27 February 2013

Twice is Nice

Listening to: Tegan and Sara, "Alligator (Toro y Moi remix)."

A few years ago, AMR gave me the gift of Tegan and Sara. In his usual thoughtful way, he didn't just dump a load of MP3s on me and tell me to listen. Instead he compiled a special "getting to know Tegan and Sara playlist." With such homework on hand, I diligently listened to the songs he put together, and got a taste of what T&S were all about.

Needless to say, I was sold. Not only was their music great, with an underrated knack for making making perfect length songs, but Tegan and Sara were the coolest (identical) twins around -- eclipsing even Tomax and Xamot. Their hair, their tattoos, their personalities, their Internet presence, their dedicated fan base. For example, AMR is a hardcore T&S fan, and anything they release, be it a special edition book, DVD, or box set, he buys right away. He is one of their 1000 True Fans -- although in their case, that number is obviously way higher. While I'm not quite on that level, I am very sweet on them.

Last week, I finally got to see Tegan and Sara live, as they toured in support of their seventh album, Heartthrob. This album is their mainstream push and it's packed with catchy anthems. Their first single, "Closer," is irresistible and the karaoke inspired video even more so. And even though I've been racking up the concerts so far this year, it's safe to say that seeing Tegan and Sara will be a highlight of 2013.

The first thing AMR did with me after I properly consumed his CD -- which was presented without track names -- was to fill me in on Tegan and Sara's background. How the first time they collaborated together was writing lyrics for dance music producers, how they live on opposite coasts, how they started (and continue to) write their songs independently of each other, with a few exceptions. Due to this last quirk, it means that for most of their early albums, you were either a Tegan or a Sara fan. You should be both, of course, but it's good to know which one you're partial to. It turned out that 90% of my favorite songs were Sara's, and I do prefer her higher pitched voice. For example, my favorite T&S song is "I Was Married," a Sara track through and through.
Tegan and Sara Selects
Track list - Zip file
17 songs, 51 mins, 66.7 MB
Above I share with you AMR's special Tegan and Sara Selects playlist, the stepping stone into the world of T&S. It's a gift that he gave me, and now I re-gift to you. Please download it, listen to it, figure out which identical twin is which and then queue up Heartthrob, because it deserves to be on repeat forever.


08 February 2013

Got Buns, Son

Despite living in Fort Greene, I haven't been down to Greenlight Bookstore more than a handful of times. The first time was when I got locked out of my apartment six weeks ago and had to find shelter because I have no friends in the neighborhood. Plus I was jacket-less. After spending quite some time in Greenlight, I remembered why I really shouldn't go into bookstores.

Thank goodness I didn't have my wallet on me because I would have spent so much money. On a return visit, I somehow managed not to have my wallet again and had to put a staff recommendation on layaway, Kazushi Hosaka's Plainsong. It's early on but I already love it. I haven't had the chance to get to the end because I'm behind on this month's book club reading -- Zadie Smith's NW -- but I knew just flipping through the pages at Greenlight that Plainsong was right up my alley.

Also, I love Zadie Smith's movie reviews from Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. It's the movie equivalent of reading Nick Hornby's Stuff I've Been Reading columns. It goes to show that if someone is smart, they can write about anything. The tough part is getting that smart...
The other night, we went to Greenlight for Eddie Huang's book release. I've been following him for a few years and love his new show on Vice, in which he visits various cities while eating and educating -- in his own special way. Having never met Eddie or spoken to him, I was curious what he was like in person. Put it this way: my friend, who was previously a bit of a Huang hater, proceeded to not only buy Eddie's memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, but wait in line to say hello to him afterwards. A new fan!

The event featured a Q&A with former NY Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton and the bookstore was packed with a very diverse crowd. For all authors out there, learn to make your readings funny. I can usually pay attention for about three minutes during a typical reading, but Eddie's personality and reading was just hilarious. Semi-pro tip: in a pinch, laugh at yourself, the crowd will awkwardly follow. Watching Eddie read made me want to write things that are like, actually funny when read out loud. Or just, you know, funny period. Dare to dream I guess. Below are a couple of my favorite Fresh Off the Boat Vice episodes, along with a lot of book related links.

Right after the book event, my friend and I drove to Flushing and threw down three dinners in a row. First we stopped at Hahm Ji Ban for what was possibly the best Korean BBQ I've ever had. Then we froze our asses off while getting skewers (the good one at 39th and Prince), before stumbling into Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao -- one of the places Eddie Huang visits in his Munchies episode -- for soup dumplings, Chinese churros, sweet soy milk for dipping, and a bowl of noodles. All followed by an ultimate stomach meltdown. Obviously.

06 February 2013

On My Parade

Listening to: rainymood.com. Who doesn't love the sound of rain, but huddled up safely indoors? I've been listening to this site for a whole day straight. There's a link to a song of the day below, or you can just put on your own moodtastic song on. Now to get a Rainshower Glade plug-in to have my room smell like rain too. Um, delicious.

In late January, it was announced that Rajon Rondo was out for the season with a torn ACL. Maybe you don't care about this. But it ruined my life. It ruined way bigger things than that too. It ruined my fantasy basketball team, it ruined the Celtics current season, it ruined the Big Three era. An athlete who tears his ACL won't be fully recovered for a year at least. By then, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will be even older. Immediately following Rondo's injury news, pundits were speculating that general manager Danny Ainge would have to blow up the team.

Over the holiday break, George and I attended a Celtics game and thank goodness we did as KG, Pierce, and Rondo may never play together again. We wore jerseys and everything! Unfortunately, the Celtics were blown out by the Clippers, but we sat real close so it was still fun. However, if the Celtics are going to rebuild, it could be a long time before we can be that excited again. Since George is a semi-new fan, she doesn't know how long it can be between great teams. She's only been around for the good times. She doesn't know the actual feeling of going over twenty years between titles. I fear she will soon find out.

Also, I am concerned for our siblingship. Without the Celtics' championship hopes to rally around, our relationship could collapse. I mean, what else will we talk about? Danny, I'm pleading with you not to break up a happy home. Don't trade KG or Pierce. Don't make George sad. Otherwise I'll never hear the end of it. #goceltics

 And then there's football, another sports disaster for me. I've laid out my reasons for being a Falcons fan before, but mainly it's because I was hardcore into Deion Sanders. Liking teams in faraway places actually compelled me to apply to schools in Boston and Atlanta just in case I wanted to go there. Clearly I was not the brightest high schooler. "Yes, Boston College, Emory, I'd like to attend. Never visited, but I like sports teams in your city!" Instead I went to Michigan, which obviously has a huge sports culture but somehow I emerged with no school spirit at all. UMich's basketball team is/was number one? Really? News to me.

Anyway, the stupid Falcons broke my heart too. After going 13-3, earning themselves the best record in the league, and having an almost MVP candidate in quarterback Matt Ryan, they proceeded to collapse big time. Nobody believed in them because they were being talked about as paper tigers all season long. But I hoped they would be better than everyone thought. Roddy White and Julio Jones were Andre Rison and Michael Haynes 2.0!

It had been almost fifteen years since the Falcons made it to their lone Super Bowl, and that game was pretty much over from go, as John Elway and Terrell Davis shellacked the Falcons 34-19. This time around, I was hoping they could redeem themselves. Starting off with tempered expectations, I was watching the Falcons verus 49ers game a few weeks ago, hopping between the laundromat and a burger joint -- I don't have a TV so watching sports has been dicey. When Atlanta jumped out to a seventeen point lead, I thought it was over. Then the 49ers came back to almost tie it up by halftime, and I went straight into panic mode. Suffice to say, the Falcons failed to score in the second half and San Francisco emerged with a 28-24 victory. Epic collapse.

Basically I've decided to give up on sports -- the only thing keeping me going is watching the Lakers collapse too. This past weekend, I even took a hiatus from watching the Super Bowl because it just wasn't worth it. Excuse me while I put up photos of my teams when they were happy, so I can feel better. It's all I have left.

25 January 2013

The Love Below

Listening to: Pop Etc, "How Will I Know." They used to be the Morning Benders, now they are the less offensive but boring Pop Etc. I am not entirely sure how I feel about this cover, even weeks later, but I love watching Chris Chu's awkward yet endearing facial expressions. And well, it's Whitney.

My friend Ameer, who captains our music blog, is a huge speakerphile. Speakerhead? He cruises audio forums, he's got speakers on top of speakers, his goal is to own McIntoshes. Lots of McIntoshes. AMR has regaled me with many a detailed break down of why such and such an amp is good, or how to compare different set ups. All of which is fantastic, because I can always appreciate learning something new. But it's also ruined me.

Yes, ruined me. I can't have shitty audio anymore. Before I could've cared less what the sound coming out of speakers was like. Give it to me heavy and give it to me loud. That was all. I was more concerned about content than audio quality. Now that I've seen the light, I am prone to scrunching up my face if the sound is bad.

For the past five years, I'd been living with these shitty speakers. They squawk when plugged in, the wires are all fiddly, and occasionally the sound drops. It was a desktop audio disaster. I told AMR that I needed to upgrade my speaker situation and after diagnosing my needs, he was ready with an answer. For $15, I got these beauties: Artic USB-Powered Portable Stereo Speakers. I'd link you to the ten minute YouTube video reviewing them but you'd definitely fall asleep. Let's just say that these are the best bang for your hard earned bucks.

As my fellow Artic owner Meggo puts it, "[they] are petite and portable." To that I'll add that they are plenty loud also, with great highs and acceptable lows. Pump too much bass in there and they'll fail, but for fifteen dollars, these little guys are a steal. Upgrade your life, get some now.

And if you are in the market for great but not overly expensive over the ear headphones, may I pass along AMR's recommendation there too? Purchase some Grados. I recently joined the Grados club -- an exclusive place indeed -- and even though I have yet to test them extensively, I am sure they are the best value out there because I trust AMR. After all, he's the genius who came up with the CD for testing audio, so he can't be wrong.

For all you undiscerning buyers who purchase shams like Beats by Dre or something similar, know that we laugh in your general direction. I'll admit that my dream headphones -- Skullcandy Aviators in white -- are a bit cash for flash, but only suckers buy the celebrity endorsed headphones. If you are really that susceptible to marketing and hype, then please contact me because I have some books to sell you. An outdated Rough Guide to Blogging perhaps?
While I'm here, some more endorsements. Lately we've been all in on Clash of Clans. It's a freemium half farming, half tower defense game. The best part of it is that you can give your clan mates stuff like giants, barbarians, skeleton manned balloons, and wizards. The worst part of it is that the game is a total time suck. According to my in-depth research, if you are a new parent with a compelling reason to be awake every few hours, this game is for you! (Currently I am trying to make the move to Arcane Empires, a slightly more complex and in-depth Clash of Clans. The steampunk theme and artwork alone has sold me.)

 A goal this year is to be more organized and on top of my tasks. I tried out Bring Home the Milk, Wunderlist, Astrid, and Orchestra. In the end, I went with Orchestra because it's the prettiest. That and the web interface is the best. Did I mention it's pretty? I've been at least 150% more productive already.

My friend Mel goes to a ton of concerts and she introduced me to Songkick, which is an app that scans your iTunes library and then serves up upcoming concerts you might be interested in. I was testing out Thrillcall before but didn't find it all that useful. Songkick has been a delight already and I'm scared I'm about to blow crazy money on live music.

New York has way too many bands coming through and now I know exactly which artists I'm missing. Ignorance really was bliss -- and cheaper. I'm in the process of trying to figure out a metric for which concerts I should attend but right now it's just a free for all. Seen or about to see: Dwele and Anthony David, Jose James, Tegan and Sara, Walk the Moon, Freelance Whales, XXYYXX, and if I can motivate to Staten Island, maybe I'll be lucky enough to see my OTP, Jewel.

So much of me really wants to use/like Spun, a slick looking guide to food, fashion, and music, but so far I've found it lacking. The interface and design are neat, but the utility has yet to be determined. I'm keeping it around and hoping it gets better. I am also on the hunt for a good weather app. Please recommend.

Also, I'm pretty certain I used "OTP" incorrectly. Oh well. Baby steps.

18 January 2013

It's Never Sunny In...

We're hopping out to Philadelphia this weekend, for a quick jaunt. The last time I was in Philly, it was during the East Coast college tour organized by my high school. We visited a lot of top tier schools, most of the Ivys, plus some schools that were actually within reach for mere mortals.

When we toured UPenn, I noticed the abundance of blue safety lights located on campus and said, "No thank you, my sheltered suburban upbringing did not prepare me for this." Now I return, more than a decade later: street smart, intimidating, and afraid of nothing.

Philly is only a short ride from New York -- just over an hour by train, two hours by bus -- so it'll serve as an easy day trip. I'm riding out with friends from here and then another friend is meeting us from Houston. Right now, our plans are to do the Mural Arts Love Letter Train Tour, which takes you to see fifty murals painted by graffiti artist Steve Powers. "The project...collectively express a love letter from a guy to a girl, from an artist to his hometown, and from local residents to their cherished neighborhood." The tour starts at ten in the morning and we're leaving on a seven thirty bus from New York, so we'll see if I'm actually awake for this thing. Wish me luck.

The most important question to answer on any sort of road trip is to figure out "what am I listening to?" At first I was just going to fire up J.Period's Best of the Roots and call it a day but then I realized that so many great artists hail from Philadelphia. So I took it upon myself to make the greatest Philadelphia mixtape. Hyperbole included.
Yo Adrian!
Track list - Zip file
Disc One: Cheesesteak
18 songs, 1 hr 12 mins, 95.0 MB

Disc Two: Hoagies
16 songs, 1 hr 06 mins, 86.4 MB
All the artists from the mixtape are either from Philly, associated with Philly, covering a Philly native's song, or literally singing about Philly -- with one notable TV related exception. The songs lean heavily toward hip hop and New Soul, because that's the sound I personally associate with Philadelphia. As with the Ultimate Mraz, I broke the mixtape into two sides: "cheesesteak" is upbeat and "hoagies" is for easy listening. Or just mix it all up in one iTunes playlist and see what you get.

The biggest omission, aside from some rap artists, is Will Smith. I know, how can I leave off the Fresh Prince? Honestly, I couldn't find a song of his I wanted to put on the mixtape. The obvious choice is "Summertime," but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's winter now and the song would just be teasing me. So no Will Smith, and no"Motown Philly." I figured "Motown Philly" gets enough love already, and thus I opted for a lesser played Boyz II Men track.

I was delighted to learn that Hall & Oates are Philadelphia, and they're the only artist that gets two tracks. Everyone else receives one. I only got into Hall and Oates last year or so, and I was/am obsessed. Daryl Hall and John Oates met at Temple University and the reason they sound so damn good is because their producers were behind a lot of the Philly soul sound. I don't care if they were co-opting black music, it's too good! Hall and Oates deserved two selections.

Last thing: I pre-loaded images from the Love Letter Train Tour murals as the album art. When you pick a theme, you gotta go all the way right? Download Yo Adrian! today and let's ride.

17 January 2013

Primary Colors

Taking a cue from the local Nets of Brooklyn, black and white is in! While everyone else is trying to make their uniforms/websites gleam with cutting edge technology and graphics, I decided to follow Hova and go from rainbow to monochrome. Classy to ashy.

A quick template change later and the blog is done with its annual refresh. I also made the agonizing decision to go with truncated posts versus showing the entirety of each post. I have long strongly believed in having completely scrollable posts for personal blogs, no matter the length -- ala most of my favorite (defunct) blogs, such as Hipstomp -- but this template looks much nicer with the "read more" enabled. Most people cruise blogs through the RSS anyway, so it should be no big loss. Sorry for all the forced click clicking.

Also, since it's tough to call yourself an author when you haven't written anything in awhile, I'm shifting this space back to random flotsam and jetsam. YA will still get its due but more likely that'll shift over to a new young adult site Kiersi and I are pulling together. So this redesign is a return to the basics, and a return to the things you missed, and all of the things you didn't. Black and white and read all over...

Speaking of those Brooklyn Nets, I got a chance to visit Barclays Center about a month ago. The outside of the monstrosity is as ugly as everyone says it is, but the inside is beautiful. Right after you get through the doors, you're already in view of the main court, and it's quite impressive. There's no walls or tunnels blocking your way and the scoreboard and seats just materialize right in front of you. Also, there's a practice court or something on the side, which is also kind of neat to look down at.

I was ostensibly at Barclays to cheer for Michigan versus West Virginia, but I have no sports loyalty to my college and barely knew who the players were, much less that we were actually good this year. I know, I'm a disgrace to the UofM community. The nachos were delicious though, and there's a Cafe Habana inside the stadium. Corn is kind of like maize right? Go Blue?

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