I'm number one!

Someday, when I'm standing in the middle of the sad wreckage my life will doubtless become, this moment will seem tragic.

But today, in this moment, I am ever-so-pleased to announce that a Google search for the terms "alcoholic David Hughes" lists this blog as the first hit.

I am awesome. It's time to celebrate.

Get out, already

Even though I'm a godless heathen and the son of a self-described "recovering Catholic," I have a certain amount of sympathy for gay Catholics and their supporters within the church with regard to Pope Benedict's new edict banning gay priests and asserting that homosexuality has "no moral value."

That being said, reading Andrew Sullivan on this issue is like watching a wife with two black eyes and a broken clavicle insist that her hubby only beats her out of love. I can't claim to understand the level of intense religious feeling that would compel him, or anyone for that matter, to remain within a church that is actively attempting to push them out. I also have a lot of difficulty interpreting such a stance as being in any way reflective of the spiritual comfort that religions exist, at least in part, to provide. It's like he's never heard of the Episcopalians.

More Simon Reynolds emulation

Feeling
Maceo - "Nextel Chirp"
The Bravery - "No Brakes" (old news, but quite nice anyway.)
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
Madonna - "Sorry"
The preview tracks for Bubba Sparxxx - The Charm (since the third time is...) on Got Purp Volume 2

Really Feeling
Captain Comatose - "Up in Flames (Glove Remix)" (via Colin "My music is much more fucking amazing than yours" Nagy)
U2 - "Desire" (Hollywood Remix) (ancient, but also exactly what I wish U2 sounded like always)
Juelz Santana - "There it Go (The Whistle Song)"
Rachel Stevens - "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)"
Jessie Diamond & the Thousand - "My Psycho Song" (available for download at the link)
Cannibal Ox - "The Planet of Eat"
Kanye West - Late Registration (It took awhile. The skits and the chorus to "Crack Music" still screw up the whole business a bit, though.)

Really Really Feeling
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (album of the year)
Youngbloodz - "I Smoke, I Drank (Bodyhead Remix)"
Big Boi - "Kryptonite"
Silver City - "Shiver (Ewan Peterson mix)"
The Rachel Maddow Show (not music, but you can subscribe to it in the iTunes Podcast Directory. It's like Atrios + AmericaBlog but on the radio.)

Not Feeling
Harvey Danger - "Cream and Bastards Rise"

Actively Not Feeling
Blackeyed Peas - My Humps (The Lil' Jon mix is palatable, but will they please die? Can at least Fergie die?)
All of the non-rap stuff on Got Purp Volume 2

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

My friend Solomon has entered the blogosphere. It's been pretty funny thus far, especially the link to a picture of a baby giant panda (now broken) that he described as looking like our mutual acquaintance Mikkel Deke Shearon (who wrote an article for the WSN, back when I was editing Weekend, lauding the now actually totally awful Liars, that was apparently picked up by UWire, which is weird). It could probably use more long-winded theory and incredibly conspicuous consumption, but other than that I'd recommend checking it out.

22 is a tough age.

I've been really stressed out lately. Since I'm either working or at school every day of the week, I feel like my attention span has been waning when I'm not doing either of those things. Love life is nil and I haven't seen a lot of my friends in months.

That whining accomplished, I'm truly fortunate that this weekend didn't include getting shoved in front of a subway or seroconverting and attempting suicide-by-cop. Both of which happened to 22 year old men in New York in the last few days.

Joaquin Phoenix < Johnny Cash

Walk the Line is pretty mediocre. The performances are largely strong, especially Robert Patrick playing against type as a brooding meanie, and as I mentioned to my movie buddy Katie as the credits rolled, "I learned things!" Fans of the Man in Black, especially those who haven't read either of the autobiographies upon which the film is based, will doubtless enjoy the film's rehashing of Cash's early bio.

Unfortunately, though, the movie has little to offer to viewers who have only a passing interest in Cash. I think there are two main reasons for this. The first is the fact that Cash's stories come off as nothing more than a countrified iteration of the hackneyed Rock'n'Roll lifestyle disaster narrative, and in the process Cash never once displays any qualities aside from an apparent musical talent to earn audiences' sympathies. The second reason has to do with the fact that Cash's musical talent is only asserted by the film, and never actually demonstrated, since Joaquin Phoenix is called upon to do all of the singing. I'm not certain I'm in the majority on this one, but I found Phoenix's voice off-putting (and just off) throughout, with the notable exception of the scene that depicts the recording of At Folsom Prison. I actually feel rather strongly that the apparently preferred practice of having actors in biographical stories of musicians do their own singing is an artistic misstep, insofar as it wholly blurs/obscures what I consider to be the main event of any singer's celebrity.

In any case, as we were leaving the theater Katie - who is a much bigger Cash fan than I will ever be, and who didn't mind Phoenix's simulation - heard someone say, "I've never heard his music and now I never want to." It is unfortunate that someone leaving a movie that purports to tell Johnny Cash's story can make the first part of that statement and have it be true - and, further, that I can sympathize with the second part at all.

When was the last time you watched a Bush speech?

Via Americablog:

Bush plans to use the time before the December elections in Iraq to talk about the U.S. stake and make the case that he has a strategy that is working, beginning on Wednesday with a speech in Annapolis that will focus on what the administration says is clear progress in training of the Iraqi security force. Other speeches will follow as White House officials attempt to use the final weeks of this year and early next year to shape public opinion.

I can just see Karl Rove, back in the saddle again after an indictment, for the moment, failed to materialize: "Remember, guys. Heating oil costs are going to be 40% higher this year and everyone will be caught up arguing whether or not liberals are killing Christmas. Americans won't be paying attention to the war. It's time to stall."

The disgusting thing is that they're actually doing it.

Happy Starving Puritans Day

The angry, guilty, wannabe socialist part of me is not a fan of Thanksgiving. It's basically a gluttonous corollary to Columbus Day - I prefer "American Genocide day" - replete with a strange array of late-capitalist consumerist outbursts, from the Macy's parade to Black Friday.

That being said, Thanksgiving dinner is totally the best dinner ever. Tonight I had a great time with my friends Ryan and Katie wandering all over Billyburg trying to find the ingredients necessary to bake pumpkin pie, which was both fun and delicious. Tomorrow I'm going to a pot-luck style dinner that some my friends of mine in Chelsea are having. I'm making cranberry sauce, which, as I have been forced to explain to several people in the past week, is different than finding it in a can. If I can't be with my family for this holiday - and since I moved to New York, I haven't been - it's nice at least to have somewhere warm and welcoming to go.

And putting aside my cynical reservations, I do think that taking time aside from the business of everyday life to be with friends and family and acknowledge the things we're thankful is a ritual with some value.

I'm thankful that I have a place to go and people to be with this year. Further, I'm thankful that I've been lucky enough to have found caring, intelligent, talented people in New York who make my days warm throughout the year. I'm thankful for life, health, and relative sanity. I'm thankful for new and incredible music, movies and books. I'm thankful that so many people have recently realized that Bush is awful. I'm thankful that I'll be graduating soon. I'm thankful for a lot more stuff, but that covers the basics. Oh, and I'm thankful for you.

Unless you're Bush. In which case you should probably be reading something like, I don't know, the Times instead of my blog.

Why I want to be an adman

Miller Lite has a new campaign advertising their win over Bud Light in a "taste trial."

The spot I saw featured Public Enemy hypeman Flavor Flav sinking to new lows as Miller Light's "expert witness" on taste. The reasoning? "This man's legal name is Flavor Flav!"

The interesting thing about all of this is that you can actually see Miller Light absorbing the last scraps of Flava Flav's credibility and cool. He comes off as a desperate sellout, but Miller Light still gets some of the frisson of his political consciousness and controversy. It's a nifty inversion.

I shudder to link, but if you must, you can search around here to try to find the ad in question.

I am not a jukebox

Big news: as of this past weekend, I am now the resident DJ on Saturday nights at Lucky Jack's.

The gig kind of came out of nowhere. I threw, promoted and played a few parties there at the beginning of the year, but the last time I was there was in May. On Friday, one of the owners called me up and asked me if I could throw it together to play the next day, and since I hadn't spun out in a while I jumped at the chance. It went really well, I thought. Since May, they've moved their DJ console upstairs - it used to be in their lounge space, which was always pretty difficult to access - and so I was right in the Orchard Street window. The crowd seemed a lot younger and more mixed than six months ago, too. At the end of the night, Diarmiud - the owner I'm most familiar with - came over and offered me the opportunity to spin there on a weekly basis. So for the next while you can expect to find me at Orchard & Delancey every Saturday night.

I do take requests, but not for Bon Jovi.