My long crazy month of plane travel and out-of-town weddings behind me, I'm at risk of settling into a semi summer-blah. Maybe my body and brain got so used to the go-go-go that my daily routine suffers by comparison. Maybe spending so much time with old friends made me nostalgic for younger days. Maybe it's just been too long since I've been home (because no matter where I live, there it will always be). Or maybe missing my first July 4th weekend sucked the heart out of my summer.

Yeah, maybe it's all that, or it could just this dang Boston humidity. Sucks the energy right out of ya, it does. On the walk to work today, I swear that water was literally materializing out of the air in front of me.

I've got another blog backlog to set free... a whole bunch of things I've wanted to mention but pushed aside. This could be another long one, so buckle up buttercup ...


It's a good day for new merch, what with the long-awaited arrival of the new Low box set and the first season of Sealab 2021 on DVD. I'll be hitting Newbury Comics this afternoon to snag 'em. Actually, if I'm looking to cure my blahs, maybe a box of Low isn't the way to go. Nah, the Sealab will counteract that just fine, I think. "You'll wish you had less fun!"

Hey, on the Adult Swim tip, it seems their very own MC Chris (aka Chris Ward, who voices MC Pee Pants on Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the almighty Hesh on Sealab 2021) has a blog. Sahweet.


Very soon this question will be answered: Has my obsession with, and repeated viewing of, the Garden State movie trailer raised my expectations for the film far too high? Am I doomed to disappointment? I sure as hell hope not, but I'll find out in a couple weeks when it opens in Boston. While I await its arrival, I've been checking out Zach Braff's excellent Garden State Blog over the past couple weeks. And, um, watching the trailer. Again.


So I read that Doom 3 has gone gold, and will hit shelves in a couple weeks, and I laughed heartily. Then I realized it wasn't April 1st, and I laughed some more. Next thing they'll be telling me that Half Life 2 is ready to ship. I call shenanigans!


Just about every dang day for the past few years I've clicked over to American Elf to find out what's going on in cartoonist (and rockstar) James Kochalka's mind. For those not in the know, back in 1998 James started drawing a daily diary strip, a personal dare to himself, and has met the challenge for over five years running. Like clockwork, a little slice of his daily life appears online, helping make my day a little more silly, or a little more thoughtful, sometimes just a little more... odd.

I've picked up the annual collections of each of the first four years, but this week marks the release of something really special. Top Shelf has put together a monster 520-page opus that pulls together all five years of American Elf so far, including a web-only hardbound edition with a special cover. I couldn't resist, so despite the fact that I own four-fifths of the content so far, and that my bank account isn't exactly flush, I splurged.

It arrived last week and I'm so damn glad I caved. What a beautiful piece of work this thing is. The design, the extra strips, the posters, the paintings, and everything in between the covers is just ace. One of those books that just feels good to hold in your hands, and look at on the shelf. So even if it's just the paperback edition, go n' get it.

Here's a little profile of James that Boston.com just did to mark the collection's release.


Hey, if you're one of the last people on the 'net not to have a GMail account, either email me or throw a comment down below with your email addy. I've got some extra invites that are burning a hole in my browser, so one is yours if you ask.


So the Democratic National Convention takes over (well, basically "shuts down") the town next week, which means I get five days of "working" from home. Yup, my company is encouraging people to either use vacation time or telecommute during the downtown madness, and I am so ready. Oh, don't worry... I won't be going commando at the computer, although I certainly cannot rule out all-day PJs.


Speaking of the DNC (hey, a segue!), Bostonians take note: The Boston Globe is sponsoring a free Presidential Film Series to coincide with the week's events. Here are the deets...

In honor of the Democratic National Convention, The Boston Globe, in association with Loews Cineplex Entertainment at Loews Boston Common, invites you and a guest to go to the movies on us! See some of the most famous political films ever made ? as well as a Special Sneak Preview of the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate! What's more, after each screening, you'll be able to discuss the film in Q & A sessions hosted by Boston Globe reporters and editors.

I've already signed up for the Manchurian Candidate (I'm a big fan of the original, so I'm slightly afraid), and other films include All the President's Men, Election, and Thirteen Days. Head over to the site to register before they all fill up. Gotta love free flicks.


Speaking of free flicks (whoa, another lame segue), Amie and I caught a free-view of I,Robot last week. One word, three letter review: Meh. Sure, parts of it looked slick, stylized, and sparkly, and Firefly's Alan Tudyk rocked as Sonny Robot, but the plot was cliche (wait, you mean the hard-nosed sergeant doesn't trust the detective? i wonder if he'll ask for his futuristic gun and badge? aw, no he didn't!), the acting was wooden, and the robots just had no menace to them. Didn't help that the previews gave most of the cool bits away.

Oh, and a note to filmmakers: If you're going to give each of your two leads a gratuitous shower scene, kindly show us your lead actress's bare bum along with your lead actor's. Actually, on further thought, there are years of nudal imbalance to make up for there, so I suppose we can let this one slide.


I was about to say "Speaking of Firefly", but I know I'm pushing my luck. If you're a fan of Joss Whedon's brutally-cancelled space-western, and are looking forward to its big-screen continuation as I am, check out the Serenity website. They're well into shooting, and they've got a blog going to offer up info... although it looks like the updates are few and far between. Let's hope that changes as the far-off release date gets closer.


My web browser of choice is getting a makeover, and I'm along for the ride. I've been addicted to the ever-in-progress MyIE2 for over a year, and was surprised to find out last week that it was undergoing a total rebranding. I understand that they want to distance themselves from the IE of Internet Explorer, but Maxthon? Pronounced 'Max-Tun'? Hmmm. I know that most of the good names are gone, but surely they could have done better than that?

Ah well, I'm still sticking with them, even though the name is silly and the latest beta version is a tiny bit buggy. I can never again do without my tabbed browsing, my mouse-drag navigation, my handy plug-ins, and my full-on customization. The good news is that they're getting close to a 'final' version 1.0 release, and the bugs are disappearing fairly quickly. Already we've gotten three builds in just a couple weeks. Go coders, go.


If you're an Elliott Smith fan, you probably know this already, but details on his final full-length have been released. Head over here for a new article on Elliott, including words from Joanna Bolme and Rob Schnapf, who are finishing up the record (but first visit BugMeNot to get a free New York Times login ID if you need one). October's not so far away.


Amie just sent me this link to fairly funny cartoon in which both Kerry and Bushy take a beating. Good for a chuckle or two.


When I was over in London I picked up the new Cure disc, and on it's release date no less. You'd think it was 1989 and I was that die-hard, impatient Smith-worshipper of olde. Well, times have changed, and so have I, but they'll always hold a gothy little place in the corner of my heart. (fanboy)It just hasn't been the same since Boris left.(/fanboy)

When I loved this band, I loved this band, and I still pull out the old stuff every once in awhile. Hell, I even liked a few songs on 1999's Bloodflowers, although the album didn't really stick with me. I'm trying pretty hard to get into the new one, and much of the music strikes a deep chord with me... but there's just something in the way of it sinking in.

Maybe it's the critical drummer in me... but it feels sometimes like their current one is in a Cure cover band, playing what he thinks Boris would have played, and can't quite measure up. He even hits the little splash cymbal, Lol-style, during one song, which kinda made me smile. He actually overuses the cymbals quite a bit, to the point where they get in the way of the other instruments. Maybe that's a mixing thing, though. And I'm one to talk, according to some of my ex-bandmates.

Which brings me to my main problem with the album... Robert's voice is mixed just a little bit too loud. For me the music has always been as important as, maybe more important than, his vocals... and he just yanks on the spotlight when his singing is up so high. I'd read that the producer took the reigns on this one, so perhaps the blame lies there.

Still, there's no denying the three or four excellent songs that show us Robert can still write, and that make it a record worth owning. They're not exactly fresh or innovative, but they're unmistakably the Cure.


My West Coast friend Craig Gurwich, who releases music as Summer At Shatter Creek, has recorded his own vocals over three Mogwai instrumentals. An interesting, if bizarre, idea that actually works. Head over to Redder Records to grab the free tracks, and pick up his new Sink or Swim EP while you're there.


Wanna know what happened to SpinAMP? Actually, you first probably want to know what the hell SpinAMP is, and why should you care?

SpinAMP has been my liferaft here in cubeland for years. It's a free downloadable plug-in for either WinAMP (you'd better know what that is) or QCD (the Quintessential Player) that allows you to stream Spinner content.

But what's Spinner? Well, for years it was arguably the best programmed free streaming music provider out there. Tons of channels, including a bunch of indie/alt ones, filled out with a huge and varied selection of songs. Been listening to Spinner since it started back in '98 or '99... until it was bought by Netscape and it all went to AO-Hell. First they renamed it to Radio@Netscape and made their already-crappy player even worse.

Fortunately, SpinAMP allowed you to completely avoid that terrible interface by just running WinAMP or QCD and firing up the plug-in. Switching channels was easy (unlike R@N's player), and when you switched it always started songs from the beginning (again, unlike R@N's player). Not only that, with a click of the mouse you could find out what was coming up next, what was playing on other stations, and automatically save current song info to a notepad file for future reference. Hear something you really like? Click and save, investigate later. I found tons of great bands on their 'New Indie' station...

Until they decided to make content available only to AOL subscribers. Ouch. At first, SpinAMP seemed to handle the change just fine, and AOL seemed unaware that many of us were still listening via WinAmp. But a couple months ago they woke up, and blocked all non-subscribers from their streams, even though SpinAMP made it a point to export audio advertising and banner content from Spinner/R@N.

Came into work one day and SpinAMP was dead in the water, "channel not available", and work became a whole lot quieter. No other online streaming radio I've found measures up in terms of simplicity and song selection.

There's good news, though. SpinAMP guru HK has been on the case, and it looks like he's found a way to access the streams again. According to a post on the SpinAMP forum, a new version for WinAMP is on the way 'this week'. It can't come soon enough. Hope it'll be awhile before AOL catches on again...


Whoa, it's a Philip Pullman jackpot! Not only do I discover the author now has his own website, but Hollis let me know that a whole lot of new His Dark Materials content has been added to the London National Theater's Stagework website. Not just behind the scenes material, but actual footage from the stage adaptation of Pullman's brilliant fantasy trilogy. I get chills watching some of this stuff, even months after seeing it live. If you can't get to London for the re-staging this fall, then this video is the closest you'll get, at least until the movie comes out. Who knows, maybe it'll come stateside before then? At the very least, get off your behind and read the trilogy... it'll make you forget all about some punk named Potter.

Just last month, Boston.com did a fairly lengthy piece on Pullman and the HDM books, so have a look see.


I mentioned that I cruised through Robert B. Parker's latest book, Stone Cold, on the plane trip home from London. This one was the third Jesse Stone novel, rather than the umpteenth Spenser one, and was probably my favorite Parker book in years. Made me hanker for more, but I'll have to wait for the paperback edition of 'Double Play', which is neither a Stone nor a Spenser tale, but instead focuses on a guy named Burke, assigned to protect ballplayer Jackie Robinson in 1947. I could get into a little historical baseball in my fiction, so I may even spring for the hardcover of this one.

Here's a recent interview with Parker on the Red Sox Nation site. I figured he was a Sox fan, and it's nice to see these two loves of mine collide.


I've got a bunch more things in the works... pictures from Mike & Anna's wedding, a few shots from my trip to London, a couple shots from Chris & Megan's wedding, and some cool photos from the New Year gig at TT the Bears a couple weeks back. I'm getting close to bringing back the mp3 of the week, too, and maybe even catching up on some trades. Like I said, I'm a little backlogged. Workin' on fixing that.

I'll leave you with a link to the Field Guide To The North American Bird. Very valuable information there, especially for your average Boston driver. Use the knowledge wisely. And don't forget to take me up on my GMail account offer. I know you probably forgot since it was hours ago that you read it.

Back out into the muggy mistiness I go ...