smnevans

Pavement. Terror Twilight Tour. Tokyo. 1999 or 2000.

I was scared of being caught but more scared of being left out. So, when my friends jumped onstage and walked backstage in search of Pavement’s dressing room, I followed. Less than a minute later we were there, beers in hand, chatting with Pavement. My favorite band ever.

I was terrified and felt really uncomfortable. Part of the reason for this was that I was an uninvited guest. Meeting the people who make the sounds that have been in your head almost every day for the last five years is strange enough. Meeting them when they have no idea who you are or why you are talking to them is even stranger. Maybe I’m too sensitive.

My memories are hazy but two are clear:

Memory One

I asked Steve Malkmus if he was bothered that Pavement CDs in Japan shipped with very odd translations of the lyrics. He said that the English versions weren’t much better. I realise that it was a fairly lame question to ask but I don’t think I’d do much better if I found myself in the same situation today.

Memory Two

An annoyed woman came in and demanded to know who the hell we were and how we had gotten backstage. Our sheepish looks made it pretty clear that we were not actually the opening band (as had been thought). It looked as if we were about to get thrown out when Malkmus came to our rescue and said that it was okay for us to stay until they all left. I thought that was pretty nice.

Sunday, February 28th, 2010 No comments

Hiking on Mount Ikoma today I came upon a group of firemen training. They were standing on a bridge practicing lowering people into the valley below and raising them up again.

As soon as they saw me coming they started shouting “Pedestrian coming through! Pedestrian coming through!” As I passed each one they saluted. Not a sarcastic salute either. Backs straight. Crisp movements. It was accompanied by a shouted apology for getting in the way.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 No comments

While stopped at a red light today I looked in my rear view mirror. Behind me was a big man in a small car. He licked his finger and touched something on the top of his dashboard. He licked his finger again and tapped somewhere else. He did it again and again.

Lick. Touch. Lick. Touch. Lick. Touch.

It looked to me as if he was dabbing up crumbs or sugar that had fallen from a donut. My wife thought it more likely that he was touching up little scratches on the dash. That makes more sense but I’m going to choose to believe that he really was snacking on tasty aged morsels from his car’s interior.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010 No comments

Most games give you 100 points for doing X, 200 for doing Y and 400 for doing Z. Pretty soon your score creeps into the thousands or tens of thousands and becomes fairly meaningless.

The great thing about Orbital is that every point counts.

Saturday, February 20th, 2010 No comments

I’m reading in the bath. It’s steamy and the water is up to my neck. I notice that the phone is getting pretty steamed up and try to dry it off with a towel. The more I try to dry it the wetter it gets. I notice a splashing sound.

It’s full of water.

I shake the phone and water splashes about inside. I can’t get the water out though. I realise that the phone is still on and frantically try to turn it off. It won’t turn off. It sounds like I’m shaking a half full bottle of water.

Home Is where I want to be Pick me up and turn me round

Talking Heads’ This Must be the Place (my alarm ringtone) wakes me and ends the terror.

This was my second dream of iPhone destruction of the week. The other was simpler. I just knocked it to the floor and smashed the screen. Good thing I don’t believe that dreams mean anything or I’d be worried, but I don’t, so I’m not, and if you see me checking out waterproof cases in Yodobashi Camera this weekend it has nothing to do with this dream. It’s just something I’ve been meaning to look into for a while. Really.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 No comments

“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” -Mark Antony.

kung fu grippe : On Demanding Cock. The best eulogy of Favrd I’ve read so far. Actually Merlin both praises and buries.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 No comments

I really didn’t expect to like Favit. Whenever I’ve read sites that list or rank favorited tweets I’ve found it to be pretty disheartening. Mixed in with the artistry of people like Sween, Jason Permenter and Adam Isacson are a lot of tweets that seem to be trying too hard to be the kind of tweet that gets faved. It seems like a lot of work to separate the worthwhile from the unworthy. Better just to follow the people that are regularly witty or incisive and leave the rest be.

So, I expected to dislike it but I don’t at all. I like it a lot. It makes me smile. It mixes a lot of old tweets in with the newer stuff. A lot that I read and forgot about months ago (“… like buying a chair about jogging.”). It’s fun to play “Guess the author!” too. I have no idea how tweets get chosen but so far it’s more hit than miss. A nice surprise.

Note: If I didn’t expect to like it, why did I buy it? Because I had some iTunes store credit and Jeffrey Zeldman said it was good.

Sunday, December 6th, 2009 No comments

This flashcard was like a family member. It warmed us on cold nights, filled our stomachs when we were hungry, watched over the kids and told jokes to cheer us up. She will be missed.

Sunday, December 6th, 2009 No comments

I watched the second show of House today as I did my very intensive 6 kph walking on the treadmill. It’s odd to see Hugh Laurie as an American but only for the first 5 minutes or so. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in a serious role. I think he does a great job. There are a few gory surgical scenes but nothing as bad as some of the scenes in Rome or Lost. Looking forward to seeing more of this.

Tomorrow’s Treadmill Show will be the first episode of The X-Files. I was in pretentious liberal art student mode when it first came out (“Do I want to watch a TV Show about an FBI agent looking for aliens? Yeah, sure, just as soon as I finish reading Beyond Good and Evil.) and lived in Japan during the height of its popularity. I’ve never actually seen an episode.

Saturday, December 5th, 2009 2 Comments

I know nothing about business but even I know this is nonsense.

Mr. Stringer promised to put the ailing Sony back on the technology map with its anticipated networked universe, the Sony Online Service, which will combine the company’s digital content and hardware.

Unless Sony can get most of the other music and movie companies to cooperate with this it doesn’t really stand a chance. It seems like they have their work cut out getting different parts of their own company working together.

Kind of related:

1. I loved Sony’s Clies. The TH-55 in particular still has a special place in my heart. Thinking of the day it bounced from my pocket onto the pavement as I ran for cover from a sudden downpour still makes me teary.
2. I still can’t buy Bob Dylan songs from the Japanese iTunes store because he’s on Sony.

(Via New York Times.)

Saturday, December 5th, 2009 No comments