Check out my big feature story. I got interviews with Death Cab for Cutie, the music supervisor for The O.C., and some other really interesting people.

Read it here.

So the music industry pretty much goes into hibernation for the entire holiday season, because new CDs then go mostly unnoticed and holiday shopping tends to lean towards "CDs I've been meaning to buy." This brief hiatus, coupled with winter break and weeks of reading Best Ofs and Year in Recaps, allowed me to get a whole (1) shitload of new music ( Read more... )

my house = alok's house = unk's house

scratch my house, cooldudesgiving will be at alok's

or unks

ok, now get excited.


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Daft Punk = Cooldudesgiving

that's right, bring your leftovers and holiday sweaters to my house on friday after thanksgiving for (i believe) the 3rd annual reunion of cool dudes and cold turkey. also, bring some warmth and/or cheer. tell all your friends. see you there.

i'll show you the ropes, kid. i'll show you the ropes.


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Here's my response to those who have "tagged" me to write about five songs I've been into of late:

1. The Shins - Turn a SquareSomehow I originally missed the boat on The Shins and am now frantically thrashing at the water surrounding my makeshift raft, trying to catch up. Although both albums have been in heavy rotation lately, I maintain that ( Read more... )

It's so hard to start packing. Most of us have gone, people leave at irregular intervals in the background. I know it's the same old same old, but I swear more this time than ever, we just got here. And there's so much more finality. I will see some of these friends again, but never in Prague. I may never see the city again, never the ( Read more... )

Afternoon, endlessly sunny, because we are flying over clouds, over treacherous storms and shadows and worries and it’s always sunny here. Returning, tired and rested to Prague, home, while I recline in my efficiently luxurious Turkish Airlines seat. Three fingers rest on my softly whirring CD player, which pulses rustic twinkles of country music ( Read more... )

Have you ever tried to watch the sea? I mean, sure, an empty beach looks simple enough, quiet, stationary. But you can’t focus on ripples; they don’t move, and they certainly don’t stay still. No, they split and combine, split and combine, like a disease, like life. Far away they jiggle, while up close they move--no, they don’t move--they exist ( Read more... )

Every day, the sky is clearer. Yesterday we first discovered the opposite coastline, pale sand beaches bubbling ashore like froth. Today, we woke up to find that mountains had sprouted across the sea, faint blue mossy crags powdered with fainter blue snow caps. One would think them white, if not for the glowing white clouds hovering around them ( Read more... )

Ah, reading. Sitting on circled benches in the courtyard between the Blue Mosque and Ayasofya--one of the Seven Medieval Wonders--in 60-degree sun, miles and climates away from Prague and half a world from Home home. Prague, Istanbul ... these are world cities, the kind that needn’t be followed by a qualifying location: Prague, Czech Republic ( Read more... )