Wednesday, October 29th, 2003

All Day And All Of The Night

Got The Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow. I already love this album. Bonus – the nice poster and button I got with purchase. The good people at SubPop are doing a good job of making up for delaying the release of this record a week. Get the band to tour up here and all will be forgiven. Worth noting – the die-cut fold-over artwork for the CD is so much fun. Well, not fun like a big bucket of Lego, but still. Fun.

Stopped by the library to pick up the copy of 24 Hour Party People I had on hold. Suddenly my backlog of things to read is getting out of hand. I may need to take some time off work to get it cleared up… Kidding…

The last Uncle Tupelo reissue I didn’t have was sitting in my mailbox when I got home. No, it wasn’t put there by some altruistic stranger, I bought it off eBay. Nice bonus was that it was still wrapped in plastic – I thought I bought a used copy. Finally I get to hear their version of The Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You”. Now the question is what to do with my set of original Rockville/Sire UT albums? They must go to a worthy cause.

Also in my mailbox – my Belle & Sebastian tickets. Front row centre, in case anyone missed my gloating earlier. Though I don’t see how you possible could have, it was pretty excessive. Incidentally, the band has totally redone their website. The new one is nice – go have a poke.

24 – Good start to the season. I’m aware that there may be readers from the UK and other strange and foreign lands who won’t get to see season three for a while yet. To them, I apologize, but there’ll be spoilers a-plenty here, week after week. Some random thoughts – Kim might have a fancy suit and talk in big words, but she’s still dumb and her haircut’s crummy. Chase is a dumb name. I think Chloe is a spy. A spy for an alien invasion force bent on conquoring Los Angeles. Not the world, just LA. I’m sure that Palmer’s scar is where they implanted the cybernetic robo-arm and death ray. Jack should know better than to try and administer his flu shot himself. That’s a job for a certified doctor – maybe he can borrow Palmer’s, the President seems to think highly of her.

Is it time to talk 2004 releases already? New one from Doves on March 9.

Spike Jonze will be directing a live-action film of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are.

There will be a memorial to Elliott Smith in Toronto this Saturday. Specifics:

Dear everyone,

The Elliott Smith memorial service in Toronto will take place on Saturday, November 1, 2003 at 5:00 PM at the gates of the Trinity-Bellwoods Park (located at Queen/Strachan-Trinity). Joel has supplied a map and directions (above) to help you arrive. As at the NYC memorial, you are welcome to arrive at any time; earlier or later, to stay for a while or to simply drop by and leave pictures, letters, candles, thoughts and any other fond farewells. Binging a guitar would be lovely. I hope to see you there. Take care and dress warmly, it’s getting cooler these days.

Normally I’d be curious to attend, though it has the potential to be overly maudlin, but I’ll be engaged in my own particular tribute to Elliott that day – a pub crawl. “Between The Bars”, so to speak.

Update: And finally… It’s a Homestar Hallowe’en! Gold. Pure gold.

np – The Shins / Chutes Too Narrow

By : Frank Yang at 8:00 am
Category: Uncategorized
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
RSS Feed for this postNo Responses.
  1. Anonymous says:

    24 – I was a bit worried about Kim’s character, but if the producers are smart (which they have yet to be), they’ll play down her characters action and spend most of the season justifying just exactly why a high-school dropout is a high level tech in a counter-terrorist unit.

    I am enjoying the multitude of Red Herrings they’re dropping. Any bets on Nina showing up?

  2. Pete says:

    24- I am kinda hoping that they kill off Kim this year as I am tired of her, but it wouldn’t work too well for Jack’s character since he already looks like he is having a bad day. I have read around that some 24 hardcores are already not liking the show, but hey it’s early it has to develop, they have set the stage, it seems pretty simple, lets see if it evolves to something bigger, if it doesn’t become thrilling by christmas then the show will fail. Lets hope that isn’t the case, cause I have been right about a lot of things this year, this is one thing I hope I am not right about.

  3. Anonymous says:

    24- it’ll do fine. I think the writers have to deal with coming up with a new way to introduce twists, but re-introduce the characters people love to hate (Sherri, Nina? What’s happening with Palmer’s kids?). Dealing with a three year break in the timeline — probably to deal with Kim — means answering what went on in those three years before going onto the story.

    To be honest Season two was strongest before "the bomb", I’d rather a slow build.

  4. Kate says:

    I like the Shins record, but I guess I don’t "get" the Shins record. "Meh" sums my feelings up best. Seems like a lot of people salivate over it, though. I’m not trying to pick a fight, honest. I just don’t see the attraction.

  5. Frank says:

    that’s okay. Lots of people like the Strokes, to my eternal befuddlement.

  6. david says:

    I’m pretty happy with the new Shins record.

    Isn’t the Circle Jerks’ version of "I Wanna Destroy You" the definitive version (with Debbie Gibson on backing vocals)?

  7. ryan says:

    I would say "Gone For Good" off the new Shins record is probably my Favourite Song Of The Year (TM).

  8. sam says:

    lmao!

    flu shot. nice.. :)

    i wrote down my thoughts on my blog so i won’t rewrite everything here but needless to say it was overall a slight letdown for me. but – i do think the producers know what they’re doing. they wouldn’t be giving us warmed up 24 (not at the beginning of the season anyway) so i still believe.

    chase is a great character/actor. good addition. and it’s nice to see them flesh out the view outside of jack. enough with the kim in peril/palmer assassination attempts/we hate l.a. lines. lol