Normbrero

We make holes in teeth!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Music, Signage, Bake Sales, and Cycle 42

Music

I come and go with music. I'll get really hot and heavy with new music then tune out for long periods of time. This week I picked up again which will probably be of interest to Terren and Chris and few other people who read this. Well, Walter for sure since I'm generally not listening to anything that makes you want to pull out a weapon and destroy another human being, with the possible exception of a little Dr. Dre here and there.

Currently listening to Beck's Guero this morning on the way to work. I really liked this album at the time and as it blares in my iPod I find I'm still enjoying it. That's good considering I just ordered the new one. I jumped on half.com last night and ordered the following CDs:

* PJ Harvey's latest, White Chalk. I so loved Stories... that I basically buy up anything she produces in the hopes that it hits the same level of excellence.

* Thom Yorke's The Eraser. Of course the 2 interested parties know that Yorke is the frontman for Radiohead. It happened to pop up in a search I did so I added it on there. No real expectations either way but just a flier.

* Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise. This has been on my radar for 2 years so I just finally said fuck it and bought it. The used price is finally less than $10.

* Beck, Modern Guilt. Read it was worth it so there ya go.

* Satelite Party, Ultra Payloaded. I'm always interested in what Perry Farrell is doing these days. I read AllMusic's review of the album and it wasn't exactly glowing so much as it suggested that Farrell is talented but confused on this one. We'll see.

Also have a list of potential future purchases including new stuff from Sigur Ros, Ween, Black Keys, Eric Avery (who is incidentally considering a reunion with JA), Clinic, and Portishead. If you have any opinions on that stuff comment away.

Signage and Bake Sales

Can someone explain to me when the words sign and its plural form signs morphed into the word signage? What was wrong with sign? I read this last night:

"...as he hit a monster shot 502 feet off the right field signage..."

No he hit the ball off a fucking sign, an advetisement, very possibly for a product which gives you a 4 hour boner. Not signage. I'll even accept that the word signage can be used instead of signs, as in, "That empty storefront didn't have any signage indicating it was for rent." It's still pretty pedantic, but a little easier on the soul. But a sign is a sign. You don't stop at a stop signage.

The word sign has now started to not make any sense to me because I've said it too much. Sign. Sine. Cosine. Cosignage. He hit a mammoth shot 502 feet off the arctangent of right field bleachers in Yankee Stadium. I'm all for word evolution but adding "-age" to an existing word is as intelligent as Homer's business suggestion of taking an existing product and adding a clock to it.

OK, 180 turn because it doesn't deserve it's own section. The Moms Club my wife is in is having a bake sale/competition during the town picnic this year and I asked if I could enter and started giggling. Naturally Nat said no. So here's my idea, it's brilliant. I'm going to bake some cookies, or a cake. Whatever, it can be a pie, let's not get caught up in the actual item, it doesn't matter. But I'm going to quadruple the baking time so it turns into a blob of charcoal and enter it into the competition.

So maybe it's not brilliant at all. But you ever have one of those moments when you say something slightly silly in an ordinary situation and it just kicks off this avalanche of silliness and you can't stop laughing? That happened to me last night when I said this to Nat. The idea just struck me as so preposterous and silly that I couldn't stop laughing about it. I remember one time Lou was over and the 3 of us were talking about Nat's coworker's wife and who knows what the situation was but I said something to the effect of, "What does she have big feet or something?" And this made Lou and I laugh for what had to be half an hour, just an avalanche laugh party. Good stuff, love when that happens.

So maybe it did deserve its own section.

Cycle 42

I may have the cycle wrong but whatever.

Victim: Murray Hill, woman, Asian, 30-39, not fat, not married, not regular though the conductor seemed to know her and I've seen her before. Not sure this "regular" metric makes any sense at all. Anyway, I'd put her as Chinese-Vietnamese. Looks a little of both and has the darker skin to match. She's actually pretty hot, though I'm not sure the white pants and white purse do her any justice. And the purse that literally looks like a big white bowling bag is a bit over the top. And her makeup is thick enough I can actually *smell* it. But then her tight, low-cut top helps the cause. That, and the fact she's hot. I'd venture a camera phone pic but she's all sorts of aware, not dozing off at all. Maybe I'll just take a picture of some random hot girl in the subway. Or just google "hot asian" and use your imagination. Ok, this has gotten off track because she's not hot, she's just kinda attractive in comparison to the average chubby 45 year old NYC commuter this train is full of.

Assessment: Good.

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3 Comments:

  • At 7:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I've been getting into the new Weezer album. You might have seen their new Pork and Beans video on youtube, since it's a sort of celebration of the last 5 years of youtube celebrity. Which is a brilliant idea for a video, if you think about it. Weezer is kind of like Queen, in that it's as much about theater as it is about rock. And like Queen, it's no substitute - they really do rock.

    Can't go wrong with Ween. Guess I like bands that start with Wee. I liked Sigur Ros's breakout album, but thought subsequent ones were too pretentious.. haven't given them much of a shot since. I think Beck peaked with Midnight Vultures but I don't think my opinion there is a common one. I like The Information though, which I think is the most recent one before the new one.

    Love Clinic. Portishead is interesting but have to be in the right mood for them. Both bands definitely occupy their own little corner of the music universe.

    You should overbake a chocolate cake so you can't tell right away it's burnt. Dress it up real nice with a doily and powdered sugar on top... don't let them off with icing. Slice it beforehand so nobody gets a clue by cutting it.

     
  • At 1:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    thanks buddy, stuck tesla in my head, i appreciate that.

    as an advertising professional, i have used the word "signage" no less that 10,000 times in my life. i must admit, however, the oddness of the word never struck me as...um...odd. as an advertising professional, and having been in this vain industry for my entire career, i can tell you how it probably evolved from "signs" to "signage". i'll set the stage:

    lunch. tuesday, sometime in the early to late 80's, but after the great tabacco fall out. madison ave's hayday. a group of ad guys are sitting around some over-priced steak joint on a "business lunch" drinking martini's and various other see-though beverages.

    ad guy 1: jim, we have to increase sales in the area, but how? the game program revenue is out-pacing the sign revenue. what can we do? (takes sip of drink)

    ad guy 2: well burt, i've been thinking (takes pull of marlboro followed by slug of beverage), we need to make these signs sound, more, i don't know...important?

    ad guy 3: (already drunk) yeah! more important. like super signs!

    ad guy 1: no, no. super signs isn't good. something with more 'pop'. excuse me, waiter, another martini please?

    ad guy 4: (as he's chewing on his shrimp) what about signAGE?

    ad guy 1: signage? what the hell is that?

    ad guy 4: did i say that?

    ad guy 2: yeah, you did, what the hell is that? hey, where's that waiter?

    ad guy 3: wait, he may have something there...

    and so it goes. ad people coming up with new ways to polish a turd to sell to advertisers at a premium.

     
  • At 9:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Off the top of my head: Sigur Ros- amazing band, IMO. What you really need is to see what they do live. The new dvd is fucking amazing. They travel all over Iceland for gigs and play in some of the most beautiful and interesting settings imaginable.

    Eric Avery- I think I heard about this, but will certainly look into it further. The "Deconstruction" lp that he did with Dave N. while Perry was doing PFP is a super cult classic in our household. If you don't already own it, find it, quick.

    My favorite Beck is "Sea Change". Does that make me weird?

    Anything Polly Harvey does is worth your money.

    The new Portishead craps on their first two albums, and both of those are pretty awesome. Another act that has done no wrong, IMO.

    Wow- a veritable lovefest from me here. But I'll take the Pepsi challenge on all this stuff.

    Hi Norm!
    -ChrisG

     

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