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Get on over here, would you?

I’m still doing reps. Going eliptical. Cutting back on carbs. Might need a new wardrobe. (A SMALLER wardrobe, that is.) As it stands right now, though, I still have the party ball and the carry-all stuck stuck on my thighs like a donut hula-hoop. (You do realize I’m trying to work a really weak metaphor, right? Comparing my flabby writing chops w/ an out-of-shape chassais? The fact that this is actually true is just a coincidence.) Anyway - watch me work! (Please note that the author believes the second list contains works of higher quality; this is not meant to be a slight towards the other lists, and hopes no one listed takes offense.)

ALBUMS:
Mission of Burma - Snapshot
Helmet - Size Matters
Breather Resist - Charmer
Stina Nordenstam - The World Is Saved

SINGLES:
Muse - “Hysteria (I Want It Now)”
Lindsay Lohan - “Rumors”
Ambulance Ltd. - “Heavy Lifting”
Franz Ferdinand - “This Fffire”

POTPOURRI:
Found Sound 2004 (Failure & The Muffs)
2004 Singles (Gwen Stefani / Snoop Dogg / Big & Rich / Christina Milian)
2004 Albums (Sonic Youth & Interpol)

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Oh, sure, hate me because I’m a snide punk-ass [google: pitchfork helmet “size matters”], or a cliche-ridden blabbermouth (two times) [google: pitchfork “breather resist” || pitchfork “stina nordenstam”], but not because I’m beautiful. You could always love me, though. Y’know, whatever gets you through the mall traffic and food court dysentery. (Word of advice: the Chinese buffet will always slap the pants off of your run-of-the-mall burger joint. Unless you’re going to Arby’s - “roast beef” “au jus” beats all.)

SIGN ODALIS PEREZ! If a team’s smart enough to get a brave soul to suck the venom from his snakebit bod, & can field a solid defense behind him, they’ll have an inning-eating machine that’ll give up just over 1.1 baserunners per inning. Name me a team that doesn’t need that kind of pitcher, and I’ll say, “You’re an idiot!”

Seth Mnookin was on the Daily Show yesterday evening, promoting his newest (&, from the sound of it, very interesting) book, Hard News. During the course of the interview, Mnookin & Stewart discussed the ascendance of Fox News & the public’s desire to see their own world views reflected by the news, in lieu of actual incisive, challenging, investigative reporting (i.e. what news is supposed to be).

Unfortunately, political blogs (& perhaps blogs in general) seem to be geared towards that magic-mirror / echo-chamber paradigm - sure, the Internet allows for all sorts of viewpoints to be discussed and shared, but even the most intrepid open-minded clicker is going to have a few select haunts s/he visits on a regular basis, and those sites are going to be ones that jive w/ the viewer’s belief system (on some level), and therein the comforting feedback begins to loop.

Maybe it’s a by-product of having different types of media surrounding, persuading, extolling, blaring all around on a constant basis. With all this unwanted noise in the world-at-large, it’s only natural to want the noise that’s controllable - noise that is CHOSEN to be here & now - to be a sort that’s comforting & soothing. Whether the noise is a distracting video game, a tape of rain forest sounds, or a news network pandering to a conservative constituency, it offers an obliging oasis from the uncertainty and unpredictability of what exists beyond our grasp.