Imma have so many chickens!

Bands releasing albums in the next few months: Bright Eyes, Okkervil River, Wilco, The Arcade Fire, Of Montreal, Andrew Bird, Voxtrot, Grand Champeen.

Everytime I’m really down I’m just going to think about Will Sheff telling me that the new Okkervil sounds like Spector girl groups sung by him (singing the 'most complex' Okkervil lyrics ever), and I'll slough through.

2007 is going to be the best year ever!

My friends...

are awesome.

If you use the iTunes Music Store, you can download the new Grand Champeen record 'Dial T For This' for 9.99. That's a deal for 13 perfect bar pop songs. My favorite at the moment is "Cities on the Plain". Check it out and then, if you live in Austin, come with me to the Kinks tribute at Emo's on Saturday night, where Champeen will be kicking out the jams, yo.

And meanwhile, Brad has uploaded his new JFK music video. You will pee laughing. I did, anyway.

the best cookies.

I'm making these right now. They don't require very many ingredients or very much time and they are delicious (if you like shortbread and sugar cookies, you'll love them). My mom used to make them when I was a kid (Jeff's mom made them too), and as soon as I put one in my mouth I am six years old.

Almond Butter Cookies
Approx. 36 servings

1 cup butter
1/2 cup regular sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
(you can add a little bit of vanilla if you like it (I do), but don't use more than the amount of almond extract you're using)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 cups unbleached flour
Some extra sugar for rollin'.

Cream butter, sugar, and extract using a mixer. Add salt and flour and mix. You may have to do the end of the mixing by hand, this dough is kind of tricky. Just knead it like bread if you need to. Chill dough for at least one hour. Form one-inch balls and roll in extra sugar (I've also tried rolling them in cinnamon and they were pretty good). Stamp with cookie stamp or flatten with bottom of a glass. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (until golden but not dark.)

'People' Mix 2007. Limited Edition.

When I was eighteen or nineteen my friend Rhymi and I started making tapes for each other with a theme. We would pick out songs that very specifically reminded us of the loved ones (or arch enemies) in our lives and mix them for each other, explaining who they reminded us of in the case notes. Michelle made one too (Quiche Lorraine reminded her of Josh Gauthreaux!)

Later, the tapes were expanded into elaborate CD plans. By the time the project lost it's steam, I had bought an entire set of children's books on manners I planned to use as packaging for the ultimate people mix CD collection. I still have Rhymi's elaborate tracklists, and some notes of my own.

Fast forward to a couple months ago, Larissa and I revisit the project and make lists of 20 of the most important people in our lives and assign them all songs. In the people projects, some of the songs remind you of people because you once listened to them together, or kissed to them, or danced to them. Others are intangible -- some part of the essence of the song bears a relation in your heart to the essence of that person. Others are very literal -- the lyrics of the song could easily be your own love letter to that particular friend. It just depends. Anyway, it's a fun experiment and you should try to remember some of the songs that remind you of your favorites.

Now, just because I am sick and bored, is a miniature version for you. This one is obviously incomplete in covering the important people in my life, and is really just a collection of a few songs that immediately spring to mind as being intrinsically linked to this person or that one.

Nature Anthem - Grandaddy dedicated to Braedyn.
Incidentally, a recording of Braedyn singing this song is the ringtone on Riss's phone right now.


Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground dedicated to Isaac.
Neither of us has pale blue eyes. When I got my wisdom teeth removed I listened to Isaac singing this song on repeat during most of the surgery.


Eau D' Bedrrom Dancing dedicated to Rebekah.
Even if she didn't love it so much I think it would remind me of her.


New Slang - The Shins dedicated to Jeff.


A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procul Harum dedicated to Brad.
I can't even remember why this song reminds me of Brad but a long time ago I started thinking of him when I heard it and now I always do.


The Ballad of El Goodo - Big Star dedicated to Kester.


So Begins Our Alabee - Of Montreal dedicated to Margaret.
For lots of reasons, beginning with the fact that Kevin Barnes' voice reminds me of Margaret's heart.

Baaaaby boy!

That's my friend Patrick. Today is his birthday. He is a gem among boys and one of my favorite humans on earth. He had a party at his sweet li'l duplex last night and there was a lot of laughing and a little bit of dancing and some improvised songs. My friend Bart made up a song about me and in the verse where he was talking about me and Larissa living together he sang "They do things that some of us would never do. Ever." Which is accurate and hilarious.

Happy birthday to Patrick, who will get coffee and watch Lost and talk about girls with me until the day I die, if I have things my way.

"something that rolls up"

Couldn't you just record it yourself?

Summer: Thank you for calling, this is Summer.
Woman: Do you sell any white noise CDs?
Summer: ... Um, we sell meditation CDs.
Woman: No, no. Just white noise. For sleeping.
Summer: Oh, right. Um, I've never seen anything like that. Let me do a keyword -- yeah, nothing's coming up. Doesn't look like that's something we carry.
Woman: Well, I'm looking for a specific one.
Summer: ...
Woman: It's the sound of a hair dryer.
Summer: Yeah, we don't have that. I might be able to do some searching and see if we could order it.
Woman: No, I need it right away. Where could I find something like that?
Summer: I have no idea.

(Next time, I'll know)

Doing it like it's 1999.

After years of BBSes and Prodigy Online, I started my first website in 1998. I was sixteen. There was some vague personal information and poetry, as well as some fervent worshipping of the Disney movie Lady & The Tramp. In 1999 I bought a domain name and called it boingyboingy . com because of a jubilant and bizarre 'dance' that my friend Cory and I used to engage in at Not Back To School Camp. I also started a 'journal' on my site around that time, chronicling my adventures as a rollerskating hormonal seventeen year old homeschooler. The earlier example of this awesome 'blogging' that I can find on the Web Archive is from June of 2000 and I had just returned home from visiting my aformentioned friend Cory. Be forewarned, I also talk a lot about the Austin Poetry Slam. Later that year, I started to slack on updating my website and I started a Livejournal. The older entries are short and serve mostly just to remind me how not-funny I was six years ago...

Here is an excellent example of what we're talking about here.

Even my close friends actively made fun of my journal.

But some things never change.

My livejournal lasted for many, many years as boingyboingy fell by the wayside. And then Myspace happened. And happened and happened. And I know -- I know we don't heart myspace. Mypace is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Myspace is hard to navigate, full of incredibly annoying ads, and populated by scores of sexually frustrated teenagers and shirtless Confederates. I know. But, despite all of these problems, myspace gives me something I missed from the BBSes and the Prodigy Online and even the very early days of that livejournal -- a cohesive sense of community. And plus I like telling my friends I love them in new and creative ways. And by creative I mean a little comment box. But as myspace fades from the collective hearts of everyone else I know and wonderful sites like flickr and youtube take it's place, I feel that it is once again time for a change.

I am prepare to launch a new site with comics and crafts and art projects, and I feel that it is time to join the smart people and start a 'real' blog. Eight years of 'blogging' that has borne no relation to the adult world of Andrew Sullivan and the Fugly girls is coming to a close. Here I am, atom feeds and all.

Hallelujah?

Meanwhile, bat bombs?!