Catching Up

Those of you following E and I on Twitter may have already been through some of this before. Wow: is this what the newspapers feel like? Blogging undercuts papers, and then social networky stuff like Twitter undercuts blogging? Wait, would that mean that paper beats Twitter? Or is that a different game?

Anyway, what's new?

Let's see, Emily made some tasty carrot soup, pictured here with a little sherry vinegar drizzled on top:



And after a year and a half of trying to work at our tiny kitchen table, I finally decided to rearrange furniture, make some room, and ask Emily to help pick out a desk:

Cute, no? From Area 51, a great store here in Capitol Hill.

And how is it working? Well, I just sat down this afternoon and have already written over 1,600 words for one of my book reviews! Woo! Yay for desks!


Finally, we saw another movie. (I know, but they're fun!)

This time, though, the director was there to answer questions after it was over! How cool is that??

Movie is called Medicine for Melancholy. Got a great write-up in the Times, and someone seems to like it over on CHS, but it's like a super limited release thing, so look for it on DVD!

But just to get you interested, here's the trailer:



Have a great weekend!

Sounds Good

Got together with some fellow CHS folks for a CD swap at Vermillion on Tuesday.

Was a great way to meet more Capitol Hill neighbors, and a great way to get some new music!

Everyone (more or less) made a mix, then we drew names out of a hat (okay, a plastic cup) . . .

By far the best packaging, from Ryan:

Also included a playlist written with a typewriter!


Speaking of playlists, a few of us have posted ours over on CHS; if you'd like, please take a look.

Oh, fine, I'll give you a couple here . . .

Here's mine, much of which probably sounds familiar:
1. The Garden / Cut Chemist
2. What Up Man / The Cool Kids
3. Ride A White Horse / Goldfrapp
4. Do the Whirlwind / Architecture In Helsinki
5. take time / The Books
6. Figure 8 / Duplex
7. Out There On The Ice / Cut Copy
8. Graveyard Girl / M83
9. The Earthquake of '73 / Fruit Bats
10. Two Weeks / Grizzly Bear
11. Cachito / Juan Garcia Esquivel
12. Time To Get Away / LCD Soundsystem
13. Heretic Pride / The Mountain Goats
14. John Saw That Number / Neko Case
15. Day The Train Jumped The Tracks / Split Lip Rayfield
16. New Madrid / Uncle Tupelo
17. Jockey Full Of Bourbon / Tom Waits
18. The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton / The Mountain Goats

Sample track:

Two Weeks (Live on Late Show With David Letterman) - Grizzly Bear


And I ended up with avitania's mix:
1. "Am I Robot?" - Goodnight Electric
2. "Sweet Child O Mine (Mylo Club Mix)" - Flatpack
3. "Do You Like Boys?" - Freezepop
4. "Job Application" - Meryn Cadell
5. "Don't Stop Believin'" - Petra Hayden
6. "What Would Jay-Z Do?" - Ben Lee
7. "Obey the Moderator" - Optimus Rhyme
8. "Seattle" - Public Image Ltd.
9. "Down With the Sickness" - Richard Cheese
10. "Toxic" - Juliet Turner
11. "Whatever You Want" - Vienna Teng (lyrics inspired by Office Space!)
12. "Pure" - Marsheaux

sample track:

.Am I Robot - Goodnight Electric

So far, I like it, especially the Petra Hayden and the Goodnight Electric. Oh, and speaking of avitania, these photos are all hers, and you can see more on flickr. Thanks for the music and the pics!


Look, she even got one of me that looks pretty good:



How about a few more samples to round things out?

From final answer's mix:

Plea From A Cat Named Virtute - The Weakerthans


From jseattle:

Divine Thing - The Soup Dragons


and from Uncle Vinny's mix:

No Regrets - Aesop Rock

Pretty Pictures

Saw Coraline in 3D on Sunday.

Wow.

Trailer:

And I heard from Marisa that some other folks saw it too. Hope they liked it as much as we did! Super fun, and super cool to look at--and not just because of the 3D.


Speaking of Marisa, how about this photo:

Marisa's caption: "Dinner! Don't we look pretty. Look for Barbie!!!"

Guess they spent the long weekend in Bigfork. Sounds like fun.


Happy Tuesday, reader!

Now Put Your Hands Up

Emily w/(almost) mitten


And in Emily's hand, cute cover for new phone:




Unrelated bonus:
Band I like on Colbert--hey, wait, I have that sweater!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

TV on the Radio - Dancing Choose

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

TV on the Radio


Extra bonus video:

It's the mother flippin' Hiphopopotamus, along with the Rhymenoceros.

Maybe we're late for the Flight of the Conchords bandwagon, but we're here now, and you probably should be too.


Triple bonus!

New haircut:



Happy Presidents Day, reader!

Things That Look Nice

Got out some nice clothes & hit the Seattle Symphony back in January.

Emily was awesome enough to get us tickets to the Russian Evening. Borodin, Shostakovich (my fav!), and a piece by Tchaikovsky that totally stole the show because of the awesome guest cellist.

I would've been happier if he'd worn a jacket (and tucked in his shirt!), but he sure could play that cello.



I also love the way this parking spot near campus looks lately:




One last thing:
I like the way newspapers look (though I liked them better before they were cut down to the size of postcards to "save money" (yeah, so how's that working out?)).

And I like the work they do, like in this bit of dirt-digging that got noticed by Stephen Colbert (he's, like, famous! basic cable!):

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Alpha Dog of the Week - Boy Scouts of America

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

Good work, Seattle P-I. We'll miss you when you're gone!

Gone? Looks that way. There's a meeting at city hall this month, and everyone from Time magazine to a dude from Slate writing in the Times has ideas and worries to share about the state and fate of my beloved papers.

I like the subsidy idea, but it would be terrible if that meant no more endorsements or other political commentary. The iTunes model seems cool, but it would be awfully difficult to get it to work for text like it has for music. Private endowments? Sure, what the hell, I guess--works for those British papers--though it does seem odd to me that something as obviously valuable as newspaper journalism can't be made profitable . . .

Funny fact (without citations! yay Internets!): more people than ever are reading newspapers, even as subscriptions, advertisers, and moneys are dwindling . . .


In any case, and alas, it's not looking good for newspapers.


[update 21:19]
Funny: just noticed that Walter Isaacson, who wrote that Time piece, was on the Daily Show last night, throwing out (and fielding) more thoughts on the matter:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Walter Isaacson

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Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Have the aggregators pay? Seems like a good idea, Jon Stewart. Though of course there are problems: Apple had to get a critical mass of record companies on board for iTunes to work--could newspapers team up in a similar way? Let's hope so!

Wendy and Lucy and Millionaires

As you may have seen from the Twitter feed, we saw a great movie the other day called Wendy and Lucy. Such great, quiet stuff. Times review is a good read.

Here's a trailer:

Such a rich, vibrant look into a small part of the world. Just loved it!

If you can, you should so see it!


Last year, we saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was good.

Trailer:

I'd have to agree (sigh) with David Denby, though, that overall it's not really "best picture" material, and that the whole thing has an slightly uncomfortable touristic/exploitative feel . . .


But the soundtrack is awesome.

Here's one of my favorites:

Ringa Ringa - A.R. Rahman
Composer may be familiar . . . there was another song I once mentioned on here, written by the same guy. Great stuff.


Also on there: MIA. Need I say more?

(Something to watch for this weekend: she's pregnant, and her due date is more or less the same as her performance at the Grammy's. Exciting!)

Here's a song, then:

O... Saya - M.I.A.

Cheers. Happy Weekend!