Ruidh’s Corollary

“In the future, everyone will be a suspect for 25 hours.”

-Ruidh’s Corollary to Warhol’s Law

Ruidh's Corollary">Add comment January 18th, 2008

Georgie James cancelled shows!

Via Pitchfork, Georgie James (which, confusingly, is the  name of a band, not of a person like Georgie Fruit, Kevin Barnes’ alter ego) has canceled a slate of upcoming shows due to illness, including next Saturday (11/3) at the Holocene. I was looking forward to it, but at least there are a lot of good shows hitting town between now and the end of the year, starting with Apostle of Hustle @ Doug Fir Lounge next week.

Add comment October 26th, 2007

The iPhone SDK

I am now officially interested in an iPhone.

And they’re extending the SDK to the iPod Touch, too; excellent.

Add comment October 17th, 2007

A Cribbed Note

Far too busy of late; no, no novel-finishing epidemia, just looking for work and subsequently finding it, readjusting to a 9-to-5 life (6 to 6 if you count the commute), ad nauseum. Anyway, I’m cribbing this post from overheardintheoffice.com(a sibling to the original, fantastical overheardinnewyork.com) because, well, it just made me laugh to beat the band.

The Zen Oven Is Generally Low-Maintenance

Manager on phone with refrigeration company: That oven that never comes on but is always on? It didn’t come on.
Answering service: Would you please repeat that?
Manager: You know, that oven that never comes on but is always on? Well, it didn’t come on.
Answering service: Thank you, sir. I’ll let the service rep know.

More soon! TTFN!

Add comment August 30th, 2007

Fateful Days

The year was 1995, and the Wal-Mart was a recent addition to the sleepy town of North Bend, Oregon, and was not quite the woeful beacon of the underclass that it is today. I was finishing up my junior year in high school, and I had convinced my parents of my need to get new music.

“One album,” was apparently the official decree, and after spending many minutes of searching, I narrowed it down to the horns of the following dilemma:

The one good radio station in town was the “Good Times, Great Oldies” station, and MTV was already well into it’s “Real World” phase of not playing any new music, so journeys like this were my only chance to learn that something more existed beyond the veil.

On the one hand, there stood the first Foo Fighters album. I’d been a pretty big Nirvana fan, like everyone else of my time and place, and this was the first Foo Fighters effort, so I was naturally quite curious. On the other hand, there stood this newly-minted album called, charmingly, “Wowee Zowee”…

I’d certainly heard of Pavement. From my brother, of course, for whom they’d outstayed their welcome after “Slanted and Enchanted”, but I’d never really heard them at all.

By whatever stroke of fate, “Wowee Zowee” made the cut, and although it would be another three months of spinning this record before I cracked the code that made it one of my definitively Favorite Albums of All Time, and Pavement a member of my personal rock pantheon, I took the road that offered more resistance, and that has made all the difference.

In hindsight, although I’ve never disliked a Foo Fighters song, I’ve still never picked up that album, nor any others. I may not know what I’m missing, but should my stylus’ needle wear tired of this world, there are certainly more to tread.

Add comment July 9th, 2007

The Top 9 Keys To Happiness, According To Google

…an unscientific survey on a keyboard with failing keys.

This one’s for Amy, but also anyone else who might be searching for this. There might be a few of you. I simply searched for “the key to happiness”, and these were the top nine most relevant and occasionally poignant results. In the order that I found ‘em:

1. Remember that “You Deserve Happiness”
2. You choose to be happy
3. Consistently write down things you are grateful for and perform acts of kindness
4. Learn to control your mind
5. Do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do
6. Gratitude
7. Low expectations (as Alexander Pope put it, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he is seldom disappointed.”)
8. Visualization
9. A sense of achievement coupled with the avoidance of instant gratification

I think they mostly speak for themselves. I mostly ascribe to the “expect little but hope for the best” school of thought, but I’m a born optimist. My advice ain’t gonna help you. I’ll throw a couple of more quotes out there on the subject, courtesy of the band Grandaddy (not to be confused with my own Grandaddy, who turns ninety soon(!)).

“I’ll paint the words ‘a simple wish for peace of mind and happiness’”. (El Caminos in the West)

“It’s happiness that matters anyway.” (Sarah 5646766)

1 comment June 26th, 2007