zomg hello my lovelies. here are some recent happenings that you should know about:

• the new against me! album (new wave) is leaked. it is pretty good.. so far i don’t think i like it as well as the eternal cowboy but it is still good nonetheless. also, it is produced by butch vig. also, there is (OMFG!@!@!!) a track featuring tegan quin (“borne on the fm waves of the heart”).

• eagle vs. shark is completely hilarious. don’t listen to the reviews saying it ripped napoleon dynamite (it didn’t). the only similarities they share are awkward characters and lots of neo-retro products. watch this movie.

• the blogz0r is celebrating its 1-year anniversary this week!!! hoorah~! honestly i am somewhat surprised i managed to keep posting for an entire year. but you, the reader(s?), have provided the support i needed to continue writing. yes, it’s been sporadic at times (like a nice case of herpes, with breakouts and dormancies, i know). BUT, i have found my stride, and the blogz0r will continue to roll on. the blogz0r’s very first article (on how much pitchfork sucks) can be found right here.

• walking six blocks to work in 115-degree heat really, really sucks :’(

• my fantasy baseball team is destroying so far this season. which rules, since yahoo! screwed me over in the first round by autopicking jimmy rollins as the #3 overall pick (wtf).

• i hate 4th of July

• superbad apparently still exists. awesome.

• kanye west’s new song “stronger” is so effing good omfg. kanye + daft punk ftw!!

omg it’s been like a totally long time duderZ. this post is dedicated to ema who left me a comment and reminded me that 2 or 3 of you read this thing! omg!

ok so let’s begin.

crap i forgot the ascii code for a bullet point.

• ok i found it.

• ok. first order of business: the national’s new album, boxer is effing brilliant. i dug alligator kindof but i didn’t really listen to it that much. this is way better. like way better. it’s really really good.

• i’ve been totally listening to silver jews a lot lately. especially american water; you know, that one with stephen malkmus

• the new modest mouse keeps growing on me more and more and i keep loving it more and more every time i listen to it. i am definitely a fan of johnny marr being in the band.

• i got a dui on sunday morning about 5 minutes after i had woken up :( apparently i blew over from the beers i had the night before. had to spend the morning in jail and i didnt have my phone and didn’t know anyone’s number so i had to walk 15 miles home in flip flops :( it was a bummer of a day.

• i’m really pissed that ohio state made the finals. i hate greg oden so much. they should have lost to xavier

• curb your enthusiasm is pretty much the greatest show ever.

• the prestige is one of the best movies i’ve seen in a long long time. i totally thought it was going to be retarded when i saw previews for it but people told me i had to watch it so i did. and BAM, it was good. also i love christian bale <3

• the new black rebel motorcycle club has leaked.. although i haven’t seen a version that isn’t a transcode. it’s totally good though. a little harder than the last one, a little bit back to the neo-jesus-and-mary-chain-style they used to be.

• there’s a new chevelle. it’s kinda boring. they’ll probably never top wonder what’s next

• i heard this wicked cover of tv on the radio’s staring at the sun by the subways. check it out.

• oh and some bad news. the dude i get free hosting from said i’m using too much bandwidth.. so i had to take down the mp3s :’( i’m sorries

til next time!!
<3

• I downloaded Civilization IV the other day. I love sim games and back in the day I was all about the Warcraft and Age of Empires. Anyway I had read a lot of good things about the Civilization series and I was pretty excited to play it and build my empire. Well, this game BLOWS!@!!!@@ WTF there’s like “turns” ?? You actually have to hit [return] like every 3 seconds to tell the game your turn is over. Ugh I wanted to kill myself after playing just the tutorial for all of 5 minutes. Not to mention there were all kinds of horrible animated scenes with ugly cgi characters getting all up in my grizzle about diplomatic relations. I don’t think anything will ever come close to the original Warcraft or Age of Empires. I downloaded Age of Empires III as well and will give that a try tonight. Otherwise I suppose I’ll play some Sim City 4, which isn’t nearly as great as I’d hoped it would be. Why do games always have to ruin themselves?

• Orange Fanta is really good until you drink more than 8oz., at which point it makes your intentines shrivel up and you will feel like gutwrenching death.

• I was bummed to hear about the James Kim saga ending in death. After actively following the story on Digg for a week, I felt so invested in the story. And the fact that it could have happened to anybody just made it so relatable and tragic :’(

• After a month of playing the horribly slowpaced, text-only online strategy game Inselkampf, I have finally amassed 80 points. I will soon be destroying all the weaklings surrounding my island.

• Am I completely retarded or is it impossible to post comments on Gawker-Media blogs such as Gawker and Deadspin?? I wanted to post a comment on Deadspin the other night to tell everyone how to stick it to the NFL Network by streaming the games on their PCs, but apparently it’s just simply not possible to register and post a comment?? WTF? Am I missing something?

• Every time I see a Scion xB business vehicle (about every 3-5 minutes if I’m driving somewhere), a shiver of rage traverses down my spine.

• Apparently The Decemberists accepted Stephen Colbert’s counter-counter challenge and will… compete in some sort of instrument challenge? I have no idea. The whole thing’s weird. And the Decemberists suck. Yeah they used to be good but they went too far with their Renaissance revival shtick and now every time I hear them I feel like I’m supposed to be dressed up as a Midieval peasant driving my friends to the Renaissance fair after our weekly Dungeons & Dragons game.

• Bob Dylan’s The Hurricane is still one of the greatest songs ever.

• Just say NO to the new NBA basketball. I vote for bringing back the cowhide. No one likes synthetic crap.

• Is it just me, or have I been updating this thing an awful lot lately. I wonder if anyone actually reads this.

• I really hate ESPN Page2. Not only are their writers idiots and think they need to litter their columns with iPod and YouTube references to come across as hip, but they’re also huge douchebags. Oh, and calling a team by a nickname that’s close to, but not actually, its nickname (for example, calling the Ravens the Nevermores) is NOT FUNNY. Anyway, last week, Page 2’s Scoop Jackson completely ripped off a character and idea (the Orange Roundie) from the hilarious NBA blog Yaysports. The original column appeared with no credit or link to Yaysports, whatsoever. But outrage on another popular sports blog, Deadspin, managed to get ESPN to insert a crappy credit (an afterthought in parenthesis and not even linked that stated where the name Orange Roundie originated from) to Yaysports. But they refused to change the column or take out the references to Orange Roundie, which they stole. This really pisses me off. I tried submitting it to Digg in hopes of generating some community outrage that would force ESPN to pull the column, but apparently no one cares. Please Digg it if this bothers you and/or if you hate ESPN.

• It’s been quite awhile since I’ve heard a good new album (omg a week???). That’s probably one of the factors leading to the increased amount of sports content on this site. I’ve been listening to a lot of old-school Modest Mouse, Pixies, Wolf Parade, Minus the Bear, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, et al. I posted a pretty rad cover of my favorite Sonic Youth song Diamond Sea (by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs) last week. And an awesome rarity by everyone’s favorite creepily weird Scandinavian band The Knife. If you haven’t figured out by now, you can add the mp3 blogz0r RSS feed at the top of the page to your subscribed podcasts in iTunes and get each song automatically.

• If you are in a band and stuff, don’t be afraid to email me your songs. Most of your bands are crappy, but I’ve gotten some decent stuff. This band, Dead Leaf Echo recently emailed me a few mp3s and I was pretty surprised by the quality. They’re not quite there yet, but there’s definitely a hint of some promising things to come. They sort of have the whole post-Pixies, post-Joy Division vibe that a lot of indie bands are rocking these days. With a little booze and some heartbreak, this band could be awesome.

• Am I the only one who remembers Dweebs (Nerds’ less sour and more circular cousin) and will forever resent Willy Wonka for discontinuing them?

• To anyone that actually read my interview with Ray Frenden, this will be a recurring series focusing on various artists, illustrators and designers that I eKnow. Stay tuned.

• Florida is heading to the BCS championship game. It’s painfully obvious that no one wanted to see Michigan make it. There’s no reason whatsoever that Florida shouldn’t have already been ahead of Michigan if they weren’t ranked above them before this weekend. That said, I have no problem with the decision, though I don’t think they can beat Ohio State.

Well, only three weeks to go in the regular season, and this might have been the strangest yet. A few highlights: the Bears’ offense played about as bad as humanly possible (even worse than that infamous Monday night game against the Cardinals) and won. The Raiders’ defense played about as good as humanly possible and lost. Both the Raiders and Texans had fans wishing it was Kill Yourself Day™ in Oakland. And Ladainian scored again.

• The Colts lost to a suddenly-reborn-with-Vince-Young-at-the-helm Titans team on a last second 60 yard field goal. Yes that’s two weeks in a row the Titans have come from behind to win on a field goal. 78 rushing yards for Young. Steve McWho??

• 178 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs and 14 receiving yards for Ladainian Tomlinson. Best RB ever? Too soon?

• Trent Green threw 4 TDs and Larry Johnson had 110 rushing yards but the Chiefs still managed to lose to the Browns, on a field goal in OT.

• Rex Grossman, who should probably change his name to Rex Disgustingman pretty soon, completed 6 of 19 passes for 34 yards and 3 interceptions. That’s a 1.3 quarterback rating, in case you were wondering. Amazingly, that wasn’t even the low passing yard total of the day. Yet the Bears still managed to win thanks to a defensive TD and another Devin Hester punt return for a touchdown.

• WTF @ the Jets scoring 38 points. Well, I guess they did play the Packers, but Chad Pennington probably didn’t even know football scores could be this high.

Who the crap is this dude???• The Cardinals actually won a game (over the Rams, who would probably allow over 100 yards rushing to Stanford), and Edgerrin James became the first Cardinals running back to rush for 100+ yards in… over two years. But for some reason, every time they got into the red zone, out went James and in came… Marcel Shipp?? Yes, Marcel Shipp. He scored 3 TDs—the first, second and third time he’s managed to get into the endzone since scoring 3 in a game four years ago… against the Rams.

• Drew Brees threw for less than 300 yards for the first time in like, 100 years. So how did the Saints win? Well, Reggie Bush scored 4 TDs to go with 131 receiving and 37 rushing yards. That’s four times more than he had scored so far this season (not including his punt return TD).

• Kill Yourself Day™ in Oakland saw the Raiders lose another

Sebastian Janikowski sucks at life more than anyone else in the NFLgame despite only allowing 32 yards passing. That’s right, David Carr didn’t even complete a pass in the second half. The Raiders also had 5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries and a touchdown. Luckily for them they employ the worst kicker in the history of the universe (Sebastian Janikowski) who missed 3 more field goals. And just to make sure you were paying attention, he made sure to hit the uprights on two of them.

• Chris Chambers caught 121 yards against a tough Jacksonville defense, seemingly giving the finger to all the fantasy owners who had him benched because he is averaging like 2 yards a game this year.

• The Cowboys won on a last second field goal despite releasing douchebag kicker Mike Vander Jagt earlier this week and signing Martin Gramatica, who hadn’t kicked in the NFL for two years. He nailed a 46 yarder with 1 second left. No pressure.

• The Seahawks beat the Broncos in the Sunday night game—on a last second field goal that probably kicked the Broncos out of the playoff picture. Also, Broncos linebacker Al Wilson snapped his head back going for a loose ball and laid on the field for quite awhile before getting carted off on a stretcher and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The word is it’s just a sprained neck and he could move his extremities.

I’m watching the USC and UCLA game right now, and I think it’s time for college football fans to rise up and say what everyone’s been thinking all year:

USC does not deserve to play in the national championship.

Michigan does. Do I need to remind you that their only loss this year came by three points, AT Ohio State???

Michigan deserves to play in the national championship, but no one likes a rematch so they’re most likely headed to the Rose Bowl.There are three teams right now that are garnering talk of playing in the BCS title game: USC, Michigan and Florida.

USC LOST to Oregon State, only won by six to Washington State, six to Washington, seven to Arizona State and very well might lose to UCLA.

Florida lost to a good, ranked Auburn team; barely beat a ranked Tennessee; and barely beat Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. They also played in one of the toughest conferences in the country (the SEC) and appear to be on their way to winning the championship.

Then there’s Michigan. Though the Big 10 isn’t the toughest of conferences, they’ve still managed quality wins over then #2 Notre Dame and Wisconsin. And, to pound you over the head with this some more: their ONLY loss was by just three points AT Ohio State.

When you have multiple teams with one loss all vying for a spot in the championship game, you go with the team with the toughest loss. That team is Michigan. The only reason people don’t want to see them is because for some reason no one likes a rematch. Michigan actually went down a spot in the BCS WITHOUT even playing.

Well I’m here to tell you: I like rematches. I like them a lot. They’re like the good kind of movie sequels (like Back to the Future). If Michigan were Back the the Future and USC were Cruel Intentions and Florida were American Pie, I don’t think we’d be disputing this. Michigan would be safely in the championship—ready and willing to defend Marty McFly’s honor.

Here I am on a Thursday night. I don’t have to work and the Bengals and the Ravens are going to be playing an awesome football game. I love the Bengals, not to mention I have T.J. Houshmandzadeh (yes, I can spell his name without difficulty), Shayne Graham and Mark Clayton on one of my fantasy teams.

I WANT TO WATCH THIS GAME

But I can’t. Because it’s on the NFL Network. And the NFL Network is a complete screwjob. They want over $150 million

T.J. Houshmandzadeh and the Bengals are playing at this very moment, but you won’t be able watch because it’s on the NFL Networkfor cable companies to carry their network, which will result in huge hikes for regular cable tv subscribers (most of whom probably don’t even watch football). So now we’re all stuck with not being able to watch the games because they’re selfish bastards. I guess I’ll just sit here and watch my Yahoo! stattracker :/

Anyway, for those of you fortunate enough (usually I would say unfortunate, but in this case you are the lucky ones with the only alternative options) to have PCs I give you the following links, if you’d like to stick it to the NFL Network and watch streaming, bittorrent style NFL games (I haven’t been able find any with Mac compatible software).

• a list of streamed NFL games
• SOPcast (live online streams)
• TVants (live oneline streams)
• TVUplayer (live oneline streams)

• I completely overhauled explodingNOW!!!!. Hopefully you dudes or dudettes dig it. I tested it on Safari and Firefox on Mac. But not PC. I obviously didn’t test anything on Internet Explorer because if you’re using that I hope it looks like crap, because you are probably the bastard child of Satan. Personally I think the new look is a sort of Web 2.0 take on the 70s.

• All my fantasy football teams got completely destroyed this week. In one league I had the good fortune to play against Tony Romo and his 5 TDs. In the other I got to go against LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees. Aslo, omg @ Joseph Addai tonight. Anyway, all in all it was a pretty fun week around the NFL.

• I don’t think I’ve even mentioned on here that I recently got engaged! With the craziness that’s been going on in my life I haven’t found much time to do anything. I will be moving back to Iowa in two weeks and getting married probably sometime in the summer. So updates on this thing could be sporadic until then. Stick with it.

• It’s fall, which means nothing but acoustic and folk-rock has been coming out of my speakers. If you were near me the last week or so you’d be hearing a lot of My Morning Jacket, Idaho, The Microphones, Band of Horses et al.

• For reasons which escape me, I only just recently have begun to appreciate Sparrow House (Jared Van Fleet of the wonderfully Spoon-like band Voxtrot). I’ll admit that when I first discovered the EP on Oink I jumped all over it. But for some reason on the first few listens it just didn’t command my attention. But it came on randomly a few days ago and I was confused. Was this the same band? Apparently I didn’t listen hard enough the first few times.

• Effen vodka and blue Gatorade is the best drink ever. And no, it’s not a girly-drink. It’s refreshing, not fruity.

• I finally got my brand new Guild acoustic in the mail last week. Maybe if you’re good, I will post a song for you sometime.

• Points are definitely not all that matter in fantasy basketball. I’ve come to the conclusion that the key to winning is two strong Centers. The more stats besides points that you can accumulate, the better. Also, my team sucks.

• I’m listening to Minus The Bear’s remix album, Interpretationes Del Oso for the first time and: it is awesome. Seriously, listen to this immediately. Indie/rock remixes are usually pretty hit and miss (as opposed to trance/house/etc, which are usually good), but this is a definite hit.

• I’m trying out fantasy basketball for the first time this year. I’m in a Yahoo! rotisserie league, and I’ve found it’s been a huge factor in getting me involved in the league. I’ve always kind of hated the NBA, but now that I have an excuse to get immersed in the stats, I’m totally into it. And, wtf@Lebron’s pitiful 15 points tonight. I hate you, Lebron. I should mention I’m still in second place despite him, though.

• My newest addiction (well, for the last month or so now) is Franchise Football at simgalaxy.com. It’s an insanely addictive simulation game that pits you as an owner of a professional football team. You make all the financial decisions, sign players, trade and everything else. You play against other real owners. I already have three teams going in different leagues.

• My other newest addiction is a web-based island warfare/civilization role playing game at inselkampf.com. It’s horribly designed, disgustingly slow, and altogether just bad, but still has managed to completely immerse me.

• My new favorite Subway sandwich is a 6″ oven-broasted chicken breast on parmesan oregano toasted with swiss cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, and yellow mustard. Mmmmm, so good. That doesn’t mean I don’t hate Jared, however.

• The Shins’ Wincing The Night Away is far and away their best album to date. I just keep putting it on. Again, and again.

• After over a month, I finally got my brand new Guild acoustic in the mail from Musician’s Friend yesterday. It’s been far too long since I’ve owned a guitar, and my fingers are well aware of it already.

• I stumbled upon an old interweb friend’s blog tonight. Go to it, he likes good music and is more intelligent than me. He’s also the guy who turned me onto The Microphones, My Morning Jacket, Idaho, and others. It’s located at studiomoustache.com.

• Anders Parker (of Varnaline fame) has a new album out. I am listening to it for the very first time as I write this. It’s already outstanding. Recommended for any fans of good folksy indie rock.

• Frank Caliendo was on Letterman recently as part of Impressionist Week. He has always been a genius, but this trumped everything he ever has, and ever will do. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything this funny in my entire life.

• The Royal Tenenbaums is still the greatest movie ever made. Actually, The Life Aquatic is better. actually, maybe Bottle Rocket is the greatest movie ever made. Whichever the verdict, Wes Anderson is probably the greatest human alive and I need his new movie very soon or I will cease to exist. Also, The Squid And The Whale is almost as good. Sometimes I wish I had a machine that could erase my memory of a movie after I’ve finished watching it so I can watch it again for the first time :( On a related note, I love how Owen Wilson basically plays the same character in every single movie he does, but it always makes the movie a million times better, and even makes crappy mainstream movies worth watching (You, Me and Dupree).

• 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan is my new TV obsession. Watch it, it’s hilarious.

• The wonderful Austin band Voxtrot (whom I fondly call Spoon Lite) has released a new single titled “Your Biggest Fan”. It’s pretty similar in sound to their first two EPs, though not quite as catchy. Still, it’s an oustanding little gem that everyone should own.

• A new Yeah Yeah Yeahs remix cd is out (Show Your Remixes). It’s got Diplo’s genius mix of “Gold Lion” plus Nick Zinner’s gorgeous, Grandaddy-esque undertaking of “Turn Into”. Also, a rather boring attempt at “Cheated Hearts” by the overly masculine, disgustingly transexual Peaches.

• The Shins‘ latest album, Wincing The Night Away, has leaked. And it’s damn good, if I must say so myself. Much better and more focused than 2003’s somewhat forgettable Chutes Too Narrow. The standout track is the opener, “Sleeping Lessons” — a subdued and catchy introduction that will surely stir up memories of Garden State. I can already imagine Zach Braff salivating over its soundtrack capabilities.

• I won the Super Bowl in my first season of Madden ‘07. As I’ve already mentioned, this game is ridiculously easy. I think my QB finished with a rating of around 140.

• I had my doubts before this season of Prison Break, but I can safely say each and every one of them has been squashed, smashed and destroyed by the incredible intensity of Season 2. Just watching a single episode is enough to give me an adrenaline hangover when finished.

• Dennis Green’s post-traumatic tirade last week Monday after his Cardinals‘ unbelievable meltdown and subsequent loss to the Bears is my new ringtone.

• Game 3 of the World Series is tonight. Personally I can’t even believe the Cardinals even made it, much less won a game. Hopefully the Tigers will take the next 3. Also this Dirtgate/Smudgegate/Whatevergate thing needs to stop. Now.

• William Shatner is the funniest man on this planet right now. Boston Legal’s 3rd season is head and shoulders above previous years (which were still hilarious, by the way), and Shatner is the reason. He just keeps getting funnier. The man’s a genius.

• The Draft’s In A Million Pieces has been playing almost non-stop since I first listened to it two weeks ago. The former members of Hot Water Music (minus frontman Chuck Ragan) have recorded a stunning album packed with folksy pop punk. Imagine a more poppy Tiger Army or Against Me!. The highlight of the record is undoubtedly the swaggering “Wired”, which brings to mind the aforementioned folk-punk/hillbilly-punk bands but adds a delicate pop sensibility.