oh, Beat Happening.

I can't believe I've never made a post about my love for K Records. I really need to start obsessing about things again...

still here.

I kind of took a hiatus from this thing over the holidays. That's not to say that I didn't have tons of free time to update it, I just preferred to spend my time on the couch watching re-runs of CSI. I calculated that I watched something like 70 hours of it over holiday break. Don't judge me.

Anyway, now that I'm back in school, I have plenty of time to not-do-homework. I spent all last week looking at useless things online, some of which were actually pretty awesome. See:

OOOMS dutch design

Okay, this is a seriously amazing website. OOOMS is a design studio in the Netherlands that makes plain crazy weird/cool stuff.

Example 1: "Commissioned by the Dutch souvenir project and initiated by the European Ceramic Work Centre, the Milkmaid by Studio OOOMS is not your typical keepsake. Inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s innocent painting “Het Melkmeisje”, this Delftblue ceramic dildo will certainly be a talking point if you leave it out on your mantelpiece!" Seriously?
Example 2: This thing is called a "City Hideout." Basically, it's a fold-out metal box that you climb into and watch people from. And it looks like one of those boxes you see on street corners, so no one will even think it's weird (until they know you're in it). Maybe it's just because this thing is so ridiculous, but I won't lie, I want one. (FYI, it's the box on the far left in the picture.)

They also have other things like goldplated staples and a cabinet where it's impossible to close all the drawers at once (if you happen to like frustrating furniture).

Letterheady - Interesting Letterhead Designs

This is really pretty cool. Someone apparently took the time to scan tons of letterhead papers, from people like Elvis, Einstein, and Hitler (who is apparently picky about stationary since they have another for him). I don't know if anyone else is weird/bored enough to actually be interested in this besides me though...

Hafsteinn Júlíusson

So, I can't tell if this is just a proposed idea, or if this product actually exists. Slim Chips are zero calorie chips made of edible paper and organic flavors. Apparently, Juliusson's motto is "Don't get fat just eat nothing." I don't know how blueberry or peppermint flavored paper sounds, but maybe I could get down with some sweet potato paper. I also really appreciate anything that would market itself with a picture of somekind of hipster-wigger and a crazed Icelander.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

So I really don't know much about this movie but apparently it debuted at Sundance this past Sunday. It's supposed to be about an eccentric French shopkeeper turned documentarian who attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on him. I don't know when/if it'll be coming to Houston ever, but I hope so.

great ghosts.

I had my hopes of how I would be after living in exile,
After closing your eyes to me.
I even wrote scenes where I reemerged boldly,
Bearded, alive, with Eskimo eyes, new baby on my back,
But I didn’t count the fact that I have ghosts in my mind,
Stowed away, great ghosts of my life,
Great ghosts of old wives and their howling.
So I spent my wilderness time rolling on the ground,
Pulling my hair and wrestling them off,
Yelling at no one, punching snow.
I gathered ghosts and I gave them my lecture,
Bid them away, I pleaded and cried,
“There’s no room in my life for you, or your howling.
Let me undo these ropes and go on living without you,
Not just change where I live.
Go on, get,” I said.
I had my hopes of how I would be,
After sending them off, after getting set free,
But there’s no such thing as living without their prowling.
As you can see, having descended the hill,
I still look like me, I still wallow like Phil,
And forever will.
I’m teeming with ghosts and I’m still whining for wives,
Unknitting my brow, but now I’ve surrendered,
In fact I’ve joined in,
You can hear us howling.

“Great Ghosts” by The Microphones

Live in Japan, February 19th, 21st, and 22nd, 2003

my favorite old men.

I spend a good amount of time yesterday catching up on my HBO shows, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Bored to Death (I would have included Dexter but it's on Showtime, duh.) Curb Your Enthusiasm has always been one of my favorite shows, mostly because Larry David and my dad are pretty much the same people. By that I mean that they can be complete assholes at the most inappropriate times, but somehow it's funny. My dad won't watch the show because it makes him uncomfortable, which is maybe for the best. Anyway, the episode this week was particularly hilarious (and this whole season has probably been the best ever), especially since Marty Funkhouser was in it and delivered the best joke I've heard in so long.



So after a spectacular showing by Marty Funkhauser and LD, I wanted to catch up on Bored to Death. I'd missed the last four episodes since the show wasn't really keeping my interest enough to even remember to record them anymore, but I decided to give it a second chance, and was duly rewarded. Zach Galifinakis has finally started to be funny (how he had failed to be funny before escapes me), Jason Schwartzman's character finally stopped being so annoying, and somehow I developed a crush on Ted Danson as stoner/wealthy magazine editor. Don't judge me! Episode six, "Case of the Beautiful Blackmailer," was definitely my favorite. Galifinakis and Danson finally meet and eventually become friends over their shared love for weed. I don't want to give too much away, but there is a fight involving a pony-on-a-stick toy named Janet. It should not be missed. The cameos on the show are great, too. So far I've seen Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman, Oliver Platt, Jenny Slate, and the list goes on. For some reason I particularly enjoyed Samantha Bee as one of the lesbians unknowingly given Galifinakis' sperm. I can't find any really great clips from the episodes since HBO is apparently crazy rights protections, so this is what you get.





Now tell me you don't think Ted Danson is attractive.

Okay, fine. Well I still do.

westheimer block party.

Of all the pictures I saw from this weekend, this was my hands-down favorite.



















It speaks the truth. I hope I never have to use Port-o-Potties that disgusting again.

But, all in all, it was a great weekend. I hope Annise Parker becomes mayor and saves the Block Party...

Bill Cosby is amazing.

So I was an old person tonight and watched PBS. They were showing a Bill Cosby tribute for his receiving the Mark Twain Prize for Humor. I really do love Bill Cosby so I had to watch it. Plus, Sinbad was going to speak, and I wanted to see how spending the last 15 years in a cave had treated him. Anyway, the presenters were only so-so, but it was all about Cosby, so it didn't really matter. The clips they chose from Cosby's career, however, were spot-on. I feel like I had to share a couple in case somehow you missed out on happiness and have never seen his greatest skits.

This one is a little long at 10 minutes, but definitely worth it.


A song by Len Chandler, popularized by Bill Cosby

stalking: part deux.

I seem to be obsessing over people a lot lately (probably because I have work I should be doing, but end up being bored instead). I feel like I'm on my way to making a "Greatest Hits of Elizabeth's Internet Stalking". I've moved on from Andy Rooney and on to Phil Elvrum, who I've been stalking steadily for over three years now. I'm a flip-flopper about which of his musical incarnation's is my favorite, starting with Mount Eerie, back to The Microphones, then back and forth again. I'm not really sure where I lay at the moment, but I do know way too much about Mr. Elverum. In the interest of sharing, I'm going to give you the highlights of my obscure Phil Elvrum knowledge.

Somehow I just found out that he made a ridiculous cartoon-a-day calendar in 2005, called Fancy People Adventures. I'm not sure if he still keeps making these cartoons or not, but let's just say that although Phil is a musical genius, comedy is not his forte. Some of the comics are pretty funny though. More than anything, they made me love him more just because most of them are horribly awkward, and that's something I can always appreciate.

As someone who would love to know Mr. Elvrum's favorite foods, books, or brands of toilet paper, it takes a lot for me to find something of his to be too obscure to appreciate. In my quest to know about every detail of his life, I found Headwaters. It's a book (you can download the pages) and CD (and songs) that Phil wrote/compiled as "an attempted explanation" of The Microphones album, Mount Eerie. The CD, which contains songs from which Elvrum found inspiration, was the most entertaining. Along side songs by Little Wings, Julie Doiron, and Neil Young, he includes not one, but two songs by Bubba Sparxx. Yeah. I don't even know. The whole thing is a little too self-important for me, and, to be perfectly honest, is pretty boring.

P.W. Elverum & Sun, ltd. is "a family-run poem printer/record label/souvenir vendor in Anacortes, Wash., U.S.A.", which is also the brain child of Mr. Elverum. Along with Mount Eerie, the label boasts Thanksgiving, Woelv (composed of Phil and Geneviève Castrée, his wife) and D+ (my favorite of his other musical endeavours). The site sells all of Mount Eerie's releases, as well as a few odds-and-ends, such as Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a book of surprisingly artful photographs taken by Phil himself, or Dawn, a reproduction of his "Winter Journal" from time spent alone in a Norwegian cabin, and each book is accompanied with a CD of music specifically written for it. I can't lie, I want them both. The weirdest/coolest thing sold in the store is Fog Movies Live, which is essentially a "home-simulation" of a Mount Eerie concert. I want that too...

The only other Phil-related item that I really want/want to see is the documentary, Wise Old Little Boy. The film follows he and Kyle Field (of Little Wings) around on their 2002 tour. Other than that, I can't say I know a whole lot about it, except that I've heard it's kind of slow. That said, I still want/need to see it.

Okay, well, I don't really know that this post really had a point. I wrote it just so I could talk and obsess about Phil for an hour. Basically: kinda weird guy, really great music, I care too much.