4 loko

it's the bad boy
the slutty girl
the deal on the corner gone
amazingly, right.

so of course it's about to be universally banned
i'm sure though, we can all make a cocktail resembling it if we ever feel the need to get, quite quickly and cheaply, thoroughly wasted. i apologise to those of you taking 12, but really, you're not missing anything you haven't already been thru before. i suppose i like it for the premix & price. 4 loko does take some acclimation, so beware of guzzling. it might seem like soda pop made made by an  aglossiac.    it may get better, like with most alcohols, the more you ingest . but this drink's a trickster. convinces you  you're sober enough. until you try to actualize that desire to stick your hand thru the top of the teakwood  coffee table to grab the magazine stored underneath, you just don't realize how startingly drunk you are.

  i think it's the combination of  caffeine, guarana, taurene and fd&c blue no.1 more than the 12% alcohol content,  that makes it especially delusion inducing. i tried this stuff called tilt the other night, and i just couldn't ingest enough of it to catch a buzz. full disclosure: alcohol is not my d.o.c.  tilt has only the blue and the 12%  . the toxic- sludge- masked- with- aspertame flavor of the mix did not dissipate over time. that's the beauty of four loko. it removes taste from the equation. like bad coffee you'll slug down anyway, 4 loko is something i  drink because  i want that buzz.

the grape, blue, lemonade and fruit punch varieties all taste like cough syrup. but the lemon lime with its bright green pan galactic gargle blaster glow , when poured over ice, is completely palatable by the third swig. if you're going to go off the wagon, couldn't be a cheaper way. if you imbibe on an empty belly, be sure to hide the keys - all of them- before beginning. 

Dumb Luck by Dntel




just don't forget that it's dumb luck that got you here
don't fool yourself
misfortune's waiting for the best time to appear
to make it clear
that all the courage and the talent that you have
was just in dreams
and when you wake up
you will beg to get it back
to get it back


you can't trust your friends
they will betray with a love less blinding
and then at the end 
they may admit that you were missing something
and no one remembers 
even one word that left your mouth
all the melodies were stolen
from songs by someone else
you're out of time and inspiration
filled with self-pity and fear
and all the dreams that haven't dried up
are slowly drowning in your tears
in your tears


just don't forget 
that it's dumb luck that got you here
don't fool yourself
misfortune's waiting for the best time to appear
to make it clear
that all the courage and the talent
that you have 
was just in dreams 
and when you wake up
you will beg to get it back


to get it back

How's that for a Monday morning song? It's cold and morning and I'm at work (at a job i hate) with a headcold. So, to wallow in something miserable and depressing, here's the soundtrack. Thank you, Jimmy Tamborello.

Balls

So this morning, I find out, while looking for some music to share, that I have missed the farewell tour for Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, a.k.a. Owen Ashworth. I didn't even know he was calling it quits! I'm quite bummed. But I don't blame him. He'll do something else, just under a different name.



So thank you, Owen, your first two albums are some of the very favorite albums in my music collection. You were music I found myself. Music I shared with people, music I still want to share with people. Thank you for taking an icon from growing up in the 80s like a casio keyboard, and adding more depth and feeling to it with your music than anyone probably ever realized was even possible. You did with it what John Darnielle couldn't ever quite do. And I love you for it.

(P.S. Had to add the first song I ever heard of his: "Jeane, If You're Ever In Portland.")





But honestly, I was more heartbroken when The Delgados split up and died.

Lemon Harangue

When did Family Guy start this stupid tradition of re-making movies shot for shot? It was bad enough when they did that extra-long two-episode star wars tribute. They must've thought they were hot shit for pulling that off, cause now they're doing it every other episode - why? Okay, so you can replicate Rocky III as a cartoon with Family Guy characters in it. How about putting some satire in there while you're at it, or even some jokes? Or would that get in the way of your respectful homage to classic cinema? Fuck it's boring.

I hate to say this, but they seem to be going the way of the Simpsons, around season seven. There's these moments, of utter dead weight that remind me eerily of how the feel changed on the Simpsons. It was subtle though. I knew the voices sounded different, there was some kind of "upgrade" done in visual and sound production, but it just made everything too clinically detailed, like CBC radio. And it was like the warm ambiance that pervaded past episodes had been thrown down the incinerator.

It was never the same after that. And the "dead weight" thing - it's filler, lines that are obvious from the subtext and add NOTHING. Was thinking of the boxing match on the latest episode, between Lois and Deirdre. She says: "You goin' DOWN tonight Griffin!", and Lois screams back, with pointless dramatics: "Nat TONITE I'm nat!" or something. Totally vacuous, no significant inflection, no joke, nothing. Filler is death for shows like these. When the Simpsons were at their best, they had no filler - same with Family Guy. Oh man, it's a Wonderful Day for Pie! But that hilarious Disney parody was just a couple years ago, wasn't it? Maybe it's a temporary backslide, but there aren't many of those in TV land.

Sorrow - Pink Floyd (live)



Ruh roh. She's busting out the Floyd. That must mean boy trouble. My only trouble with boys is that none of them are David Gilmour. Or John Keats. Or some miraculous twist of both.

Don't date men who aren't poets or musicians. They're not worth it.

Today, I will say that I hope he gets his leg blown off for joining the army and being a douchebag. Tomorrow I might regret it.

I guess that's not really a review, or a critique. But doesn't it say something about the music, or my connection to the music, that every time I'm feeling shitty about something, Pink Floyd is the only thing I can listen to that fits? Not the plateau, the plateau music (everything else I've shared here, pretty much) is for everyday. I think I'm a generally lull person, morose. A facade of moroseness. I'm bright red in the center and grey on the edges, and it comes across as mauve. The plateau music is mauve.

Pink Floyd is a deep red vein. Pink Floyd is the only music epic enough, that I have a personal relationship with enough to echo or express my heartache. When your world implodes, when your paradigm shatters, when you realize you've spent two years on nothing in the grand scheme of things, you need vast, echoey, deep, rich, classic, original music. For me, that is Floyd. It will always be Floyd.

I've got it repeating right now, this song. It's music to drown in, that's what it is. Marooned was for my first real attempt at, well, perhaps it's better not to say. Sorrow is for this, Sorrow is the long, smoky bar I can drink myself under and stop time in.

Or, well. Yeah.