strip twice, and have yet to find a satisfactory bridge between where I _am_ and where I _want to be_. There will probably be an update this week. Keep watching this blogspace. _
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08:55:01 PM, Tuesday 8 January 2002

The only sport shoe with no arch support (I'm flat footed), one can buy Converse online. Send me a pair! Size 6.5. _
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03:06:04 AM, Sunday 6 January 2002

Am I allowed to hate the New York Times now? _
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01:49:02 PM, Friday 4 January 2002

The RPG business is so fucking backwards. Someone comes up with a relatively innovative way to distribute samples/demos of card/board/roleplaying games and the best the side blurb can phrase the interview is finding out about 'a weird concept'. No wonder the industry is drowning. _
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03:01:41 AM, Friday 4 January 2002

Another stupid test.

Take the Radiohead Collective Member Test.

via metafilter _
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10:25:09 PM, Thursday 3 January 2002

v�b�r�mi: "little remi creature;" meaning "boll weevil."

I'm a word! And a vaguely appropriate one, as well. Thanks, Mr. Martin. _
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09:57:42 PM, Thursday 3 January 2002

From a David Byrne Interview:

Didn't you borrow a trick from the theatrical community to ensure that the perspiration produced by your stage antics wouldn't cause problems for your harnessed electronics?

Oh yeah, the condom trick! With all of the sweat that was pouring off of me during that [past] tour, I wanted to find a way to ensure that the wireless packs I was wearing wouldn't get soaked. I asked a few members of the Broadway musical Cats how they handled such problems, and the answer from all of them was instant and unanimous: condoms. Based upon this expert advice, we wound up stretching condoms over all my packs and then placing them in the harness, with their bottom sides facing up. The open end was left pointing down so I could access the controls if I had to. Nonlubricated condoms worked best. We had no trouble whatsoever. The funniest thing about all of this was that guests would come visit backstage after the show and see all of these condoms lying about that were horribly stretched out of shape. They had to be wondering what was going on. But, honest, it was all for the show.
_
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01:15:52 PM, Thursday 3 January 2002

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