Kyle chugs ftw!

Completing the first physical challenge of the evening
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Happy new year!

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Joe Rogan

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Prerogan

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Yotes

We came upon a somewhat gruesome scene while driving through rural central Texas yesterday: a collection of dead coyotes hung on some rancher's posts. Yeesh.

Balls up Christmas!

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Cybersquattin

DownByLaw Industries has acquired www.bullymike.com.

The dream is now.

Reality is our future.

Today's doors are tomorrow's windows.

Join us.

Bullypicks 2007

This year's list was pretty easy to make. The top ten just jumped right out at me. Recently I added links in the sidebar to other lists from years gone by.



1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Favorite Track: "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi"



2. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Favorite Track: "No Cars Go"



3. Blonde Redhead - 23
Favorite Track: "The Dress"



4. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Favorite Track: "Pace is the Trick"



5. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Favorite Track: "The General Specific"



6. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Favorite Track: "Impossible Germany"



7. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Favorite Track: "Sea Legs"



8. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block
Favorite Track: "Objects of My Affection"



9. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Favorite Track: "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case"



10. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Favorite Track: "Someone Great"

Lookin out my back door

At our sample staging area next to a beer distributor. They have a artificial waterfall built into the side of the building. Weather is much better today on our second sampling day and looks to remain nice for the duration. I'm basically here to help out with paperwork and organization, tag and bag samples, and learn more about this type of event.

We're somewhere between Midland and Odessa, or slow-deatha as some locals call it. West Texas is pretty gd flat!
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Partying in midland!

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This Just In

Teens don't save? I'll be hornswoggled.

To paraphrase Willow, those new Portishead tracks are great. Waiting with bated breath for the rest of it.

I've also been listening to the 2007 LCD Soundsystem album Sound of Silver. A very interesting mix of trance and indypop. "Someone Great" is up there with my favorite tracks of the year. It would be an excellent companion to PBJ's Writer's Block. I will say that some of the repetitive lyric marathons, such as those in the title track, are a little annoying. A gem otherwise.

What do we know?

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Head

Sweet. Just found out from T about the new Portishead tracks on Idolator, recorded live at All Tomorrow's Parties (never heard of it - I'm guessing it's some sort of whathaveyou). I'm betting that these will kick ass before I even listen to them. Blind nillo if you will. From what I've heard so far, the sound quality is not that great (live tracks) but the opening groove on the first song is very promising.

Work dinner at saltgrass

Good times but Saltgrass sucks!

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Ketchup

Last weekend we tried out the Tilted Kilt way up north of mopac. It's essentially the same as Lion and the Rose in San Antonio: a british pub-themed Hooters. They do have a better beer selection than the Hoots, I'll give em that. The food was so-so. I had a couple pints of Stella and a fish sandwich; c2 had a "irish dip," which was their version of a french dip roast beef sandwich. Both meals were decent, and I especially liked the fries. The service was a little dippy. It would probably be a fun place to watch a game if it wasn't so goddamn loud inside. Still, I might go back.

No Country For Old Men was awesome. Pretty fucking cold balls but awesome. Will had already seen it a couple weeks prior but went with me to see it again. I get now why he was so eager to watch the movie a second time. Very suspenseful with great black humor dialogue. Chigurh is one of my favorite bad guys now. Thankfully I had totally forgotten that Josh Brolin was Brent in Goonies or else I might not have taken him so seriously. Don't let anyone give away the ending for you!

Mr. Brooks was definitely head and shoulders below No Country, but I still think it had its merits. Pretty much every scene with Costner, Cook, and Hurt together is great - the alter ego gimmick worked for me - everything else is terrible. The entire sideline plot around Demi Moore's character tracking Brooks down is worthless.

Hmm what else? I threw +2 on the 9 hole at Wells Branch the other day, beating my personal best of +4. That was pretty sweet.

Oh yeah, I finally got The Orange Box, and it's as great a set of games as I was expecting. I already beat Portal, a neat little game centered around one of my all-time secret wish fantasy toys: the portable hole. It's essentially a first-person puzzler with great graphics and the same creepy, quiet atmosphere as games like Myst or the original Half Life. A great title. Teamfortress 2, however, is a fucking masterpiece. TF2 is probably one of the most perfect computer games I have ever played. The graphics are cool and the mechanics are very smooth. Obviously you need an internet connection and a worthwhile server, but there's always tons of them to choose from. All the classes are equally fun, some more challenging than others. I don't think I'll ever be a very good spy or sniper, but I'm decent with the heavy, engineer, pyro, and medic classes. It's so fun to set up those sentry guns that you just want to cry.

Drop Shot

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The view across the table

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Football at 300

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5 minutes to nachos

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Mehdiocre Movies

I've watched my fair share of blase flicks recently. I can't wait for No Country at the end of the month to pull me back out of this shitty movie tarpit into which I've apparently wandered.

First was Wes Anderson's disappointing The Darjeeling Limited and the accompanying short film Hotel Chevalier. Usually I'm a huge fan of Anderson's work but this one just didn't keep me interested and dragged on a bit much. All his classic touches and affectations were there but they felt a little heavy for a travelling film; the characters were all carrying around literally too much baggage and they often bottomed out in not very interesting ways. Honestly the burnt out archetypes were served up better in Life Aquatic and Tenenbaums.

I rented The Battle for Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri) but I couldn't get too deep into it and stopped watching early on. I'm going to try to rent it again; it may have just been a bad week for that kind of movie.

Saw III was atrocious, just like I figured it would be. Honestly I'm very much over the whole torture porn genre - this was the old lady's pick. Some of the gimmicks are pretty clever, but you can see everything coming a mile away, and it's basically 113 minutes of gratuitious suffering that just sucks the soul right out of you. Blegh.

We watched Death Proof over a couple of nights, as it too drags on with contrived dialogue and pointless time-suck scenes. I can kind of appreciate the whole homage to shitty 70's B-movies paradigm, but I thought his earlier movies did a much better job of this, not to mention they were actually interesting films in themselves. WTF happened to the cheerleader actress, the superfine Mary Liz Winstead, who looks just like the similarly superfine Jewel Staite? Maybe my issues with Death Proof mean I couldn't appreciate the whole ironic concept of the film, but I was just expecting more fun overall. Still, there were definitely highlights. #1 Bad Ass Kurt Russell and the everpresent smoking hot chicks swinging around help you survive the overlong hangout scenes and stilted dialogue. The ending is awesome yet completely unsatisfying. What?! I know. It just is. I heard this was the better of the two Grindhouse movies, but I can't see how much worse any Rodriguez movie could be, especially with the whole McGowan gun-leg thing going for it.

Last but not least we watched 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Oh, and that's Fantastic 4 by the way; I'm guessing the title is like a hip abbreviated KFC kinda thing? Anyways. Super cheesy, gag-worthy digital effects (especially Mr. Fantastic), and pretty much nothing going for it outside of the second movie to feature Dr. Doom, who will always be one of my favorite Marvel characters ever.

Beerce

I tried a couple new brews recently.

Cecil had bought some Lucifer Belgian Ale to try and he shared one with me while we were hanging out at his place a few days ago. Only after tasting it did we go back and notice it was 9% alcohol, or about double the strength of the German lagers I drink on a regular basis. Honestly these kind of long fermented ales are a little hard to enjoy when you're feeling like drinking more than one beer in a sitting. It goes down slow, getting more flavorable as it warms slightly, but by the time you feel that extra kick, the taste is a little much already. Comparable to Fat Tire's Trippel Ale but maybe not as delicate.

I grabbed a 6-pack of Independence Pale Ale, which I assume is the flagship of the Austin-based Independence Brewery. The label has a nice painting of Angelina Eberly, the inn-lady wot saved Austin in ye olden times with a single blast from her cannon. The first thing I noticed was the fairly substantial head it produces even when poured very slowly. It doubles as a timer that lets you know when this one is at about the right temperature. As it recedes, it leaves fluffy formations of foam that dance lightly on the drinker's moustache in an altogether pleasant manner. I definitely like it but the price was a little much ($7.99/6). The flavor reminds me of Sam Adams. There's a tour on the first of December with a complimentary tasting at the end, and I was thinking about checking it out. I'm interested in the Austin Amber and Freestyle Wheat brews and that sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Hotels

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Hole no. 8

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Pumpkin Carving Party 2007

And finally, some pictures from our party last weekend. I'll start with the final products.

The pumpkin artists were as follows, from left to right: bullymike, cecil, caleb, c2, christi, and tony.

Fun in the kitchen.

C2 makes a friend.

Christi with her hard-won trivia/door prize.

Oh. Wow.

Awesome blog: Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century.

Work Halloween Costume Contest

The five finalists: bee (in police uniform with toy guitar - she's a big Sting fan), female astronaut in diapers (how topical!), witch and toad, trrp monster, and baggy the bi-sacktual robot. The astronaut won.
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I was so right about the color red...

In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?

Bumming Around

I've been into some big time music lately, starting with the most recent Peter Bjorn and John record, Writer's Block. I had heard "Young Folks" once before on internet radio, and Cecil recommended the rest of the tracks so I checked it out. I like it a lot, very catchy indie pop kind of stuff. My favorites are probably "Let's Call it Off," "Amsterdam," and "Start to Melt." Ah what the hell, I love all these songs equally. Thanks Cecil!

I picked up the new Band of Horses, Cease to Begin, on the cheap the day it came out after listening to a few of the tracks on their myspace page. Another great laid back record from these guys. I read a lot of My Morning Jacket comparisons but I think BoH makes much more interesting music. "Detlef Schrempf," "Islands on the Coast," and "Cigarettes Wedding" are highlights.

You probably know by now how awesome In Rainbows is. Great music and a very interesting consumer experience. At first I was a little put off by the variety but it's still so effortlessly brilliant. Now it's starting to gel more as an album with repeated listens. "15 Step" starts the whole thing off perfectly. The "new radiohead album" wonderment sank in just as the guitar came in over the jerking beats and Yorke whine. It just takes off from there: the bridge in "Bodysnatchers" where Thom's voice lilts at the end of each phrase, the guitars grinding out the rhythm over the ticking snare. The echoing vocals and pulsating blips and bloops of "Nude," faintly reminiscent of OK Computer. The breezy, nautical feeling created by the combination of a rolling, tapping drumbeat and plaintive scales of "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi." The dark growling sadness of "All I Need." The sweeping strings in the beatles-esque "Faust Arp." The groovy, spooky shake of "The Reckoner." The intimacy of "House of Cards." The twanging guitar and insistent bass on "Jigsaw Falling Into Place." The creepy mournful roll of "Videotape." Another excellent record, in my opinion. Huzzah.

Apocalypse

The first game ever at BattleForge Games!
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lolamin

Damn Skippy

good times

Interpol

Bad ass show at stubbs!
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Spectacular

Santa goes commando at Gardenridge...
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Magnolia Electric Co. 9-13-07

This is a little late, missed writing about it in the ACL hubbub. MEC played Emo's last Thursday and I was there to watch. It was good to see Jason and the gang once more but the song choices were a little tired. They just played basically the same show they have for like three years - essentially Trials and Errors - only this year all in the key of G. Not to mention Emos advertised a cheaper door price than it actually was - not by much but there's principalities in this shit - and the band was packed into the indoor stage. It was a good time but could have been better. One new song, something about Shiloh, was good. I guess J. can't get support for a solo tour but I'd much rather see that next.
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ACL Fest 2007 Wrap-Up

I hadn't been back to ACL since the very first festival and missed a ton of great shows but also some blistering heat, dust storms, and the inescapable humanity. When Dylan and Björk were announced for this year's lineup it convinced me to give three days at Zilker another go-round. In the end, only one of those two acts really delivered, but I'm still quite satisfied with my decision. The White Stripes were also part of the impressive package but given their scheduling conflict with The Arcade Fire, I wasn't terribly broken up when they cancelled.

My favorite show was probably Blonde Redhead. It was the first concert I caught on the first day and even though it was hot as hell they really entertained me. After an introduction from our favorite weatherman Burt-on Fitzimmons, I believe they started with the title track off of their last album, "23," and right away I felt like it was going to be a great weekend. "Dr. Strangeluv" came close on its heels and just kept it going. That is such a great album, and right now it's looking to come in at the top of my annual list.

After that, shit, Björk, no contest. I was late in appreciating her talent, but after watching some documentary about her shortly after Homogenic dropped I was hooked, so I scooped up all her excellent earlier work (OK, I wasn't such a huge fan of the Sugarcubes). She exceeded all my expectations for her ACL appearance and then some. Great song selection (it wouldn't be Björk without a few experimental pieces) and an awesome costume and lightshow design. She must have been hot as hell in her frilly gold lamé outfit but she never showed it. Her voice kicked ass the whole way. Even though the show blew Dylan's totally out of the water, I still must protest her comments regarding Bob earlier this summer. It really was a moebius strip of musical elitism. But what can she do, after all she's just random sparkly lights brought to life.

Both Arcade Fire and Midlake were incredible shows, but I didn't get as much out of The Decemberists' performance. Midlake played a new song and I liked it immediately, can't wait for the next record. The Arcade Fire had a great backdrop on which they projected blown-up, live footage from various stage cameras, including one in the drum kit looking up. Wilco was cool I suppose, got to hear "Via Chicago" and "Impossible Germany," but I've seen or heard them live so much in recent times that I probably should have gone for My Morning Jacket instead. It was one of the backdrop shows, like Ben Kweller, Yo La Tengo, and Spoon, that were enjoyable because I knew and liked the original material, but otherwise I didn't get too into them.

I only ate at the festival on Sunday, choosing from the wide variety of booths a $5 bratwurst sandwich (sandwich? just a brat on a bun). It tasted ok and was probably the cheapest decent food item, but it was still too expensive when you're already paying $4 for each beer. I think it's best to just eat a large meal before going out, sneak in some snack mix, and live on water, beer, and advil the rest of the day. Delirium makes the late headliner performances that much more delightful. That said, just going to the late show on the second day let me pace myself quite nicely for the two long days. The tripod chair and umbrella I brought came in very handy and with a fan and a beer buzz you can get relatively comfortable even in the middle of the grassy field with zero shade. The heat was worst in the dense crowds close to the stage; I found it best to just remain in the more sparsely crowded areas further away and enjoy the large screens.

What about Bob?

Well, I couldn't handle the old Dylan. Four songs, that's what I could give out of respect. There were just so many better shows. I pour out a little drink for the old man.
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The Decemberists

Nice sunset music
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Wilco

I remember my mother's sister's husband's brother...
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Hot time in the city

Waiting for Wilco...
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Regina Spector

A bit of a lull as I wait for wilco, so I decided to check out RS. Alternately cloudy and ass hot. Weather has been warm but great otherwise with regular breezes. More great shows to come tonight!
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Midlake

A highlight of the year no doubt
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Ben Kweller

Sitting in the shade for some marginal comfort
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Sound tribe sector nine

An excellent surprise. Very good trance hop.
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Yo la Tengo

Rad shit heating up
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Nichole Atkins and the sea

Another beautiful hot as balls day in Austin, Texas! This broad sounds ok I suppose, as I stand on the adjacent hill waiting for yo la tengo...
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Acl day 3

Into the breach once more...
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