You Were Right When You Said "We Can't Always Get What We Want"

So it's been a rather interesting time in the world of Bubastis. Election night was quite a roller coaster: I went from being extremely proud on a national level to flat out disgusted on a state level in a matter of hours. I won't bore anyone with any long rant about the evils of Prop 8...suffice it to say that we fucked up but it's ok because it's going to happen sooner or later. Get used to it, Mormons!

But let's get one thing straight: Doctor Bubastis loves the 'tang. I just hate to see something like this proposed and passed on such a religious level in a “progressive” state like California. I also hate arguments like “it has nothing to do with bigotry!” Bitch please. You're flipping out about gay marriage POSSIBLY being taught in school. Nothing says tolerance like “I just don't want my kids to be taught that this lifestyle is acceptable.” I also dislike the insinuation amidst all of this that a child being raised by a gay couple is somehow dysfunctional or not-as-good. Listen, these people have to work to get their kids. Just because you got knocked up in the back of your boyfriends I-Roc drunk as shit off of boxed wine with a mix tape consisting solely of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” playing on the tape deck doesn't make you a good parent.

Nate Silver, who I was previously familiar with through his terrific work with the holy grail of Baseball nerddom, Baseball Prospecticus, runs a highly accredited polling website called fivethirtyeight.com. He recently did a piece about Prop 8, saying that statistically speaking if no one over the age of 60 voted on the measure, it wouldn't have passed. Interesting. Listen, i'm glad we still have the old folks who think it's ok to call black people “colored” puttering around, and i'm not exactly insisting that they just die already, but apparently we have to add “voting” to the long list of things that they shouldn't be allowed to do, along with driving and going to the movies (have you ever been to a theater full of old people? They talk louder and more frequently than the most annoying of teenage girls.)

Anyway, enough of this shit. Check this. The other day I was invited by a friend of mine to go see The Faint. THE FAINT! Seriously? Who would do that to themselves? Do I look like a 14 year old girl? I actually saw the Faint once, like 4 or 5 years ago. But I was only there because for some unholy reason Les Savy Fav opened for them. Ugh. I still haven't washed all the gay off. Not only did I have to deal with the entire white belt army, but they were all....dancing. Like jackasses, obviously. Speaking of Les Savy Fav, this video for their song “What Would Wolves Do?” is really cool. There's just something I like about a wolf and bear astronaut duo partying pretty hard with a bunch of robot fish harpies.

Oh and I almost got in a fight the other night at Churchill's. Like, an honest-to-god fistfight. Fisticuffs and all. All because I told some dude that I didn't like Rage Against The Machine and thought all of their political stuff was weak ass marketing/pandering. Funny, so many people loved the band so much and bought all the fucking Che shirts, but did they give a shit about Zach de la Rocha after he left the band? Didn't think so. If I wanted to listen to Rage Against the Machine I would just listen to Relationship of Command and swap the asinine, cliché political jargon for cryptic, none-of-this-shit-makes-any-sense political jargon. Apparently Rage fans are just as delusional as Tool fans. Makes sense, considering they're probably the same people. Don't even get me started on how hard P.O.D. Rules!

Onto “Music That Doesn't Suck” news, I missed Ghastly City Sleep in L.A. Last weekend. Not that I didn't want to go and support them, considering just getting the tour off the ground was a huge undertaking, but I didn't have the money myself. Being a cartoonish, Vaudevillian villain doesn't pay as well as you may think.

And as the year winds down you eventually start to think about your favorite whatevers of the year. Albums, movies, whatever. And I hate to be the guy who says this, because I usually hate this guy, but there just hasn't been a whole lot of music in 2008 that got me really psyched. Any suggestions?

Oh and i'm looking for someone to go see Synecdoche, New York with me in Hillcrest sometime soon. No one I know wants to go see a long ass, probably boring but ultimately great Charlie Kaufman movie.

P.S. After all this time I think I've come to a shocking conclusion: I think my favorite Built to Spill record is in fact Keep It Like A Secret. Not Perfect From Now On. Fuck off, people who think Perfect is better.

GDB

Serious Hipster Brawl Causes Fans at Festival to Immediately Change MySpace Statuses

Bands have been brawling since...forever. The Killers vs. The Bravery, Sarah Palin vs. Roe vs. Wade, my solo project vs. Panic! at the Disco, so on and so forth. I found out about my new favorite band brawl today when I was 'net stalking the singer from Foals because he has a slight case of the Schwartzman face.

Apparently at some festival in Spain in July, Kele Okereke, the (black) singer from Bloc Party got his ass beat by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten, who actually now looks more like Dr. Cox from Scrubs)'s buddies because his "problem" is his "black attitude." Okereke allegedly asked Lydon if he was going to re-form Public Image Ltd. (post Sex Pistols and just as shitty) and that calls for a series of racist remarks and a knuckle sandwich or 12? While his crew was teaching Okereke a lesson for being black because they're still all sooooo punk and shit, Lydon was apparently taunting the singer from the Kaiser Chiefs and somehow the singer from Foals ended up in a sleeper hold/passed out and handcuffed. Naturally, Lydon denied the fight and tells the media to tell Okereke to "grow up and learn to be a true man," but Foals' tour manager said otherwise. Tour managers don't lie. They're not lawyers or anything. Above that, the hot one of the two dudes from Neon Neon jumps in and said that shit was scary. Not really, the word he used was "horrific." You know what's horrific, Gruff Rhys? You saying you want to dip your pinkie in. WHO GOES PINKIE FIRST?!

Good news is, Bloc Party apparently has a new album coming out in October but you can procure the digital copy when you pre-order the physical copy. Whoops. Bad news is, it's probably gonna mostly suck because "it's a break up album." Ahh fuck. They have a couple songs up on their myspace and "Signs" is a good one.

All of that aside, I really want to start arranging band fights. Celebrity Death Match style. Motorhead vs. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Kraftwerk vs. Crystal Castles. I'd give Kraftwerk some weapons though, since they are older than sin. Maybe some nun chucks? Oh, that reminds me, White Devin once told me not to keep nun chucks in your car because you will probably get arrested for a felony somethingerrather. Since White Devin is a pretty smart guy, you should go see him DJ at First Street in Encinitas tonight from midnight to close. We'll be there. Maybe at the Saloon first. Who knows. Also, if you are around Carlsbad or can be at 4 p.m. the California Public Utilities Commission is having an emergency public participation hearing to reconsider changing our area code to 442. It would cause a reprehensible amount of waste to get rid of the bajillions of business cards and stacks of letterhead, not to mention less eco-friendly fixtures like GIANT ASS PLASTIC SIGNS and thus, in my opinion, is environmentally irresponsible. CPUC Public Hearing: TODAY, Thursday, September 4, 2008. Carlsbad City Hall Council Chambers, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad, CA 92008.

I'll be in class at 4 p.m. trying to creep on some hotties in the MIDI lab, so I need y'all to go for me. Other than that, I'll see you tonight. In your dreams.

'stina

CAN HAZ HIPSTER EXPLOSHUN IN ENCINITAS?!

Oh man, I fucked up with that last post. Shit is incoherent. I was really tired and wanted to post about that Ok Go video before I had to go stand around and get paid to let cougars/old people/baby hookers be really fucking rude to me all day. Bitter, party of one? A thousand times yes.

I was going to stick my tail between my legs and slink away for a day or so, but there has been a lot of hubub about some shit at the Saloon in Encinitas and I couldn't figure out what in candy mountain's name it was. Until Gabe Vega posted a bulletin on the 'space with a video in it. DUN DUN DUNNNNN. The stupid invasive video-ing style reminded me that there was a dude at the Saloon one time dragging around a moderately expensive looking video camera with a stupid-ass wide-angle lens filming people. At around 2:14 you can see Abby on the phone, Jenni covering her face and me scowling and throwing up what is globally known as the Guido gesture for "WTF DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"



I recall yelling something at the dude about being a union member and him requiring a release form to film me. UR THREATS, THEY R NOT WORKINS. Anyhoo, according to the flier and shit posted with the video, this event aptly named "The Good, The Bad and The Dirty" appears to be some sort of burfday bash and also the first of many "Industry Nights." I don't know what an industry night is but I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out. When I say that, I mean I'll probably be there. Vega usually plays pretty good shit. It's going to be the masses of other people there that I will have a problem with. With that said, I might just be stomping around my house with a heating pad listening to old Saetia records. Coin toss. If I'm there, I'll sign your tits.


Some Natures Catch No Plagues,

'stina.


p.s. I tagged this post "bitchfights" because Megan once got in a bitchfight at the Saloon after having her cocktail jostled and if we go tomorrow night there is a 97% chance we will get in a bitchfight. Put your money on us.

I'm a wolf

Last night 'Stina and I attempted to see Sea Wolf at the Casbah. They fucked up man. They got big enough to sell out the Casbah. Just kidding, we're not that snobby. Well, not all the time. So how about a video followed by a hypothetical concert review? Sounds good to me too.



I'm guessing their show is a lot like this but with more of us struggling to see past the tall people who always insist on standing in the front and never ever offer us piggyback rides. I'm guessing that they are foxier in person and we would have been pretty excited about that because objectifying dudes is fun.

We would have gotten really excited about the jealous girlfriends because we're going through a phase where we get really excited about synthesizers and whispery femme vocals and Stina would find some cool technical shit to say. I'm really digging on their song "Roboxulla" right about now.

Patrick Park also played, you can sample them here at their myspace. Pretty similar to Sea Wolf. "Here We Are" stands out to me because I like finger picking. That's what she said.

I was on DD (designated driver, not boob) duty, and let's face it, I was in a shitty mood yesterday, so I probably would have bitched a lot about my feet hurting and made snarky comments. I'm guessing one of us would have had an unpleasant run-in with an acquaintance or worse.

And all of these things would have been preferable to what actually happened: we drove back to north county, rescued our friend Devin from the cougar den and I got in a total bitch fight because some peroxide blonde chick jostled me and spilled my cocktail all over my arm and then talked shit on me to her boyfriend like seriously, one foot away from me. Then I spent the rest of the night being a sad sack, my only saving grace being the snap decision that I was not in fact drunk enough to text. Bad times.