expo86: think.write.now.

I'm Moving!

2007-07-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

Ha. I bet those of you who know me even remotely well are expecting this post to contain some big news. Not yet. :)

I've actually moved Expo86 to Wordpress, having tired of Blogger after three-plus years (although they are adding some cool widgets).

So please re-direct your bookmarks, feeds, and links (ahem, Paul & Jeff!) to:

http://expo86.wordpress.com

See you there!

And the weiner jokes keep comin'....

2007-07-04T14:52:00.000-05:00

We gettin' old, y'all.

[via]

[Jam of the Day]: Tori Amos, Wednesday

DUI v. Treason?

2007-07-04T14:43:00.001-05:00

Paris Hilton did more jail time than Scooter Libby.

Although I will say that Libby became a bit of a scapegoat for Cheney's bad behavior. Nonetheless, something seems slightly askew...

Tastefully Thick with a Watermark

2007-07-04T12:53:00.000-05:00

[From 7.2.2007]:

I’m a ridiculously huge fan of Scott Adams’ blog (yep, the guy who draws Dilbert…been meaning to post some of his genius here before). Today, he eerily posed a question about the fans of horror movies:

Do you enjoy horror movies? If so, what the f*ck is wrong with you?

The question is only eerie because my friend M and I had this morning discussed the strangeness of the superfans of American Psycho and Grindhouse. And two days before, D and I had talked about our total refrain from horror movies.

I operate under the assumption that some of us find these books and movies entertaining because the content so damn absurd. Most of us are reading and viewing these materials thinking, holy sht, who thinks of this stuff?! Or maybe some of us just enjoy the feeling of being scared out of our minds. Maybe scary movies and books are appealing because they prolong that about-to-dip-and-dive feeling you get at the top of a rollercoaster. Maybe this is why as a youngster you and your siblings chased each other in the dark—you knew you were actually safe, but Oh, God did you want to turn on the lights.

Anymore though, I sorta side with Adams’. I find myself questioning the motives of people who seek out horrifically scary/violent movies. (Especially since of one of them is my baby brother.) What makes a person enjoy watch the retch of humanity in 90-minute sittings?

From Adams’ post:

By process of elimination, I assume fans of horror flicks are imagining themselves as the killer, thinking how cool it would be to disembowel attractive teenagers. Jeezus-frickin-christ! There are millions of these psychopath movie-goers. And they look just like normal people.

I wonder how many times in my life I’m at a store, for example, swiping my debit card, and the cashier is looking at me and thinking “It sure would be fun to drive a spike through his forehead and make a vest from his skin.” It probably happens more often than I’d like.

Is the web killing our culture?

2007-07-02T22:46:00.000-05:00

Nice post over at 37Signals addressing just that. I gotta say, I agree with Matt on this point:

[...] Culture was suffering before the internet too. As far as I’m concerned, the death of the crappy sitcom, bad Hollywoood movie, overproduced major label schlock, etc. is just fine. And viva enthusiastic amateurs creating amazing stuff like this handmade Modest Mouse video.

Check out the full post here.

I Don't Get Starstruck Anymore

2007-06-28T23:02:00.001-05:00

I'm coming up on 1,000 posts on this blog (yes, it's shockingly true), and that seems like a good benchmark at which to change things up a bit. More to come there.

For now, enjoy my new music discovery for the week. This band hails from Seattle and is called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head.

Sigh. I wish I could tell you it wasn't my bag, but I pretty much dig it. If you even remotely like !!!, then you may find something to love about Natalie Portman's Shaved Head as well.

Sample a few tracks here.

[via]

[Jam of the Day]: NPSH, Iceage Babeland

Barfy McBarf

2007-06-27T21:11:00.000-05:00

I know, something's wrong with me. But I cannot stand the new Toyota Camry hybrid commercial. You know, the one where it drives underneath the road and becomes encased in speckled pavement. Ugh. My stomach churns and my skin starts itching just thinking of it. And it's on ALL the time. I'd spend the money on TiVo just so I could avoid catching this commercial 'til the end of eternity.

~~Puke your guts out~~ Watch it here. And you can tell me what a loon I am for hating this ad via comments. :)

Uncomfortably Energetic + Menergy = The Strength of 400 Babies

2007-06-26T11:04:00.001-05:00

For all you energy drink connoisseurs, please enjoy Powerthirst. :)

Big hat tip to D for finding this nugget 'o fun.

[Jam of the Day] Tarkio, Mess of Me

Crazy Sunday Link

2007-06-24T22:35:00.000-05:00

I'm scared. Hold me.

You Are So F'ing Obscene

2007-06-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

Good article by Mark Morford last week about the FCC.

Highlights include:

But maybe that's beside the point. Because as far as Bush's God-spanked FCC is concerned, it is, always and forever, all about protecting the children. Or rather, it is all about protecting some imaginary Christian Everychild, some sort of perfect hypersheltered dovelike organism made of spun glass and delicate bunny hearts and little golden crucifixes, a fragile, blessed thing whose happy, unblemished life had been completely free of blood or spit or pain right up until he overheard Bono say "f--" at the Golden Globes and his precious virgin heart shattered forever.

And:

See, most people seem to get it: As is always the case in things prurient and dirty and fun, it all comes down to balance. Too many gratuitous f-bombs and you sound juvenile and uneducated and mean. Too few (or too awkwardly placed, or unearned) and you sound prudish and awkward and far too much like, say, Jerry Seinfeld.

Read the whole thing here.

[via]

Check Yo'Self

2007-06-21T18:16:00.000-05:00

Email is a tool most of us are now unable to imagine are lives without, especially in the business world. But when it comes to mass family emails, I've learned to totally abstain from any of it.

At first, our family started emailing as a fast, easy method to keep everyone in touch with family happenings--much as it should be. Happy Birthday, Christine, Uncle Jim's knee replacement went just swimmingly, etc. My 80-year old grandfather even took computer classes at the university so that he could email with us. (Cute!)

But then people started emailing 62k about their day's activities. And entire essays about the state of the country, which yes, leads to discussion about things like religion and politics. Which obviously leads to people saying some ignorant ass shit.

The last time I dare partake in a family discussion was about SUVs and gas mileage. Knowing that most of my relatives still live in the midwest and find it perfectly acceptable to drive huge ass vehicles around town (Kansas and Iowa rarely have poor air quality days like we do in Denver), I approached the subject scientifically. Like, pulled stats and shit. In fact, I spent 30 minutes putting together a table of statistics so as to speak logically and not emotionally to folks who had trouble understanding the impact of fuel emissions on the air.

The next day I got a non-scientific, emotionally-charged email from my uncle (who, by the way, got stinking rich as a contractor during the first Gulf War) telling me that I needed to read more and listen less, you know, to those damn hippies. Because I clearly, (a) don't write and read FOR A LIVING, and (b) didn't assemble scientific facts from government sites in my SUVs-are-pretty-dumb-argument.

Nowadays, I route most family email to my SPAM box. I also opened a separate email account, and the only family members who know about it are my parents. But with an impending cancer death in the family, I've been checking in to see what people are talking about.

Which was why I was so horrifically amused to find that my great aunt in California, who incessantly forwards handfuls of random and inaccurate shit to the entire family, had been publicly chastised by her daughter-in-law for sending us "A Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins."

Her daughter-in-law responded by saying:

Elaine,

Found this on snopes.com. [link] This email is not from John Hopkins and they do not endorse the contents. We'd appreciate it if you'd do a little fact checking around before you send this stuff out to the whole family.

Sigh. Just another day on the family eWaves.

Say Goodnight

2007-06-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

Sigh. If you're not listening to The National by now, consider my feelings hurt.

I'm currently listening to their live set at the 9:30 Club in D.C. via NPR. I don't quite have words; it's fucking amazing. I feel good and warm; like pliable dough.

You might be able to listen to a few live tracks here post-show, here. But you should really consider scooping up their stuff. Hell, most of you know me personally--I'll loan it to you.

[Jam of the Day]: The National, Green Gloves

[Previously]:
The Boxer: Preview
Arcade Fire Ruled

All Hail The Onion

2007-06-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

Haha.

[via]

Bloc Party at The Ogden Theatre

2007-06-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

Miss Bloc Party in Denver last week? I did too. Boo. But I was quite pleased to find a sprinkling of show details at JoshSpear.com. Check out some rockin' photos here; I'll keep checking around for the acoustic set they played at KBCO Boulder's Studio C.

[Jam of the Day]: Arctic Monkeys, 505

ShePrez

2007-06-19T18:18:00.000-05:00

I haven't yet made my choice about who's going to get my vote in 2008, but something is sort of annoying me--not about Hilary Rodham Clinton, but about some of her supporters. And that thing is that they can't stop fixating on the fact that she's a woman.

I don't know why this bothers me. It will be a great historical and sociological benchmark when a woman becomes president. But some of her supporters seem on par to the whole BlogHer movement, which I find to be sort of silly (as previously noted here). She's a politician who happens to be a woman. Which is cool. But does everyone have to harp on it?

Or maybe it's me that has the issue, me that can't reconcile the disconnect there seems to be between wanting (and achieving) equality and retaining one's womanhood.

Always An Edge

2007-06-18T22:52:00.001-05:00

I realize a lot of people are suckers for the middle--I used to be. But nowadays, I like a brownie with an edge on it. If you're like me, you'll probably want to pick up the Edge Brownie Pan: "The first and only pan for edge lovers."

Looks kind of funky; I could get over it.

Her Heart Grew Three Sizes That Day

2007-06-18T21:34:00.001-05:00

D's asked me to post stuff, mainly videos, on ol' Expo86 before. The only one that I really remember vetoing was some six-minute montage of WWF matches gone awry (and that's only because I vetoed it on multiple occasions).

But I was pleasantly surprised when he sent me this link tonight. It melted my frozen heart a bit—especially after seeing this nightmare (around 2:00) a couple weeks ago. So I'll indulge him this time 'round. :)

[Jam of the Day]: Pedro the Lion, Priests and Paramedics

Barack Me All Night Long

2007-06-17T19:55:00.000-05:00

This is probably old news to you folks, but I just peeped "I Got A Crush on Obama," a video starring a Temple University undegrad. It's been on the front pages of FOX, CNN, ABC news, etc.

I'm pretty ambivalent towards the video itself, but I am impressed with its viral abilities...and the line, "You can Barack me all night."

Thanks to Jeff for filling me in. :)

The Divide

2007-06-17T08:25:00.000-05:00

"Okay. We're going to do it short and sweet."

D and I are pre-planning our goodbye as I drive him to the airport this morning. It's five after six, and the sun is so bright heading east that I can barely see my odometer creeping past 80.

"We'll see each other soon," he says.
I nod in agreement, but then reconsider: "I mean...not really." He is moving to Brussels next week.
"'Soon' is a relative term," he explains.

We have a relatively quiet drive, which allows for us both (I imagine) to feel the weight of Fruit Bats singing:

I'll do my part/Not to break your heart/So baby, please don't break mine
Cuz I adore you/And I know for sure/You're the spark on the sun

I agree to a short goodbye, but as usual it's hard to let go. As I steer the car west, now alone, I find myself trying to grab on to a linear model for coping, for crawling out of the chasm that comes with resuming every day life without my favorite person. Somehow everything I come up with seems wrong. Like a turned ankle in the eighth grade, this, I suspect, is just something I'll have to walk off.

[Jam of the Day]: Fruit Bats, Earthquake of '73

Sorry I had sex in your bed. But be nicer about it or I won't let you use my fridge anymore.**

2007-06-13T18:57:00.000-05:00

Need to kill 20 minutes? Hit up PassiveAggressiveNotes.com.

I stumbled upon this gem today, and laughed for a long, long time. And while some of the notes get pretty saucy, I found this one hilarious:

I also really appreciated the Cap'n Crunch note:

If you can't read that, it says:

"Ian: If I catch you eating this delicious cereal, I'll kill you in your sleep. Love, Dan."

There are too many greats to list here; head over and check them out. Just don't be pissed at me when you've realized you spent a half hour of your life on this site. :)

**The jist of a note left to me by my roommate during my first year of college. After she had sex in my bed with her gross boyfriend (named Duffy if you can believe that). In my bed, when hers was a mere 12 inches away. Maybe I'm missing out because I've never been so heavily engulfed in the sweet throes of passion that I couldn't make it to my own quarters. Whatev. I'm totally over it.

How Many Licks...

2007-06-12T20:25:00.001-05:00

Is it wrong that I want to know what an Iraqi lollipop tastes like?

Anatomy of the LDR

2007-06-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

I scribbled some of this out after my last trip out east to see D. I thought it was fitting to post it since he's about to head to Brussels for a couple months. And that sort of thing has all kinds people asking questions. :)

I write for a living. And I just spent three dollars and five cents on a black, medium-point Papermate pen from the rip-your-shit-off mart at the Cincinnati airport. I bought it with the three singles leftover from my cab ride to Washington National, which came from the twenty dollars that D forced me to take before I left his apartment. Really, I had no choice. It's Memorial Day and everything's closed.

I've been flying out to see D, who lives in D.C.—1,500 miles away from my current residence in Denver—since last October. In Denver, I get a question, a tone, a look, that I've never experienced in D.C. (though this may differ for D): How do you guys do that?

Apparently, "we just do" isn't a great response, and since I have some time on my hands, I thought I'd try and deduce some semblance of an answer for inquisitors near and far. And, perhaps, in the future, when your friends ask, or you find yourself in a similar situation, you can use this note as reference.

HOW IT WORKS:

1. Be great friends. Getting to know a person, their funny stories, random idiosyncrasies (D deplores the word 'lurve' and thus I've banished it from my vocabulary) helps establish genuine kinship that cannont be tainted by a premature hop in the sack. And here's where the distance actually helps—it sort of solidifies a friendship inasmuch as you're aware of the other person's effort via emails, phone calls and the like.

2. Take it a day at a time. Getting ahead of one's self is never a good idea, especially in these kinds of situations. Now, no one ever said finding the balance between making sure you're perusing a worthwhile endeavor and putting the cart before the horse is easy, but, you know...you'll have that. Everyone does.

3. ~~Give~~ Sacrifice. D has given a lot financially to make travel feasible. I use a buttload of vacation time and grind a lot of nerves getting to/from airports, making connections, and trying not to vomit in the backseats of cabs. We both endure the ouch factor of departure; he nearly went into anaphylactic shock the last time he hung out around Ella. But see, the payoff is big every time.

4. Keep it light! Invariably, as my departure from D's apartment looms, I start getting upset. After one visit, I cried all the way to the airport, swiped a sleeve across my eyes through check-in, uncharacteristically swore at airport security (smart) and snotted intermittently in front of total hick strangers, for all five hours of my layover in Charlotte.

Yikes. Talk about Serious Smee.

So, normally, before my departure, D and I make fun of each other to keep the tears at bay. Take today:

"God. I can't wait to go back to Colorado," I say, slinging shit haphazardly into my suitcase.
"Yeah, me either," he says. "I need to give my other girlfriends a call."

Oops. That one stings. I walk past him and into the bathroom.

"Aw. Is wittle Megan gonna cry?"

I sniff and pack my toiletries.

"Seriously, Megan. Man up already. This is ridiculous." He pushes me over on the couch as I walk by, arms full. Because of this, I fall on my face. And I'm kinda pissed about it.

"You're a dick."
"Whatever. Grow up."
"I'm not even crying! I'm done!"

What I have failed to mention here is that I asked him to make fun of me as I started crying in the bathroom. And it worked. Because a little ticked off is better than sad any day.

5. Be a little analytical. It's not hard to get caught up in the whimsical nature of an LDR. So after the suitcase is all zipped, it's not a bad idea to look at the facts. It's a better idea to do it together.

"So let's talk about how this is going to go," D once said. "You're going to get in a cab and you're going to feel miserable because it sucks to leave each other. Which is actually a good thing because it would suck if we left each other and didn't care. And you're going to get to the airport and pull out the book I just gave you, and you're going to read it. Then you'll zone out. Then you'll start thinking of happy stuff—but not about me because that will make you cry. You'll think about how happy Ella will be to see you, that's a good thing. And you'll read the book in Ohio during your layover, and you'll sleep on that flight since it's longer. And before you know it you'll be in Denver. And you'll feel good because there's a guy in D.C. who's totally crazy about you."

Of course, this kind of analysis sometimes negates #4 (Keep it light). By this time, the waterworks are sometimes going again, causing the other party to say, "Shit. That totally backfired on me."

6. Don't dwell (too much) on proximity. (Which is sorta funny now that D is going across the pond for some length of time...and is most certainly easier said than done sometimes.) Accept the current circumstance and look at the pros. For example, the distance allowed D and I to sort of court each other—something that seems to be present only in old movies and Victorian novels. But that stuff is important. And for whatever reason, this is how it was supposed to begin for D and me, and to some degree I feel lucky to have had the old school letters and late night phone calls.

So sure, I'd like to make him dinner after a long day of lawyering. Yes, I'd like to camp on the couch and play Contra more than once a month. And yeah, I realize this sort of arrangement won't be conducive forever. People in this situation aren't stupid. We're not. Which is something to think about that the next time you come to someone like me, agasp with questions.

That, along with these two vittles:

1. LDR decisions aren't all that different than the ones you and your significant other will one day make. They just involve a bit more compromise.

2. Don't be too quick to put this kind of thing under a microscope. Yeah, these things sometimes ebb and flow (what doesnt?). But your friend's happiness should be the biggest indicator of how things are going, and of how much support you should offer. And I honestly haven't felt this happy quite some time. So. There.

7. Love. Mmhmm. My friend Steve once said, "Relationships always seem like a bad idea when they start." (And ironically, Steve is a big, BIG fan of the LDR.) I can't disagree with that; there are risks, regardless of zip codes. But, in a healthy pairing, you do what you do because it feels good and right. And hey. If you're smitten, you're smitten. That's just how it goes.

IN CONCLUSION: I wouldn't embark on an LDR with just any old bloke. I suspect none of us would. And regardless of geography, life doesn't issue guarantees for this stuff. So take what you're given when it's given. The rest, as they say, will just fall into place.

Nice dig.

2007-06-11T21:15:00.000-05:00

I was watching some old SNL clips on the NBC web site tonight (you know, Dick In A Box, Two A-holes Buy a Christmas Tree, etc.), and was sorta surprised to see this clip following Ashlee Simpson's giant fuck up. Especially with a tag like, "Ashlee lays the blame where it belongs...on her band?"

Ouch, A. Simp. Nothing like a little salt in a poor performance wound. Anyway, she's an idiot. Watch her try to cover it up here...and enjoy looking at Jude Law for the duration of the clip. Yummy.

[Jam of the Day]: Tarkio, Caroline Ave.

Creative Victuals

2007-06-06T23:04:00.001-05:00

So, I've been playing elsewhere for a couple of weeks, over at a little endeavor called Creative Victuals.

The blog portion of it was born out of a need for continual creative inspiration in the face of my mostly stagnant professional happenings with Z Corporation. The rest will eventually host my portfolio and all kinds of other goodies.

Don't expect to find anything about my personal life on the CV blog. That's not the intent. The intent is to seek creative inspiration in its various forms (more specifically, writing, design and music) and to share it with those who are up for it.

It might not be for everyone, but I suspect a few Expo86 readers will enjoy the occasional creative vacay CV has to offer. Oh. And and it's all packaged in easy-to-digest chunks.

Start surfing here. :)

[Jam of the Day] The National: Slow Show

It's Official: The 2012 Olympics Logo Looks Like a Flaming Turd

2007-06-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

Yeah. That's nice.

More related ridiculousness over on Seth Godin's blog, here.

UPDATE:
The new logo may induce seizures
A petition for a new logo is 17,000+ signatures strong