The Plus One and I visited our friends T. Cole Rachel and Long Division this past weekend. And of course, all the usual hijinks ensued. Witness:

We attended a V magazine party where everyone was bathed in red light.

We saw Michael Jackson perform. I’m digging his new look.

And we partied in a famous author’s pad, writing plays, drinking 40s and watching Degrassi.

Cole has more–and much better–pictures of our trip, and you can find them clicking on this word: iced.

I’ve been doing a lot of these scattershot entries lately. It’s probably because of the adult ADD in me. Oh well.

• Sam M. gets to the bottom about the Trees reopening. His local music site is becoming of my few daily must-reads. Link on the side added.
• Our show the other night at Hailey’s in Denton opening for Pony Up! and Tilly and the Wall went really well. It was the largest crowd we’ve ever played to, we sold several CDs and my dad finally got to see me play live.
• For the next installment of “Long Division and I Tear Up New York” this weekend, we’ll have special guest stars: the Plus One and T. Cole Rachel, one of her bestest friends. I believe we’re all going to party with celebrities on Friday. More to come.

but if I did, I’d totally use Season Shot.

“Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!”

Kind of makes you proud to be a human, doesn’t it?

Edward Hasbrouck, the Practical Nomad, recently wrote about travel restrictions as proposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

So, I started investigating (which nowadays means I started Googling), and I came across this news piece and this story.

I’m not going to publish all the findings, but if you follow all of those links, you’ll be lead to more links within the stories. In a nutshell, we (U.S. citizens) may have to start asking for permission to travel internationally.

If the Myspace profile is real, the famous live music venue known as Trees is reopening in Dallas.

“It will have new owners and a new name,” the profile said. “But we will keep the same standards and quality of bands. It will be better than Trees.”

I’m really hoping when it says “better than Trees” that it means it will have a better staff, a staff that is nice to customers and less hoodlum in their interactions with the public.

And in other trees news, you should participate in this.

If you haven’t already voted early, please, please, please go vote today. It’s not hard to do, and it only takes about 15 minutes of your time (maybe a little longer or shorter depending on where you go to vote).

Here are the polling locations for Texas:
VOTE HERE

I know people who won’t date other people that don’t vote. I like that rule of thumb. If you’re dating someone, and he or she doesn’t vote today, I suggest you break up with him or her. Seriously, do you want to really be with someone that doesn’t care about his or her own country?

PLEASE GO VOTE TODAY!

• I’m 6,000 words into my novel for National Novel Writing Month. I’m writing more than the average daily word count, but the weekend is coming up, and I’m sure I’ll fall behind. And no, I don’t have a title or a concrete idea what the story is about. There’s a story somewhere; I’m fishing it out.
• Naked man arrested after pulling awl from rectum.
• When a man’s got to lean, a man’s got to lean.

  

  
  (Thanks Pope-rah!)

A Roman soldier welcomed our group to York,

which is a mighty pretty city

that sells the kind of donuts I like.

Leeds welcomed us with open arms

and offered us more tantalizing treats.

Manchester, so much to answer for:

Manchester takes on life’s hard questions:

Manchester…hard hitting news capital of the world:

And then I went to Liverpool. I have pictures, but Blogger appears to hate Liverpool and refuses to let me post them. Just know that I saw and entered the Cavern, visited some cool places and never once got a chance to have a Cains beer.

• We finally received another review of our latest album. This one is from Punk Planet. It’s short but sweet.
  

  Ashburne Glen – It’s All Just a Dirty Game CD
  Quaint sounding chamber pop that classes itself up with some nice string usage as well as what sounds like some well placed steel drums on its opener “Diseases of the Tongue.” Recommended if you can find it! (MS)

• The Shins‘ Wincing the Night Away is my favorite album of 2007 so far. Yes, I live in the future.
• This is my official away message for the next week. Don’t tear the place down while I’m gone.

  

This year, I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month. I’d appreciate any story ideas you would like to send my way (via the comments section). Thank you.

(A cartoon version of what my magazine covers. Yippee.)

After several days of having nothing I really wanted to write about, I’m now covered in all sorts of things to discuss. Should I start with what I love and hate each about two Texas gubernatorial candidates–Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman–one of which will receive my vote? Or maybe I should talk about today’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and how once again W.S. Merwin wasn’t even placed on the radar.

Actually, I’m going to start with a show last night: Man Man and the Thermals at Hailey’s in Denton.

It was a wonderful show. Man Man are really great musicians, and they know how to entertain at the same time.

The Thermals were good. I was telling the Plus One how I think they’re like Pavement on speed. She disagreed; she’s more of a Pavement fan than I am, so she’d know better how to compare other bands to them. Still, the lead singer’s spoken-word singing style and the laid-back chord changes really reminded me of Stephen Malkmus and his crew. (I was informed by the Plus One that Pavement is really a band for smart people, Ivy Leaguers, for example. I would argue that they’re more of a band for PCU students.)

I’ve been noticing something lately. East coast bands usually put on more entertaining shows (such as Man Man and Les Savy Fav), whereas West coast bands usually just get on stage in their raggy T-shirts and jeans and play their music (such as the Thermals). While both can be good, I’m starting to be more interested in bands who actively put some effort into entertaining an audience.

I’ve received crap about it before, but I’m standing my ground. If you’re playing on stage to people who have paid money to see and hear you, put on a damn show for them. Entertain them. Whether that means having a light show, dressing up as animals or running through the crowd while singing, do something more than just stand there looking like you just crawled out of bed and picked up your guitar. If you want to argue that your music is an art and you shouldn’t have to entertain people, then do what the Beatles did, stop playing live. Hole yourself up somewhere and just work on your music, release it and repeat the process over and over again.

There is a theory surrounding the North Texas area that bands draw larger and more enthusiastic crowds in Denton as compared to Dallas. Last night appeared to negate that idea. The crowd size was about the same as when Man Man last played in Dallas, and what’s worse is that the Denton crowd were more subdued. It was strange: the left side of the audience just stood there with their arms crossed or their hands in their pockets, while the right side of the audience moved and danced and appeared to be having a great time. I never saw a marked line on the floor, but maybe all the people on the right side were from Dallas and didn’t care about any sort of hipster poses.

In the end, Man Man/Entertaining an audience: 1; Hipster poses/boring disheveled bands: 0.